How Do I Deal with a Competitive Peer?

Coaching Real Leaders

Harvard Business Review / Muriel Wilkins

Business, Harvard, Careers, Society & Culture, Leaders, Executive, Leadership, Management, Review, Sessions, Hbr, Coaching, C-suite

4.8 • 759 Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2025

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

She’s stepped into a leadership position thanks, in part, to a former boss at her organization. But now, this former boss has become a peer, and perhaps competition for the next-level role. Plus, their leadership styles often clash. Host Muriel Wilkins coaches her through how to position herself for career advancement in the face of competition from a colleague.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Muriel Wilkins and this is Coaching Real Leaders, part of the HBR Podcast Network.
0:12.2	I'm a longtime executive coach who works with highly successful leaders who've hit a bump in the road.
0:18.2	My job is to help them get over that bump by clarifying their goals
0:21.7	and figuring out a way to reach them so that hopefully they can lead with a little more ease.
0:26.8	I typically work with clients over the course of several months, but on this show, we have a one-time
0:31.8	coaching meeting focusing on a specific leadership challenge they're facing.
0:46.0	Today's guest is someone will call Elsie to protect her confidentiality.
0:51.2	She's been at the director level for a few years, and her goal is to next become a VP, a leadership position she never would have imagined earlier in her life.
0:55.9	I did not seek out leadership at any point in my career. I did not know that that was going to be
1:01.7	in the cards for me. It wasn't something that I specifically directed myself towards as far as
1:06.7	education or development until I was identified as someone that could potentially have those skills.
1:13.6	Despite feeling like she's succeeding in her current role, Elsie is concerned that tension with a colleague could be standing in her way of being promoted to VP.
1:22.6	That colleague had been a mentor and previously held the director role that Elsie is in, but now
1:28.9	they're peers and the situation has changed. It was really this individual that I'm now struggling
1:35.4	with who identified that things I was doing just naturally, my natural habits and work ethic
1:42.3	could benefit our company in a leadership role.
1:47.1	Since that transition happened, it hasn't been a very smooth road. There's been some clashing.
1:54.4	We don't agree on a lot of things. We have different leadership styles. So that has been challenging.
2:00.1	Before I dive into the relationship tension with her
2:03.2	colleague, I wanted to take a step back and further understand why Elsie was identified as a
2:08.9	high potential leader and to get a better picture of her strengths. That's where we begin.
2:17.2	So when I was first identified it, I think it was mostly the fact that I'm just a very hard worker.
	...

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