“Play your natural game,” is the instruction often given to footballers when making their debut for the national team. “You have been chosen because of your ability in a certain role, so we want you to continue doing what you do best.”
That sounds obvious. But elsewhere in professional life people often put themselves in situations where they fail to play their natural game. Let’s explore how you can continue to do what comes naturally and perform superb work.
1) You can clarify your natural game.
When do you feel able to be yourself and use your talents? Everybody has a natural way of learning, creating and working. What is yours?
“It took years for me to fully understand my natural style, even though I knew it intuitively,” said one business leader.
“Looking back to my time in school, I now realise that my learning style was about doing things, being with people and getting results. It was not about sitting still and answering questions on a form. I think best when I am moving around.
“So I left school early, began working in a shop and soon topped the sales-charts. During the next few years I twice won ‘sales person of the year’.
“Swift promotion meant that, when I was 27, the company asked me to take a ‘strategic role’ at head office. This was creeping death. People spent their days in meetings and it felt claustrophobic. The computers, for example, were lined up in ‘chicken rows’, which drove me crazy.
“The company refused my request for a laptop – they were not common then – so I bought my own. That way I could move around the building – plus visit the shops – and work away from the central office. Fortunately the sales region I led always exceeded their targets. This made it hard for people to criticise my working style, but they still had a few pops. Finally, however, I left to join another company, becoming Sales Director, then Managing Director.
“Now I follow my own working style. This means getting close to people in the field. But hopefully I give them support, rather than interfere. We have an open collar culture in the company, but people are smart, rather than scruffy. Personally, I do not fit-in well with pompous older-style directors and I don’t go to formal dinners. I am in my element, however, running a business of ‘can do’ people who want to deliver success.”
What is the kind of ‘project’ where you play your natural game? You may feel at home building a prototype, doing a turnaround, conducting research, teaching a class, shooting a film, leading a team or whatever. What are the characteristics of the people – the customers and colleagues – with whom you work best? What is your preferred place – culture and environment? Try completing the following sentences.
2) You can put yourself in places where you can play your natural game.
This is simple in a game like football, providing you have a manager who capitalises on your talents. They will hopefully play you in your best position. It can be more difficult in other fields.
Taking charge of your career, however, calls for putting yourself in places where you can play your natural game. This means creating the opportunity to use your talents. Sounds difficult, but the alternative it to dwell in situations where you feel uneasy. Certainly it is possible to do that for a time – and many of us do – but ultimately we pay a price. Some people still remain institutionalised, expecting organisations to provide them with the right role.
Alison Fulford is somebody who has been proactive in shaping her career. You can read about her in the book The Strengths Way.
She is an expert at building successful prototypes, often around delivering superb customer service. She has done this for organisations such as Marks & Spencer and the Environmental Agency.
She prefers a two-year ‘project’. But within that time frame also builds a self-managing team that sustains the good work. Finding new opportunities calls for staying in touch with her network. She gets alongside key decision makers, clarifies the challenges they face and find ways to help them to deliver better customer service.
“My kicks come from getting my hands dirty, working hard and seeing tangible results, especially in improving customer satisfaction,” says Alison.
“Impact is important. I want to build something that works for both the company and the customer. Finally, it is crucial to recruit my successor and ensure the improvements are sustainable. Only then will I move on to the next project.”
You can find out more about Alison’s latest venture, Covet & Crave, at:
http://covetandcraveonline.com/store/about-covet-and-crave
Shaping your career calls for thinking like a freelancer. You need to find the projects, people – customers and colleagues – and places where you can do fine work. How can you make this happen? Try completing the following sentence.
3) You can play your natural game and keep improving.
Looking at my own life, it took me years to find where I played my natural game. Eventually it ended up in three places.
First, writing short pieces about building on their strengths – such as the 3 tips series – and sharing these with people via the Web.
Second, doing one-to-one mentoring sessions with creative people and sharing practical tools they could use to achieve their specific goals.
Third, sharing the super teams model with people and helping them to achieve ongoing success.
These things came together during my early sixties. Previously I had enjoyed working as a freelance encourager and educator for almost forty years. It was not until the advent of the Web, however, that I found the real vehicle for giving away knowledge.
This also had a beneficial effect on the work with individuals and teams. Being able to write and give away ideas provided the stimulus for being creative. Paradoxically, the more I gave away, the more actual paid work came my way. This provided a platform for trying to keep improving in the remaining years of my life. So I will try to continue:
* To study what works.
* To simplify what works. (Hopefully in a sound way.)
* To share what works.
You will have your own view of your natural game. So how can you keep putting yourself in the places where you function best? How can you then keep improving? Try completing the following sentence.
There are many ways to grow. One approach is to build on your strengths and manage the consequences of your weaknesses. Certainly you will still meet challenges and need to overcome setbacks. But you will be doing it in the space where you will be playing your natural game.
Posted on Friday, September 2nd, 2011 at 4:30 pm in Strengths, The Strengths Blog | RSS feed
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