How Good Are You at Playing Different Social Roles?

What some refer to as "wearing many hats" others understand to be the typical assuming of various social roles that we are all required to inhabit. The fact that we live in a society means that there are expectations of who we will be and what we will do that we are all subject to. Depending on the work you do, and how varied and multi-faceted your life is, you may find yourself assuming multiple social roles in the course of one day. How well you do at this may impact how successful you feel in the various areas of your life.

What is meant by social roles? Does this mean that you are trying to be someone you are not or that you are hiding your true self? Not really. The various social roles we may assume in the course of the day could be daughter, son, parent, partner, aunt, worker, neighbor, friend, volunteer, leader, follower, supporter, fan, etc. We might find ourselves interacting with others in various capacities and how well we are able to do these things determines how successfully we have mastered some basic social skills.

In all of these "roles" we can still be completely ourselves, but we are ourselves in relations to others and we are interacting in various ways. Those persons who can interact with various groups or individuals and who are able to wear all those different hats have a better chance of being liked, and being able to communicate well and work with different people. This can be important as those most skilled at playing different roles can be more valuable to a business, company or organization. They can also be the "go to" individuals in a community, family, or social group.

Of course, chances are that you do not actually like or want to fill all the social roles that are thrust upon you and there is no law that says you have to meet everyone's expectations all the time. We do have control and we can pick and choose to a certain extent what we are willing to do and how extensively we will fill those social roles. The more versatile and communicative we can be, however, the more socially successful we will ultimately be.