3. Team Roles (Belbin)
“A tendency to behave, contribute and
interrelate with others in a particular way.”
Roles
Action-oriented roles
– Shaper, Implementer, and Completer-Finisher
People-oriented roles
– Co-ordinator, Team-worker and Resource Investigator
Cerebral roles
– Plant, Monitor-Evaluator and Specialist
(Dr Meredith Belbin, Henley Management College)
4. Team-Role Descriptions: the Parts People Play in
Effective Team operations
Team Role
Contribution
Allowance Weakness
Plant
Creative, imaginative, unorthodox. Ignores Incidents. Too preSolves difficult problems.
occupied to communicate
effectively
Resource
Investigator
Extrovert, enthusiastic,
communicative. Explores
opportunities. Develops contacts.
Over-optimistic. Loses interest
once initial enthusiasm has
passed.
Co-ordinator
Mature, confident, a good
chairperson. Clarifies goals,
promotes decision-making,
delegates well.
Can be seen as manipulative.
Offloads personal work.
5. eam-Role Descriptions: the Parts People Play in
ffective Team Operations
Team Role
Contribution
Allowance Weakness
Shaper
Challenging, dynamic, thrives on
pressure. The drive and courage
to overcome obstacles.
Prone to provocation. Offends
people’s feelings.
Monitor
Evaluator
Sober, strategic and discerning.
Sees all options. Judges
accurately.
Lacks drive and ability to
inspire others.
Team-worker
Co-operative, mild, perceptive
and diplomatic. Listens, builds,
averts friction.
Indecisive in crunch situations.
6. Team-Role Descriptions: the Parts People Play in
Effective Team Operations
Team Role
Contribution
Allowance Weakness
Implementor
Disciplined, reliable, conservative
and efficient. Turns ideas into
practical actions.
Somewhat inflexible. Slow to
respond to new possibilities.
Completer
Finisher
Painstaking, conscientious,
anxious. Searches out errors and
omissions. Delivers on time.
Inclined to worry unduly.
Reluctant to delegate.
Specialist
Single-minded, self-starting,
dedicated. Provides knowledge
and skills in rare supply.
Contributes on only a narrow
front. Dwells on technicalities.
Source-Belbin, R.M. Team Roles at Work, Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, 1993
8. According to Belbin …
Each team member contributes towards achieving
the team’s objectives by performing: -
A functional role (determined by their professional
and/or technical knowledge)
A team role (determined by their characteristic pattern of
team interaction).
The team needs an optimal balance in both functional & team roles
That balance is dependent on the goals & tasks that the team faces.
The effectiveness of the team will be promoted by the extent to which
members correctly recognise and adjust themselves to the relative strengths
of the team, both in expertise and ability to engage in specific team roles.
9. Belbin’s Ideal Team
One Co-ordinator or one Shaper
One Innovator
One Monitor-Evaluator
One or more
– Implementer
– Team worker
– Resource Investigator
– One Finisher-Completer
10. Belbin’s Ideal Team
One Co-ordinator or one Shaper
One Innovator
One Monitor-Evaluator
One or more
– Implementer
– Team worker
– Resource Investigator
– One Finisher-Completer
