3 tips for 'playing your natural game'

“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.

* 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 role or ‘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 – customers and colleagues - with whom you get along? What is your preferred ‘place’ – culture and environment? Try completing the following sentences.

The kind of role or ‘project’ where I feel most able to ‘play my natural game’ is:

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The characteristics of the people – customers & colleagues – with whom I feel most able to ‘play my natural game’ are:

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The kind of place – culture and environment – where I feel most able to ‘play my natural game’ is:

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* 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 more about her story in 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.”

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.

The specific things I can do to keep putting myself in the places where I can play my natural game are:

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* You can play your natural game – and keep improving.

You can then flow, focus and finish. Build on the pluses – and minimise the minuses – of your natural game. Some people ‘snatch at opportunities’. They become nervous, try too hard or aim to over-impress. Be true to yourself. Relax, rehearse and then deliver results. Be positive, be professional and deliver peak performances. Commit yourself to constant improvement. Ask yourself: “What went well – and how can I do more of those things in the future? What can I do better next time – and how?” Integrate the learning and keep improving. Looking at the situation in which you work best, try completing the following sentence.

The specific things I can do to play my natural game – and keep improving - are:

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Looking at the school population, what percentage of students are encouraged to learn in their natural way? Looking at the employed population, what percentage of people are working in their natural way? Which camp do you want to be in? How can you continue putting yourself in the places where you function best? Peak performers keep playing – and improving - their natural game.

You can find more more tools on this theme in the book The Strengths Way, which can be found here:

thestrengthsway