Team Role Inventories By Meredith Belbin

Introduction to Belbin Model

Dr. Meredith Belbin’s theory helps us to understand the personalities, behavioral patterns, key tasks, strengths, weakness, success, failure and functions that each member should have during a collaboration process. Also, assuming that all members know how to work individually and that the tasks or problems to resolve don’t require a prior knowledge of how to do it. Belbin also proposed that knowledge could be acquired with appropriate training and study, but personal behaviors and social attitudes are more challenging to amend, as they are very linked to our personality and have been inculcated in us since our birth. The results of a Belbin team could help us to understand areas of improvement, individual weakness, and conflicts between the team members. It also provides some guidelines for finding a solution. This is of major concern for any manager or a team leader in any team all over the globeAs a part of the result, we observed that balanced teams are better equipped to face real-life situations, where there are many changing factors and unforeseen. There is a total of nine different roles defined by Belbin which are as follows:

• Plant: creative, imaginative, unorthodox. Solves difficult problems.
• Resource Investigator: extroverted, enthusiastic, communicative. Explores opportunities. Develops contacts.
• Coordinator: mature, confident, a good chairperson. Clarifies goals, promotes decision-making, delegates well.
• Shaper: challenging, dynamic, thrives on pressure. Has the drive and courage to overcome obstacles.
• Monitor / Evaluator: sober, strategic and discerning. Sees all options. Judges accurately.
• Team Worker: cooperative, mild, perceptive and diplomatic. Listens, builds, averts friction, calms the waters.
• Implementer: disciplined, reliable, conservative and efficient. Turns ideas into practical actions.
• Completer / Finisher: painstaking, conscientious. Searches out errors and omissions. Delivers on time.
• Specialist: single-minded, self-starting, dedicated. Provides knowledge and skills in rare supply.

Description of Belbin Model

A team of specialists will always beat the team of all Rounders.

What is Team role? It is a tendency to perform, deliver and connect with others in an assured way. The Belbin team role model is created to use the capacities and behaviors of team members. If you want your team to progress its performance by working together more effectively, it is really important to understand each and every team members physiological behavior and the tendency to learn things and grasp things.

Real cooperation is not easy. We try to attempt for it but there are always complications at some point. In a team, there is always some big differences in style, attitude, character and personality. As we have seen earlier in the introduction of the nine different roles of Belbin, let us understand it in more detail and classified manner:

Thinking Oriented roles

Plant

The first Team Role to be identified was the Plant. The role was given such name because one such individual was “planted” in each team. They are always highly creative and good at solving problems in unconventional ways.

Strengths: Creative, imaginative, free-thinking. Generates ideas and solves difficult problems.

Weaknesses: Ignores incidentals. Too preoccupied to communicate effectively.

Monitor Evaluator

One by one, the other Team Roles began to emerge. The Monitor Evaluator is required to provide a logical eye, making impartial judgments where required and to balance up the team’s options in a very calm way.

Strengths: Sober, strategic and discerning. Sees all options and judges accurately.

Weaknesses: It can lack the ability to inspire others and can be overly critical.

Specialist

It was only after the initial research had been completed that the ninth Team Role, Specialist emerged. In the real world, the value of an individual is recognized by his level of understanding the complexity of the problem.

Strengths: Single-minded, self-starting, dedicated. Provides knowledge and skills in rare supply.

Weaknesses: Contributes only on a narrow front. Dwells on technicalities. People-oriented roles.

Co-ordinator

Co-ordinators were needed to focus on the team’s objectives, draw out team members and delegate work appropriately.

Strengths: Mature, confident, identify talent. Clarifies goals. Delegates effectively.

Weaknesses: Can be seen as manipulative. Offloads own share of work.

Team- Worker

Team workers helped the team to gel, using their versatility to identify the work required and complete it on behalf of the team.

Strengths: Co-operative, perceptive and diplomatic. Listens and averts friction.

Weaknesses: Indecisive in crunch situations. Avoids confrontation.

Resource Investigator

When the team was at risk of becoming isolated and inwardly-focused, Resource Investigators provided inside knowledge on the opposition and made sure that the team’s idea would carry to the world outside the team.

Strengths: Outgoing, enthusiastic, communicative. Explores opportunities and develops contacts.

Weaknesses: Over-optimistic. Loses interest once initial enthusiasm has passed. Action-oriented roles.

Shaper

Challenging individuals, known as Shapers, provided the necessary drive to ensure that the team kept moving and did not lose focus or momentum.

Strengths: Challenging, dynamic, thrives on pressure. Has the drive and courage to overcome obstacles.

Weaknesses: Prone to provocation. Offends people’s feelings.

Implementer

Implementers were needed to plan a practical, workable strategy and carry it out as efficiently as possible.

Strengths: Practical, reliable, efficient. Turns ideas into actions and organizes the work to be done.

Weaknesses: Somewhat inflexible. Slow to respond to new possibilities.

Completer finisher

Completer Finishers were most effectively used at the end of a task, to “polish” and scrutinize the work for errors, subjecting it to the highest standards of quality control.

Strengths: Painstaking, conscientious, anxious. Searches out errors. Polishes and perfects.

Weaknesses: Inclined to worry unduly. Reluctant to delegate.