Belbin's 9 team roles

Using a project like structure for certain types of work has been around for thousands of years. One needs only to look at Noah’s description of the Ark in the Bible, where God delivered the scope, dimensions, and timeframe. However, only in the last century, we have seen the formalization and definition of projects as a proper, standalone form of running a business. These days project-oriented work is commonly used in vast numbers of industries and markets, but that has not come without challenges! Managers are today not only required to compose teams and project-groups, formed of people, whom they might know very little about. How do we ensure optimal performance from our project group? The success of a project-group has continuously proven to be heavily dependent on the interdisciplinary and interpersonal relations between the group members. To combat this, Dr. Meredith Belbin developed a set of defining eight personality traits, a ninth was added later, that are essential to a high functioning group. These nine roles, dubbed Belbin’s 9 team roles, can be determined by a written test performed by the group members and delivers an opportunity to ease the formation of project groups. Leading this article, you will obtain knowledge about the foundation on which Belbin built his theory, what his assumptions were and how the theory has evolved. This article will give an overall view of how these personality traits are defined, which strengths and weaknesses each possess, and how to combine them into a high-functioning team. As a concluding chapter, the article will describe some commonly used points of criticism against Belbin’s theory along with its limitations.

Background

In 1969, Dr. Meredith Belbin initiated a study of teams, based on several international management teams. Dr. Belbin was invited to begin his studies at a business simulation game, hosted at Henley Business school. Nine years, and more than 200 highly qualified teams later, the study concluded with two very important learnings. Dr. Belbin and his team’s initial thesis was that intellect would be quintessential in predicting success among the team. Basically, teams with members of higher intelligence would outperform teams with lower intelligence members. What the research team saw though, was several high intelligence teams, failing to fulfill their potential and being outperformed by what Dr. Belbin’s team had presumed inferior teams. These observations laid the foundation for what today is known as Belbin’s 9 Team Roles, as the research team set out to determine, what the source of this unpredicted success was. What was determined through the years, was that the catalyst for success in teams was balance, not intelligence. Teams with a balanced distribution of personalities, with different strengths and weaknesses, had an opportunity to compliment and strengthen each other, covering gaps in the knowledge and skill within the group and hence, appear stronger combined. At the same time, groups, comprised of people with similar characteristics often experienced conflicts over influence and share of work. This can all be illustrated by visualizing a soccer team. You want to prevent the opponent from scoring a goal, but if you comprise your team solely of goal keepers, you will be unlikely to score yourself. A well-balanced team will contain both goalkeeper, defensive, midfield and offensive players, this way you are able both to defend your goal, pass the ball up field AND score in the opponent goal. It was the same conclusion Dr. Belbin and his team reached, a balanced combination of different personalities with different focus points and perspectives significantly raised the likelihood of a team being successful. By having participants from the business simulation games fulfill written test and personality assessments, he was able to determine nine clusters of personality traits. This resulted in a personality test, that determines the presence and strength of each trait in a person. This is beneficial in two ways. First, awareness of your personal strengths and weaknesses enables you to work with them. At the same time, it makes it easier for a manager to combine they employees in diverse teams, with complementing personalities.

The 9 Team Roles

Belbin’s 9 Team Roles, covers nine clusters of personal attributes, which each affects and benefits the efforts of a project group. One person will often contain traces of each role, in varying degree, and usually two or three different roles will be the strongest and most dominant ones. The roles are derived from the test developed by Belbin and his team. Through questions revolving around how different situations are handled and reacted to, the test determines the presence and magnitude of each role within a person. The roles and their different strengths and weaknesses are as follows.

Team Roles	Personal traits	Strengths	Allowable weaknesses
Resource Investigator (RI)	This person is often very extroverted and enjoys communicating and establishing contacts with other people. Resource Investigators are curious and innovative. Finding resources outside of the group comes naturally to this person, both in terms of partners and/or knowledge.	*Outgoing Enthusiastic Explores opportunities and contacts	*Can be over-optimistic Might lose interest, once the initial enthusiasm has passed
Teamworker (TW)	Teamworkers possess a mild and sociable disposition and are generally supportive and concerned about others. They have a great capacity for flexibility and adapting to different situations and people. TWs are perceptive, diplomatic, and caring and tend to be good listeners. Because of these qualities, it is hardly surprising that they are popular with their colleagues. Verbale characteristics: “A little bit of kindness costs nothing” “Do you agree with me on that?” “I sense a good atmosphere here”	Their concern about creating harmony and avoiding conflict can make them indecisive when faced with having to make difficult solo decisions.	The Teamworker may be legitimately compared to the lubricating oil in a car engine. They are not always appreciated for how important they are until they are not there. Because of their ability to be able to resolve interpersonal problems, TW’s come into their own when situations are tense, and people feel uncared for and not appreciated.
Co-ordinator (CO)	The distinguishing feature of Co-ordinators is their propensity for helping others to work towards shared goals. Mature, trusting, and confident, they delegate readily. In interpersonal relations, they are quick to spot individual talents and to use them in pursuit of group objectives. Verbale characteristics: “Let us stay on the course” “Does anyone else want to say something to this?” “Leadership is achieving results through others"	The natural goal focus of CO’s can sometimes lead to them manipulating others to achieve their personal objectives. In some situations, they are inclined to clash with Shapers due to their contrasting management styles.	Co-ordinators are well placed when put in charge of a team of people with diverse skills and personal characteristics. They perform better in dealing with colleagues of near or equal rank than in directing junior subordinates. Their motto might well be "consultation with control" and they usually believe in tackling problems calmly.
Plant (PL)	Plants are creative and innovative, which makes them a source for original ideas and proposals. They prefer to work by themself aside from the rest of the teams as they use their imagination and often work unorthodox. The plant tends to be introverted and react strongly to criticism or praise. Verbale characteristics: “Where there is a problem, there is a solution!” “Ideas start with dreams” “Good ideas always sound crazy in the beginning”	Their ideas are often radical and may lack practical constraints. They do not always manage to communicate with other people who are on another wavelength.	The team will usually need to use Plants in the initial phases or if a project is at a standstill. Too many PLs in an organization may be counterproductive as they tend to spend their time reinforcing their own ideas and engaging each other in combat.
Monitor Evaluator (ME)	Monitor Evaluators are serious-minded, prudent individuals with a built-in immunity for being over-enthusiastic. They are likely to be slow in making decisions preferring to carefully think things over. Usually, they have high critical thinking ability. They have a good capacity for shrewd judgements that take all factors into account. A good ME is unlikely to make intuitive and reckless mistakes. Verbale characteristics: “I think we should sleep on it” “Have we explored all possibilities?” “Decisions must never be made on intuition”	They deal in facts and logic rather than emotion when considering options. MEs are often regarded as over-critical and can be seen to be slow and boring.	Monitor Evaluators are best suited to analyzing problems and evaluating ideas and suggestions. They are very good at weighing up the pros and cons of options. In a managerial position, their ability to make high-quality decisions consistently is likely to make them highly regarded.
Specialist (SP)	Their main distinguishing feature is their love of learning. They see learning and the accumulation of knowledge as the main reason for their existence and their single-minded and resolute pursuit of this end is their main motivation. The SP is likely to be recognized by colleagues as an expert to turn to for help and guidance. Verbale characteristics: “The more you know the more you know you don't know” “It is better to everything about something than something about everything” “My work is fascinating"	The SP will usually try to avoid being involved in unstructured meetings and discussions or those of a social nature. They may also be somewhat unyielding when challenged about the validity of their knowledge or field of expertise.	While Specialists may not be regarded as natural team players, teams will be wise to engage the SP as a means of providing in-depth research. As managers, they command respect because of their in-depth knowledge, and they can be used to mentor others to raise their technical expertise.
Shaper (SH)	Shapers are highly goal and oriented people with great drive and energy. They push themselves and others and tend to overcome obstacles by sheer determination. They tend to be highly assertive and have very directive management styles. Shapers also tend to be competitive and like to win. Verbale characteristics: “Just do it!” “When you say yes, I expect you to do it!” “I would rather it was done yesterday”	SHs are not noted for their interpersonal sensitivities and can be argumentative and even aggressive.	Shapers are generally perceived as ideal managers because they generate action and thrive under pressure. They come into their own when quick and decisive action is called for to overcome threats and difficulties or when progress towards goals and objectives is unacceptably slow.
Implementor (IMP)	Implementers are characterized by their practical approach and possess higher than normal levels of self-control and discipline. They are prepared to work hard to ensure things are done as prescribed systematically. They are likely to be regarded as someone who will not seek personal agendas and self-interest. Verbale characteristics: “Actions speaks louder than words” “Hard work never killed anybody” “The difficult we do immediately; the impossible takes a little longer”	They are likely to be regarded as someone who will not seek personal agendas and self-interest. On the downside, IMPs may be inflexible in accepting new ways of doing things, particularly if they are radical or impracticable.	Implementers are valuable in an organization because of their reliability and capacity for application. They succeed because they are efficient and because they have a sense of what is feasible and relevant. While many people might stray from favoring the tasks they like to do and neglect things they find not to be to their liking an IMP is more likely to do what needs to be done systematically and relentlessly.
Completer Finisher (CF)	Completer Finishers have a great capacity for attention to detail. They constantly strive for perfection and correct errors. CFs are quite introvert and require less external stimulus than most people. The CF can be trusted to do work to the highest standard and to complete it on time. Verbale characteristics: “Read the small print” “This requires everyone’s full attention” “Perfect is just not good enough”	The combination of striving for perfection and meeting deadlines often creates anxiety though and CFs are likely to be reluctant to trust others to do work to their own high standards.	The Completer Finisher is invaluable where tasks demand close concentration and a high degree of accuracy. The standards they set make them well suited to situations where precision and high standards are essential. CFs will also demand the same high standards from people around them and therefore create their micro-culture where the only standard acceptable is perfection.

Application

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Limitations of the Belbin's 9 Roles

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