Top Chef

A food post and it’s not Friday?  What happened?  Well, the Top Chef finale aired last night and of course I have a few thoughts.  Not just on the food either since there was something that stuck me about last night and, in fact, the entire season that is a great lesson for people in business.  It’s something I’ve noticed about younger people in general and since most of the competitors are under age 30 I’m hoping that it’s indicative of how this generation thinks.This is from Chef Tom Colicchio’s blog about the final episode:

You’ll notice that in keeping with their high degree of professionalism, the chefs all helped each other where necessary. For example, Michael pointed out to Kevin when something was starting to boil over. He just couldn’t help himself: When you’re in the kitchen, whether you’re a chef or a cook, and you see something – anything – going amiss, it’s your responsibility to point it out. So these chefs couldn’t stop for the sake of the competition. They helped one another all the way through. And while they did so habitually, I believe they also did so because while they each badly wanted to win, they wanted their competitors to do their best as well. They wanted to beat their competitors on the strength of their own dishes rather than through errors in the dishes of the other two.

The point is the victory is that much sweeter when you know you won – the other person didn’t lose.  That applies to golf, tennis, lots of other sports, and business.  Winning is good.  Beating an opponent who plays well is fantastic.  When you work in an industry, you want everyone to do well since there really is something to the “rising tide” notion.  The TV and sports industries are known for this – being brutally competitive and yet individuals and companies often help one another out when someone is in a jam.

No, I don’t believe in giving everyone a medal just for competing.  I think there needs to be winners and losers.  But we can win on our own merits.  Instead of sharpening those knives to plunge into others’ backs, maybe we should be honing them to make our brunoise a little finer and deonstrate our own skill.

What do you think?  Are you happy winning at all costs?  Do you want the other guy to play well or fall at the staring line to make your victory a little easier?