1 The roles we play

The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘role’ as:

Everyone plays a number of different roles in their daily life, often having to juggle more than one different role at any time. Some of these roles may be linked to work or to a function in a family group. It’s a bit like wearing different hats to represent all the different responsibilities you have and the parts of your personality that these may align with. You can be playing more than one role at any time and each role can itself be split into different smaller roles which you adopt to perform that bigger function.

Breaking it down like this can feel confusing and make you wonder who ‘you’ are. But the reality is that we are all complex beings with the capacity to ‘be’ different people at different times. To an observer this may be visible by the different clothes or uniform that you wear or a badge that describes your role at that time. Those who know you well may also be able to tell when you are speaking or acting in a certain way to match the situation you are in. The way you speak and behave around your friends on an evening out, for example, may look (and feel) very different from the ‘you’ when you are at work and in a meeting with your supervisor.

It may be that some of the roles you play feel less comfortable than others and require you to act a part that does not feel true to the essential you. It can take more effort to perform these roles and could become exhausting if you have to do this for too long without a break. You may be aware that there are some roles you have to enact that really play to your strengths and when you are doing these things you feel like you are really in the moment and performing to your best.

In Activity 1, you'll take some time to think about the different roles you play and start to identify some of your preferred roles in life and those that play to your strengths.

Activity 1 Mind-mapping your roles

Timing: Allow about 20 minutes

In Week 1 you met Jane, a single mum working as a childminder. At that time, she was looking to expand her experience of working in teams and has since joined her School Parents’ Association. Look at the mind-map Jane made when considering some of the different roles that she ‘plays’ in her life. You may be able to think of other roles which she has not added and spot similarities with some of the roles you can identify in your life. You will see that Jane has highlighted in yellow the roles she is happiest playing.

If you need to remind yourself about Jane’s story – click here [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] .

Figure 1 Mind-map for Jane

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This figure shows a mind-map for Jane made up of circles connected to each other. In the centre is a circle with Jane written in it. Coming off of this circle are five more circles: Friend, Mother, Daughter, Childminder, Volunteer on PTA. Coming off of the ‘Mother’ circle are the circles: Taxi and Cook. Cook is highlighted in yellow. Coming off of the Daughter circle are the circles: Carer, Personal Shopper, Listener, Financial adviser. Carer, Personal shopper and Listener are highlighted in yellow. Coming off of the Childminder circle are the circles: Discipliner, Parental adviser, Teacher, Care/Comforter. Parental adviser and Carer/Comforter are highlighted in yellow. Coming off of the Volunteer on PTA circle are the circles: Room set-upper, Ideas generator, Clothes collector. Room set-upper is highlighted in yellow. Coming off of the Friend circle are the circles: Companion, Adviser, Listener/Confidante. Adviser and Listener/Confidante are highlighted in yellow.

Figure 1 Mind-map for Jane

Take some time now to consider some of the different roles you play in your life. In the toolkit you will find a mind-map tool and you should use this now to record your thoughts (Use this link to open the toolkit in a new tab or window and come back here when you are done). Colour your preferred roles in one colour and those you dislike playing and recognise as being more taxing to perform in another.

Comment

You might be surprised at the number of different roles you ‘inhabit’. You can probably also see that this is something that is liable to change as you move through life. Whilst you don’t always have total control of the roles you play in your life, it is useful to get a sense of those that you enjoy most and those that you struggle with more.

It is likely that the roles you feel more comfortable in are playing to your strengths in some way – utilising skills and abilities that you enjoy using and are good at. Identifying your strengths and looking for opportunities to use them in the workplace can lead to greater job satisfaction.

If you found this activity useful, consider asking someone you trust what roles they see you play. Maybe they will come up with something you hadn’t thought of.

Motion (2023) describes two main types of team role system, personality-based systems, which focus on personality types and preferred work styles, recognising that people have different personality strengths and weaknesses, and functionality-based systems that take a more functional approach, assigning detailed roles to help the team get the most from their meetings and projects.

Another set of team roles might be described as ‘technical’ and you’ll start by looking at those.