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In this article, we’re looking once more at Dr. Stuart Brown’s play personalities, in particular, the one that consistently plays to win, and usually does. In previous articles, I’ve discussed how play holds the keys to your creativity, and to demonstrate how this works, Dr. Brown’s play personalities feature substantially in my writing.
There is a particular component of our character that gets us to the top of the heap. Those who possess it have great leadership potential because by nature, they usually end up in positions of authority. The behavior associated with this character trait is actually a form of play for some of us, where we are most inspired, innovative and creative. To learn about this, we’re going to revisit my Christmas holidays.
I spent some time with an old school friend recently when she returned to Australia for Christmas with her family. I haven’t seen her in a couple of years as she lives and works in Europe. It turns out these days she’s the executive creative director of one of the world’s largest digital agencies, with over 3000 employees in 32 offices across 19 countries.
Always very unassuming about her achievements in her career, I had to glean this information from her husband as we sat by the pool one afternoon. When I asked her if I could write about her in this article, she asked to be kept anonymous and not to mention the company’s name…so I’ll tell you these stories but I’m afraid you can’t Google her to see for yourselves. I’m going to give her a pseudonym for the remainder of this article so I don’t have to refer to “her” or “she” constantly for the next 1000 words. Let’s call her Meg 
So, how did Meg scale the corporate ladder to the dizzying heights of executive creative director of a worldwide company in a fiercely competitive industry, in her mid thirties? Meg has always been “fiercely competitive”. Competition inspires her to work smarter, harder and aim for first place in whatever it is she’s doing, and she usually gets it. Whether it’s playing a game of table tennis with friends, creating branding strategies with her team, or cramming for exams when we were at school, Meg’s competitive streak is almost always just below the surface.
For all the years I’ve known Meg, she has held leadership positions in her profession, as well as excelling in areas where she competed for social enjoyment, including representing Australia in women’s sports. In one of Meg’s earlier career roles, some of her colleagues were surprised to discover that their creative director was actually only twenty-one when she celebrated her twenty-first birthday.
This competitive drive is something that engages Meg’s creativity and innovation in a playful manner. It’s not a forced or pre-determined action, it’s just how she operates in life. Meg’s competitive play personality is a source of enjoyment, motivation and inspiration in all areas of her life, and because she manages it well, it has been of great service to her in achieving her goals.
Dr. Brown cites “The Competitor” as one of his eight play personalities. He says, “the competitor is a person who breaks through into the euphoria and creativity of play by enjoying a competitive game, with specific rules, and enjoys playing to win.” Competition is a form of play for people with this character trait, and through competition they access their innovative and creative abilities.
Of course there are a number of contributing factors to Meg’s accomplishments, but I’ve observed this particular characteristic at play in her life for the twenty-three years I’ve known her. It constantly resurfaces as a primary manner in which she loves to engage in life. That is one of the secrets to the success of the competitor play personality. It’s fun for them to compete, they love it, and they thrive on being the best. Because of this they rise to the top of their industry and excel at things they choose to focus on.
This character trait does have it’s drawbacks if it’s not managed well however. Many of us will have known and experienced the negative aspects of a mismanaged competitive streak. A competitor out of control behaves anti-socially and insists on winning at all costs. In these cases, rather than helping someone rise to the top, it can have the opposite effect. It alienates the competitor from friends, family and work colleagues.
We’re fundamentally driven to be social creatures and a sense of relatedness is one of our primary psychological needs. Being able to manage the competitor play personality well is the key to harnessing it’s power and reaping it’s rewards. This means being capable of perceiving when it’s appropriate to keep pushing to win, knowing when to back down and back off.
If the competitor play personality is a strong aspect of your character, hopefully, you will have learned from years of trial and error how to manage it. If you find there are times when it seems your competitive edginess is getting you into trouble, the best option is to shift your focus to the long term win. Because competitors always want to win, don’t think of backing down and backing off as losing the “game”. You’re just self-managing in order to achieve a smarter win. By focusing on getting the support of others rather than alienating them, you strengthen your relationships and will accomplish more working with them instead of against them.
If someone in your business displays this trait, they can be a valuable asset, providing competition in the workplace is played out in a healthy manner. Competition is fantastic for inspiring us to push beyond our limits and deliver better results. When winning at any cost becomes the goal, competition in the work place gets ugly as relationships deteriorate and ultimately this saps our effectiveness and production.
Competitive individuals are highly driven, focused, and goal oriented. They love playing to win and being the best, so you can count on them to work hard and strive to get great results. Competitors love to be recognized for their accomplishments, through rewards and acknowledgment, it gives competitors something to aim for. This does not always have to be done with material things. Appropriate acknowledgment for their effort and achievements will keep a competitor in winning form.
Whether the competitor is you or someone you work with, the simplest way to get the benefits from this character trait is to provide situations where there is an element of competition so you/they can play to win. The competitor likes and responds well to rules so they can figure out how best to win the “game”. It helps to be very clear about guidelines, this can also curb an overzealous competitor from bending the rules in order to win. Competitors love a challenge, and need it to keep interested, so giving a competitor something that pushes them beyond their limits is important. And as I previously mentioned, competitors love rewards and acknowledgment for their work even though it is not the ultimate source of motivation for their behavior.
That just about wraps up our look at who plays to win, and generally does. If you would like to know how you score in the competitor play personality, you can fill in the personality survey by clicking on the link below.
My personal trainer, Neil Fairley filled in the survey and came up trumps with the Competitor, Director and Kinaesthete as his major play personalities. Go figure, he won a triathlon on the weekend, and his career embodies all three aspects of his major play personalities 
If you have any thoughts you’d like to share about this article, please add a comment at the end. Thanks again for reading, and here’s to your creative success.
http://yourcreativesuccess.com/quiz/
Neroli Makim
P.S. For anyone interested in coming to a presentation on the hows, whys and wonders of creativity, I’ll be at the Women’s Publishing Network on the 18th of February. Come along for some amazing information and heaps of fun!
P.P.S. A note on the subject of rewards, they can be very detrimental if not handled carefully. This is a whole separate article in itself, the important thing to remember with competitors is, they’re intrinsically motivated to behave in a competitive manner. They’ll compete whether rewards are available or not, but rewards can help because it gives them something to aim for. Having a clear goal with some kind of benefit for reaching helps competitors get into their zone. I’ll have to write more on how rewards can be detrimental in another article though, as this p.s. has already taken up a whole paragraph.
Neroli Makim is an internationally acclaimed artist, author and speaker on Creativity and its relationship to personal fulfillment and professional success. She educates people about Creativity, what it is, why it’s important and how to access it within themselves. For more information, visit http://www.yourcreativesuccess.com/.
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