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“Use what talent you possess: the woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.”
"The curious paradox is that when I accept myself
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Developed by Meredith Belbin in 1981, this framework has become one of the most accessible and widely used tools to support teams development. The team roles were designed to define and predict potential success of management teams, recognising that the strongest teams have a diversity of characters and personality types. People recognise that there are hazards linked to labelling individuals in oversimplified ways. However, when used wisely to gain insight about the current working of a team, its strengths and limitations, it can be extremely useful.
Belbin describes a team role as "a tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way." The roles may be split into three main categories:
- 3 action oriented roles - Shaper, Implementer and Completer Finisher;
- 3 people oriented roles - Co-ordinator, Teamworker and Resource Investigator; and
- 3 cerebral roles - Plant, Monitor Evaluator and Specialist.
What is the 'synergistic effect’, which will produce a winning team? The answer lies in attempting to put together a balanced team where individual strengths will complement each other. Individual weaknesses can be both tolerated and compensated for provided as long as there is someone else in the team with the relevant strength.
The nine team roles are summarised in the table below.
Assessment of team role
The team roles describe a pattern of behaviour that characterises one person's behaviour in relationship to another in facilitating the progress of a team. The descriptions are based on someone only displaying one particular team role’s characteristics. Naturally, in reality such a pure state rarely, if ever, occurs. Individuals within the team and/or the whole team can benefit from self-knowledge and adjust behaviour according to the demands being made by the external situation. An individual's team role is established through a 'Self Perception Inventory', a questionnaire designed to establish your preferred way of working in a team environment. This can be supported through the inclusion of 'observer assessments’, which provide independent evidence about an individual's team roles. The assessments are available online www.belbin.com.
Table: Summary of Belbin team role characteristics
Team role |
Strengths |
Potential hazards |
Action oriented roles
Shaper |
Resilient – thrives on pressure Strong sense of drive and courage to overcome obstacles Generates enthusiasm Effective Sociable and outgoing Dynamic Readiness to challenge (eg inertia, ineffectiveness, complacency, self-deception) |
Intense Authoritarian Impatient Offends people’s feelings |
Action oriented roles
Implementer |
Disciplined and controlled Organised and systematic Unflappable Common sense Steady and down-to-earth Dutiful Reliable Turns ideas into practical actions |
Inflexible Unimaginative Rigid Pedantic Slow to be won over to new ideas |
Action oriented roles
Completer Finisher |
Meticulous follow-through Disciplined Searches out errors and omissions Dry Orderly Conscientious |
Worrier Pedantic Painstaking Concern for detail may lower team morale Reluctant to delegate |
People oriented roles
Co-ordinator (used to be chairman) |
Purposeful Supportive Impartial Enthusiastic Unflappable Conciliatory Controlled Clarifies goals Trusting Calm Self-confident Keeps an open mind/objective Values contributions from any source Controls/co-ordinates resources Democratic, encouraging participation Takes responsibility for decisions |
Uncompetitive Not forceful Offloads own work Sometimes seen as reserved and detached |
People oriented roles
Teamworker |
Supportive Enthusiastic Communicative Outgoing Averts friction Trusting Sociable Socially oriented Mild Sensitive to other people’s feelings and team mood Binds a team together, promoting team spirit Perceptive Ability to recognise differing abilities |
Uncompetitive Unforceful Unambitious Submissive Can be indecisive and/or lack necessary toughness for some situations |
People oriented roles
Resource Investigator |
Resourceful Enthusiastic Communicative Outgoing Sociable Likes dealing with the world beyond the team's boundary Has capacity for making highly effective contact with people Curious - as capacity for exploring anything new Opportunist - responds to new situations as exciting challenges Variety and people are the essential diet of the Resource Investigator Ability to stimulate and motivate others. |
Wayward Over-enthusiastic Impatient Can lose interest quite quickly if progress is slow or once the initial fascination has passed 'Butterfly mind', flitting quickly from one thing to another very rapidly Can be a lack of self-discipline and failure to follow things through |
| Plant | Innovative Intuitive Flashes of genius- solves difficult problems Imagination Serious-minded A fertile and intelligent mind, with plenty of original ways of looking at things Self-sufficient Can be caught up in a wave of enthusiasm about some ideas |
Solitary Intense Wayward - can be a difficult and uncomfortable colleague Impractical Erratic Individualist Unorthodox Too pre-occupied to communicate properly Not much time for protocol/ procedures Does not like own ideas criticised |
Cerebral oriented roles
Monitor Evaluator |
Analytical and reflective Impartial and unemotional Prudent Shrewd 'hard-headed' approach to issues and ideas Strategic and discerning Highly intelligent - possesses good judgement Cautious, perceptive and highly critical of flawed thinking in others Spots the fatal error |
Unimaginative Over-critical Dry Dampens down enthusiasm Tends to lack the ability to inspire and motivate others Rarely the source of new ideas |
Cerebral oriented roles
Specialist |
Single –minded Self-starting Dedicated Provides knowledge and skills in rare supply |
Contributes only on a narrow front Dwells on technicalities |
Use of the team roles
As you know, Belbin’s framework helps to describe an individual's 'preferred' team roles. It is designed to indicate how you would ideally operate in a team environment. The context in which a team works will influence what specifically is seen as strengths and hazards. It is useful for a team to know which of the team roles are either over represented or absent. In addition, it is useful to understand individual team member's secondary roles, which can possibly be used when no-one has it as a dominant one. When a team shares their team role results it increases understanding and enables mutual expectations to be set and met.
The theoretically ‘ideal team’ would have a healthy balance of all nine team roles. Strong teams normally have a strong co-ordinator, a plant, a monitor evaluator and one or more implementers, team workers, resource investigators or completer finishers. A shaper is usually an alternative to a co-ordinator rather than both being present.