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Role descriptions

No one should ever be typecasted in a role

· team,personnality
  • Creative, unorthodox, free-thinking, generates many ideas and is likely to be able to solve difficult problems: Plant
  • Enthusiastic communicator, explores opportunities, develops and builds contacts external to team: Investigator
  • Conscientious, attention to detail, provides quality assurance for team output, meets deadlines: Finisher
  • Disciplined, reliable, turns ideas into practical actions and works well across different tasks and settings: Implementer
  • Clarifies team goals, understands the strengths of each team member, leads by good task delegation: Coordinator
  • Discerning, evaluates team processes against project goals, weighs up all options: Evaluator
  • Leads by focusing on task, dynamic, works well under pressure: Shaper
  • Cooperative, perceptive and diplomatic, listens to others, avoids conflict: Teamworker

Interpreting team role preferences

There are some important points to remember when characterising yourself and others using Belbin team roles:

  • You are using self-perception and you may not be at a stage where you are fully aware of how you work in teams.
  • You may undertake more than one of these roles at the same time.
  • There may be roles that you would like to avoid but this does not mean that you can't do them.
  • Your role preferences will depend on the type of project that your team is working on.
  • Your preferences will depend on the composition of your team. For example, if you prefer to be in the leadership role (either a Shaper or Coordinator) and your team has a member senior to you, you will probably take on another role.
  • As you progress in your career, your preferences will change.

The take home message is that no-one should ever be typecast!