Discover how assigning team roles according to individual strengths can enhance performance, improve team cohesion, and boost well-being.
Building a Balanced, High-Performing Team
For a team to perform at its highest level, it’s important that each member has clear responsibilities.
Dr. Meredith Belbin, a renowned business professor and psychologist, has spent years researching teams and identified 9 distinct team roles that individuals typically assume. These roles are behavioral traits that define how people function in a work environment.
Belbin suggested that by understanding your individual role within the team, you can enhance your strengths and address your weaknesses.
Team leaders and project managers can use this framework to foster balance within their teams, boosting productivity, cohesion, and well-being among team members. By ensuring that all necessary roles are covered, leaders can prevent potential weaknesses and conflicts within the team.
The 9 primary roles identified by Belbin are:
- Plant
The Plant is typically innovative and curious, often serving as the source of creative ideas. They are original thinkers, imaginative, and unorthodox, with a tendency to be outgoing and charismatic. They thrive on praise but find criticism difficult to handle.
Due to the novel nature of their ideas, they can sometimes be impractical. Additionally, they may struggle with adhering to set parameters and constraints. - Resource Investigator
Resource Investigators are typically extroverted, people-oriented, enthusiastic, and excellent communicators. They excel at identifying opportunities and building networks both within and outside the team.
However, a potential downside is that they may lose interest once the initial excitement of a project fades or when the work becomes routine. - Coordinator
Coordinators often take on the role of team leaders. They are excellent listeners who can easily recognize the value each team member brings. Typically confident, organized, and skilled at clarifying goals, delegating tasks, and managing the team’s resources, they ensure smooth operation.
A potential risk is that coordinators may sometimes delegate too much personal responsibility, leading to a lack of direct involvement. - Shaper
Shapers are individuals who challenge the team to improve and push for progress. They are dynamic, enjoy taking charge, and are driven to make things happen. Shapers view obstacles as challenges and have the determination to push forward when others might give up.
However, Shapers need to be mindful of knowing when to stop pushing, as their assertiveness can sometimes come across as argumentative, potentially upsetting others. - Monitor
Monitors excel at evaluating and analyzing ideas generated by others. They are objective, analytical, and strategic, able to take a balanced, impartial view when making decisions. They carefully consider all options and make accurate, well-thought-out judgments.
However, Monitors may sometimes be perceived as unemotional or lacking in motivational energy, which can make them appear distant or detached. - Teamworker
Teamworkers focus primarily on the well-being of the team members rather than the issue at hand. They are often cooperative, diplomatic, and enjoy building on others’ ideas while striving for harmony within the group.
However, individuals in this role may struggle with decisiveness and can sometimes remain neutral or uncommitted when important decisions need to be made. - Implementer
Implementers are the team members who ensure things get done. They are disciplined, reliable, and efficient, taking ideas and transforming them into practical plans and actions. Often conservative in their approach, they focus on ensuring that tasks are completed effectively.
However, their preference for tried-and-true methods can sometimes make them inflexible and slow to adopt new ideas.
- Finisher
A Finisher is the person who ensures projects are completed thoroughly and to a high standard. They are typically detail-oriented, skilled at identifying mistakes, and excel at finalizing tasks.
However, Finishers may tend to worry excessively and often struggle with delegating tasks, preferring to handle details themselves to ensure everything is done correctly. - Specialist
Specialists are typically technical experts with a deep focus on one or a few specific areas of interest. They are often self-starters and highly self-motivated.
However, their strong focus on their area of expertise may lead them to disengage from the broader team discussions, potentially isolating them from other team members.
Applying This Knowledge
Understanding your own and other people’s behavioral tendencies at work can help to create greater harmony within the team. By assigning the right roles to the right people, we give value to their particular character and skill set, fostering team cohesion and boosting productivity overall.