Some people gravitate towards certain jobs, skills, and life styles. This generally results in individuals developing skills related to those areas.
These specializations, what we’ll call natural proficiencies, allows us to determine how people choose their work and their role in a team. Or help us select them to be a part of a team.
Today’s example will feature a comparison of my brother’s tendencies and my own in team based games. We’ve played together online and off line for years, first on console and then on PC.
As we expanded our online friend base we found ourselves in more and more team based games. And we fell into various roles within the group.
Sometimes my brother has a hard time navigating large maps in games, especially if he’s new to them. This is completely understandable, but it sometimes extends for months at a time rather than a few matches. Combine this with having a hard time finding the enemy and you have a frustrating time for him.
However when he has the enemy pointed out to him or a position to defend, he shines. Removing the challenge and difficulty of navigating a map or making it so the enemy comes to him makes it so that he can actually just focus on one thing. That one thing just so happens to be spraying a wide area with a lot of in-game bullets.
On the opposite side of things I prefer movement. I can hold a position if I need to but where I really tend to do well is flanking actions. I’ll zoom around maps and coordinate with others to find where the enemy is. And then I surprise them with varying degrees of success. I can either wipe whole squads or get cut done immediately.
The ideal way of my brother and I working as a team is where I lead the assault and take the position. This clears the way for my brother to set himself up and hold that position while I try to keep the enemies far from the position for maximum effect.
Our different proficiencies lead us to different roles. It’s just like any other team dynamic. The people person should be sent to deal with the people, the technical person should deal with tech, and the variations go on and on.
Play toward your develop skills and proficiencies. this will make it easier for you to resolve you work so you can relax or build different skills in addition to the ones you already have.
What do you find yourself being really good at?
Think about it.
Sincerely,
The Irreverent Gentleman
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