What are the Benefits of Identifying Team Roles?
By Bernard Chanliau, Tuesday 05 September, 2006
Dr Meredith Belbin originated the concept of team roles in his books Management Teams: Why They Succeed or Fail (Butterworth Heinemann 1981) and Team Roles at Work (Butterworth Heinemann 1993). Belbin defined a team role as:
“… a pattern of behaviour characteristic of the way in which one team member interacts with another where performance serves to facilitate the progress of the team as a whole. The value of team-role theory lies in enabling an individual or team to benefit from self knowledge and adjust according to the demands being made by the external situation.”
A practical set of computer based-tools (eInterplace) was subsequently developed which has enabled the application of Team Role Theory, usually part of team leadership - transformational theories, to be applied easily in any organisation as an integral part of human resources management approaches.
Where Did the Concept Come From?
Belbin conducted extensive studies involving successful and unsuccessful teams competing in Business Games at Henley Management Centre, England. Managers taking part in the exercise were tested on a range of psychometric instruments and placed into teams made up in a variety of ways. Nine different clusters of behaviour, or “Team Roles”, were identified as underlying the success of teams.
Action – Oriented Roles | Shaper | Implementer | Complete Finisher |
People – Oriented Roles | Team Worker | Coordinator | Resource Investigator |
Cerebral Roles | Plant | Specialist | Monitor Evaluator |
Belbin’s research showed that a balanced team - one with the greatest chance to develop fully effective working arrangements - would contain a balance of these Team Roles. Further, every team goes through phases of its activities during which some Team Roles are able better to contribute than others.
Belbin’s model allows a group to analyse its collective strengths and weaknesses in Team Role terms and objectively plan to capitalise on those strengths and minimise the negative impact of its weaknesses. Moreover, the process offers tools to enable a team to be structured for maximum Team Role effectiveness in advance of starting work where, for example, a new working group, project team or similar unit is to be created.
What are the benefits of identifying team Roles in the workplace environment?
A Belbin© Profile produced using both SPI (Self Perception Inventory) and Observers’ Assessments (OA) with the computer based system eInterplace shows how an individual feels and how an individual behaves in a group.
The information is valuable on several levels:
Team Roles as a Self-Awareness Tool
It is only by knowing ourselves that we have any chance of improving ourselves and achieving our full potential. The Belbin© Team Role process offers a unique insight into the perceptions which we hold about ourselves, as well as the perceptions which others hold of us. At the very basic level, therefore, obtaining a personal Team Role analysis is, for most people, an experience of personal awareness and potential growth.
There are many forms of psychometric assessments but most of them omit to include inputs from the people best able to present it – your boss, colleagues and subordinates. The Belbin profiling exploits both self and observer inputs to derive a profile, and one of the most interesting experience to be gained form the analysis is to discover the differences between self perception and the perceptions of others.
Team Roles as a Tool for Effective Teams
The effective performance of a group of people - a team - is dependent on the way the team is able to interact and draw on the strengths of its members.
People working within a group or team bring to the group two key things. The first is their competency – specialist knowledge, qualifications, experience, etc – which are typically the reasons why they have been hired. These might include computer skills; carpentry ability; understanding of production techniques; typing proficiency; knowledge of health and safety; and an almost infinite array of other things. Let us call this the “Task” focus. The second is the way they work with and contribute to a group, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of the group. We will call this the “Team” focus. Obviously, the Task focus is concerned with getting the job done. Less obviously, the Team focus is concerned with how the job is done.
Today recent research on several long-standing issues relevant to work-group effectiveness, including team cohesiveness, team composition and performance, leadership, motivation, and group goals all point to the same directions. They are generic issues in the sense that they pertain to almost all teams doing almost all kinds of work: the notion that leaders' EI affects the teams they lead and that team level EI affects team performance (i.e. Feyerherm, A. E. & Rice, C. L. (2002) Emotional Intelligence and Team Performance: The good, the bad, and the ugly).
Team Roles as a tool for Effective Staff Selection
Typically and traditionally staff selection and recruitment is based on what we earlier described as the Task focus – the qualifications, experience and practical skills an individual has, which are usually defined as an individual’s eligibility for the job.
However, research shows a very weak correlation between the eligibility for a job and actual job performance. Some Human Resource experts suggest that few organisations are successful at achieving even a fifty percent success rate in selection when depending on traditional questions of eligibility. Given that total costs associated with a poor selection, this represents a major area for potential cost savings by almost every organisation.
Belbin’s research shows clearly that much of the uncertainty associated with achieving a successful job placement is related to job “suitability” (i.e. what a person is, or the “Team” focus already mentioned) rather than job “eligibility” (i.e. what a person knows or a “Task” focus). Further it is now clear that a person recruited to a job who is “unsuitable” in Team role terms will be, at least, a poor fit for the job.
Using the Belbin© process to support recruitment efforts, firms can now easily produce a profile of any individual job in terms of its “suitability” requirements. Individual job applicants, or an existing organisational data base of staff, can then be compared to determine the most suitable likely appointee.
The same concept can also be used successfully to facilitate succession planning within a company.
Using Belbin for Career Planning
When making career decisions it is imperative that one takes into consideration natural talents and behavioural tendencies. Very often, when deciding on a career, people focus on what is fashionable, in demand or most remunerative only to discover when they take up the position that they don’t like the job, or worse still find it stressful.
People who are most successful in their career are:
- Aware of who they are, and happy in that knowledge
- Conscious of their motivated skills
- Clear about the way these skills will be helpful to the world
The Belbin profiling will enable you to become more self-aware in discovering your strongest and least preferred team roles. The assessment results in ranked order of team roles with observers will enable you to work on your blind spots – things that others know about you that you are not aware of. This is where the help of Belbin team role coaching can be useful.
How Belbin Profiling Differs from Psychometric Testing?
Belbin assessments measure behaviour - nine clusters of behaviour called Team Roles, whereas psychometric tests measure personality traits. So what is the difference?
Behaviour can be described as everything we say and do whereas personality, although having a big impact on how we behave, is something not so easily identified. Personality is usually broadly defined as referring to those internal properties of a person that lead to characteristic patterns of behaviour.
Both behaviour and personality are influenced by what we are born with - our DNA and genetics – as well as our experiences as we go through life. It is generally accepted that personality is of a more enduring nature than behaviour. Behaviour is more variable as we can modify it to some extent in response to such things as our current values, prevailing situations, and the influence of those around us.
So where does this leave us? Well, in short, Belbin is about measuring something we can see and observe and psychometrics are looking at what’s below the surface. It can be concluded therefore that the Belbin Self Perception Inventory (SPI) is much less complex because it is measuring something that it is visible. It must be accepted as a relatively broad measure however, and be regarded as representing a moment in time. Psychometric assessments on the other hand face a bigger challenge as they are trying to tell us what is going on under what at times may be quite murky water. The more reputable ones are very sophisticated however in the way that they deal with this.
FAQ on Belbin:
Q What exactly is a Team Role?
A Dr Meredith Belbin defines a Team Role as "Our tendency to behave, contribute, and interrelate with others in a particular way." The Belbin Team role profile indicate how an individual operates within the Team and concerns their tendency to behave, contribute to the team, or inter-relate with others in a particular way.
Although the original research and most people's association with the Team Role model relates to teams there is strong evidence to support the view that these natural tendencies exist in workplace activities outside the formal team. (It's worth reading Management Teams - Why They Succeed or Fail by Dr Meredith Belbin if you are interested in learning more about Belbin Team Roles and the original research.)
Q What about the reliability and validity of the Belbin theory?
A 23 out of 32 research studies show positive evidence supporting the Belbin team role theory. The reliability values for the Belbin team roles Self Perception Inventory are close top or above the .70 threshold. For more information on the validity and reliability of the theory please contact us.
Q Where can I get the latest Belbin assessment forms?
A The latest assessment forms are free of charge. The reports generated by the Belbin e- Interplace computer system are available from XenerGie Consulting.
Q I have been told there is now a facility for adding 360 degree feedback. Is this true?
A Yes, the methodology exists for adding Observer Assessments to provide feedback on how others see you. This is one of the big advantages of the Belbin Interplace system as it provides a much more robust profile than methods based on self-reporting only.
Q My work with people who do not speak English as a first language has thrown up difficulties when using the Belbin assessments. Do you have a translated version?
A Yes, the Belbin assessments, and the Interplace system have been translated into a number of languages. These include French, German, Slovenian, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Czech, Finnish, Japanese, Korean, and Indian.
Q I am particularly concerned at present about resolving a 'personality clash'. How can the Belbin model help with this?
A This issue can be dealt with by using the Belbin Working Relationship report. This report enables differences in natural behavioural tendencies between the two people to be identified and areas of difficult chemistry to be pinpointed. A strategy can then be agreed between the individuals for resolving any conflict and for maximising the synergistic potential. Xenergie also conducts 1:1 Belbin team role coaching see our Executive Coaching section on our website.
Q Is there a link between learning styles and Belbin Team Roles?
A Both learning styles and Team Roles are both are influenced by the same things, our DNA, Genetics and Personality. For example, a "Shaper" will prefer to learn by doing and tend to be motivated to learn primarily as a means to achieve.
Q How would Belbin profiling benefit a Management Development Programme?
A A Management Development Programme would benefit in the following ways:
1. By enhancing managers' awareness of their own management style which could then be used as a basis for improving their personal effectiveness.
2. By providing managers with a better understanding their subordinates and thereby enabling them to tap into these natural preferences when assigning work and when planning their future development.
3. By providing a common language from the nine clusters of behaviours and enabling shared understanding between members and the process it offers for developing action plans for improving team perfromance (i.e the Plant is the idea person, the Complete Finisher is the doer...etc)
3. By equipping managers with the ability to select effective teams and diagnose underlying weaknesses in existing
teams.
If you want more information, please visit our team coaching section in our website.
Alternatively, email Bernard.chanliau@ xenergie.com regarding our Belbin team performance services (team working training, individual, team and organisational role profiles with eInterplace, team coaching and 1:1 Belbin team role coaching, team building with Belbin experiential learning exercises, team performance management….)