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Influencing34 talents

Competition® talent

Influencing · Influencing domain

The Competition® talent is not a need to win at any cost. It is a need to compare against others and know where you stand in the field. People with this talent need a benchmark. Without comparative data they have no way to tell whether they are doing well.

Influencing domain

How does this talent show up?

Competition® belongs to the Influencing domain. Its influence is specific: comparison. These people don't need pressure from above to work at their best. They need to know where they stand in the field. Without a benchmark there is no performance, and that conviction drives their natural push to be better than the comparison group.

The core mechanism: Competition® is not a need to win at any cost. It is a need for an objective measure of performance. In settings with clear metrics and rankings these people naturally excel. In settings with no comparative data. Where performance is "good" or "average" without numbers. They feel lost.

On a team they act as natural bar-raisers. Their presence alone lifts the performance of others. Because comparison is contagious. Their effect on a performance culture is quiet but strong.

In practice it looks like this

  • They naturally compare themselves with others, and they need that data
  • They are motivated by an environment with clear rules and results
  • A win with no rival is empty to them
  • On a team they raise the performance bar by their presence
Where it works

Environments where Competition® delivers the most

A talent doesn't work the same in every context. Here are the environments where Competition® naturally dominates.

Sales and commercial roles with clear performance metrics
Environments with rankings, benchmarks and regular feedback
Sports and performance coaching
Roles that require regular comparison with the competition
Environments with clearly defined winners and losers
The shadow side

When this talent works against you

Every talent has its shadow. Situations where the natural pattern stops serving and starts complicating. Knowing it is part of working with strengths.

  • Poor results in a comparison can demotivate where they were meant to motivate
  • Can be seen as too competitive in team-culture environments
  • Struggles in settings with no clear performance metrics
  • A win in a meaningless comparison can leave them feeling empty
  • Can undermine cooperation if the competition is aimed inside the team
Talent partnerships

How does the Competition® talent work in interaction?

Talents don't work in isolation. These combinations naturally amplify, complement, or anchor Competition®.

Significance®Gives the win meaning beyond personal ego. Competition® then fights for a cause, not just a place
Achiever®Complements the competitive measure of performance with strong intrinsic drive to finish
Futuristic®Adds a horizon. Without vision Competition® competes for today, with Futuristic® for tomorrow's position
Harmony®Balances the competitive drive so it doesn't wreck the team's relationships
How rare it is

How often does Competition® appear in the Top 5?

The share of people who have the Competition® talent among their five strongest. Gallup data from more than 20 million CliftonStrengths assessments, comparing Czechia with the world and by gender.

Czech Republic · sample of 19,592 people8.7 % of people · rare
The whole world · sample of 20,002,953 people10.7 % of people · rare
Women (world) · sample of 9,447,125 people6.5 % of people · very rare
Men (world) · sample of 7,307,429 people16.4 % of people · common
Vertical line = 14.7 %, an even distribution across all 34 talents.

Only 8.7 % of people in Czechia have the Competition talent in their Top 5 (ranked 26 of 34). It is rare, in Czechia it is rarer than in the world.

Sample sizes vary widely and the data comes from people who chose to take the CliftonStrengths assessment, not from a representative sample of the population. Treat differences between groups as indicative only; they may not mean anything.

Frequently asked questions

The most common questions about Competition®

What is the Competition® talent?
The Competition® talent is not a need to win at any cost. It is a need to compare against others and know where you stand in the field. People with this talent need a benchmark. Without comparative data they have no way to tell whether they are doing well.
Which CliftonStrengths domain does Competition® belong to?
The Competition® talent belongs to the Influencing domain. Talents in the Influencing domain help reach a wider audience and push things forward.
How does Competition® show up in practice?
They naturally compare themselves with others, and they need that data. They are motivated by an environment with clear rules and results. A win with no rival is empty to them.
When can Competition® work against you?
Poor results in a comparison can demotivate where they were meant to motivate
In what environment does Competition® deliver the most?
Sales and commercial roles with clear performance metrics, Environments with rankings, benchmarks and regular feedback, Sports and performance coaching.
CliftonStrengths

A talent, not a personality type

Competition® isn't your identity. It's a pattern that exists and can be deployed on purpose. Gallup CliftonStrengths doesn't say who you are. It says how you naturally operate, and where that delivers the most performance.

A certified Gallup coach helps you place this talent into a concrete work context: which tasks activate it, when it can be overused, and how to connect it with the talents of the rest of the team.

This talent is also among the strengths of our coaches: Andrea Dudaško.

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