Self-awareness: Assessing team roles
- Amanda Sathiaraj
- Jan 18, 2021
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 24, 2021
"Self-awareness gives you the capacity to learn from your mistakes as well as your successes. It enables you to keep growing."
-Lawrence Bossidy
While helping out with the International Space University's Interactive Space Program, ISP20, I came across a method of assessing one's preference for team roles. The test is called the Belbin Self - Perception Inventory and it is a behavioral test.
This test devised by Meredith Belbin measures a person's preference for team roles. There are nine team roles identified by him and it is asserted that the team roles are not equivalent to personality types. The inventory only assesses a person's behavior in a team environment and how strongly one expresses their behavioral traits. An individual often may exhibit strong tendencies towards multiple roles.
The nine roles are as follows.
Shaper
Plant
Coordinator
Monitor Evaluator
Resource Investigator
Implementer
Team Worker
Completer - Finisher
Specialist
Each role has different characteristics, functions, strengths and allowable weaknesses.
Taking the Belbin Test
After coming across this test organized in a group dynamics workshop for the ISP20 crew members, my curiosity peaked. I quickly found a way I could take the test. Taking the test was quite simple, it was like taking any personality test. It would take around 5-10 minutes.
The test has a total of seven sections and each section has eight statements. I was instructed to choose 1-3 statements from each section that resonated with me and is the closest to my response while working in a team. After choosing the statements, I was instructed to apportion 10 points among them. For some sections it can be 5, 3, 2, for some it can be 5, 5, 0 and for some it can be 10, 0, 0 (in any order of course!).
After you have given your points, they are allocated to each roles. The below is my result from taking the test.
According to this, while I would be able to function in any role, I would function best in the following roles.
Coordinator (People-oriented)
Plant (Thinking-oriented)
Completer-Finisher (Action-oriented)
Implementer (Action-oriented)
Further exploring on my dominant roles, my characteristics in working in a team environment, and, my strengths and allowable weakness would be as follows.
1. Coordinator
Coordinators are mature individuals who have excellent interpersonal and communication skills. They are normally in management positions, but their management styles are very different from those of Shapers. Where Shapers manage through directives, Coordinators prefer a more democratic approach that includes open communication.
Instead of focusing on the achievement of the organization’s goals, Coordinators tend to concentrate on helping team members accomplish their individual objectives. They are normally good at identifying talent in a team and utilizing it to achieve the group’s objectives. Coordinators are normally calm and trusting individuals who are adept at delegating work.
Coordinators are necessary to ensure that the team utilizes each member’s strengths appropriately. As they tend to have broad perspectives, Coordinators can direct teams with diverse personalities and skills.
Weakness: Can sometimes have a tendency to offload their own share of the work.
2. Plant
Plants are free-thinkers and creative people who produce original ideas and suggest innovative new ways of doing things. As is the case with the other two thought-oriented roles, Plants prefer to work alone. However, most teams and companies accept this, as the Plant’s creative thinking typically leads to innovative solutions and groundbreaking concepts.
Although Plants may not fit into the traditional concept of how a team member should act, they are nevertheless invaluable to a team or organization. As the name suggests, Plants are the team members who bring about growth and progress.
Weakness: They can have a tendency to be absent-minded or forgetful.
3. Completer-Finisher
Completers, also called Finishers, are introverted individuals who perform quality assurance during key stages of a project. They are often perfectionists who can notice fine details, which enables them to scrutinize finished tasks or products for errors. Since these individuals strive for perfection, they tend to expect the same from those around them.
Organizations need these individuals to ensure that teams produce high-quality work. Completers are especially valuable in work environments where precision and adherence to deadlines are essential.
Weakness: Have a tendency to worry about getting everything completed on time. They tend to prefer to do things themselves than to delegate. Could be accused of taking perfectionism to extremes.
4. Implementer
Implementers are organizers who like to structure their environments and maintain order. Because they are practical people, implementers like to make concrete plans from abstract ideas. Implementers are highly disciplined and self-controlled individuals who can disregard their self-interest to focus on the needs of a team or an organization. Although Implementers normally prefer established ways of doing things, you can likely persuade them to change if you can prove that it would yield positive results.
Implementers are usually the backbones of organizations since they implement workable strategies to ensure the team completes tasks quickly and effectively. These practical and diligent team members are the ones who ensure that goals become tangible successes.
Weakness: Implementers have a tendency to be somewhat inflexible and can be resistant to change.
A team can be said to be unbalanced when it doesn’t have a mix of thinking-oriented, action-oriented, and people-oriented people. Some general guidelines for leaders who need to put teams together:
Aim for a good balance of roles across thinking-oriented, action-oriented, and people-oriented Belbin Team Roles.
Alternatively, choose the people best suited to specific projects, for example, Starter Finishers on projects with tight deadlines and lots of details to get right.
Match people’s team role to their functional role, for example, use Shapers and coordinators in a team lead position, use Monitor Evaluators to select how things should be done.
Challenge each team member to do one thing better to improve the performance of the team as a whole.
By understanding and using the Belbin Team Roles you can improve how you behave when you’re part of a team, and as a leader you can improve how you put together and develop your teams.
Take the test, Belbin | High Performing Teams
To know more about the Belbin Test, read:
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