Jo Keeler, Business Director at Belbin, introduced attendees to the 9 Belbin Team Roles, and discussed how they all have a part to play in making team and project work successful. We also looked at how and why some Team Roles interact better than others, and how we can manage this to form productive working relationships.

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Belbin Team Roles
Building your own Perfect Team

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Differentiating Teams from Groups
People brought together for a common
purpose while being too numerous to
allow Team Role relationships to form
Group
A limited number of people selected to
work together for a shared objective in a
way that allows each person to make a
distinctive contribution
Team

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Simply putting a number of people
together and expecting them to work as a
team is not enough.
A team is not a bunch of people with job titles,
but a congregation of individuals, each of whom
has a role which is understood by other members.
Members of a team seek out certain roles
and they perform most effectively in the ones
that are most natural to them.

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“A tendency to behave,
contribute and interrelate with
others in a particular way.”
A Team Role as defined by
Meredith Belbin is:

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What underlies Individual Team Role Behaviour?
Role
learning
External
influences
Experience
Personality
Mental
abilities
Values and
motivations
BEHAVIOUR

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What Team Roles Measure
DNA
PERSONALITY

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Building your own Perfect Team

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Plant (PL)
Strengths:
Creative, imaginative, free-thinking.
Generate ideas and solve difficult problems.
Allowable Weaknesses:
Ignores incidentals.
Too pre-occupied to communicate effectively.

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Monitor Evaluator (ME)
Strengths:
Sober, strategic and discerning.
Sees all options and judges impartially.
Allowable Weaknesses:
Lacks drive and ability to inspire others.
Can be overly critical.

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Specialist (SP)
Strengths:
Single-minded, self-starting, dedicated.
Provides knowledge and skills in rare supply.
Allowable Weaknesses:
Contributes on only a narrow front.
Dwells on technicalities.

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Resource Investigator (RI)
Strengths:
Outgoing, enthusiastic, communicative.
Explores opportunities and develops contacts.
Allowable Weaknesses:
Over-optimistic.
Loses interest once initial enthusiasm has passed.

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Co-ordinator (CO)
Strengths:
Mature, confident, identifies talent.
Clarifies goals. Delegates effectively.
Allowable Weaknesses:
Can be seen as manipulative.
Offloads own share of the work.

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Teamworker (TW)
Strengths:
Co-operative, perceptive and diplomatic.
Listens and averts friction.
Allowable Weaknesses:
Indecisive in crunch situations.
Avoids confrontation.

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Shaper (SH)
Strengths:
Challenging, dynamic, thrives on pressure.
Has the drive and courage to overcome obstacles.
Allowable Weaknesses:
Prone to provocation.
Offends people’s feelings.

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Implementer (IMP)
Strengths:
Practical, reliable, efficient.
Turns ideas into practical actions and organises
work that needs to be done.
Allowable Weaknesses:
Somewhat inflexible.
Slow to respond to new possibilities.

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Completer Finisher (CF)
Strengths:
Painstaking, conscientious, anxious.
Searches out errors. Polishes and perfects.
Allowable Weaknesses:
Inclined to worry unduly.
Reluctant to delegate.

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What makes an Effective Team?

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Co-ordinators
IDEATION IMPLEMENTATION
Constant throughout the project
Plants
Completer FinishersImplementers
Monitor Evaluators
Specialists
Teamworkers
Throughout the project as needed
Throughout the project as needed
Points at which each of the Belbin Team Roles can
make the greatest contribution
Shapers Throughout the project as needed
Resource
Investigators

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