Your real competition is your team members.

In team environments, your real competition is your teammates, not the people on the other team.

There's a given budget, there are limited roles, and the leaders simply like some people more than others. How can you be expected to be happy for your teammate when their success kind of means your failure?

But yet, we are told to give of ourselves because it's just what good teams and good people do. No it's not. They don't just do it out of altruism.

People will put their own interests to the side IF they genuinely believe in what the team is trying to do AND there's something real and tangible in it for them.

Being part of a great team increases someone's value. And that gets them paid. Whether it's with the same organisation or somewhere else.