When Winning Is Everything - Harvard Business Review

When Winning Is Everything, Harvard Business Review, May 2008

The primal urge to win often overwhelms rational decision making. Here’s how to tame competitive arousal, head off emotionally charged competitions, or manage them to your advantage.

by Deepak Malhotra, Gillian Ku, and J. Keith Murnighan

Have you ever made a decision in the heat of competition only to wonder, when faced with the consequences, “What was I thinking?” Such charged decision making is driven by an adrenaline-fueled emotional state we call competitive arousal. It’s all too common in business—and all too often leads to costly mistakes...