Belbin Scotland - Build Better Teams

Unlock the full potential of your team with Belbin Team Role Reports and support.

Why Belbin?

Belbin Team Role theory and reports have been used for over 50 years to help individuals, teams, and organisations perform more effectively.

Over 3 million Reports have been generated worldwide.

Through extensive research undertaken by Dr Meredith Belbin at Henley Management College, ‘Belbin Theory’ was developed to understand why certain teams performed better than others. Research has identified that teams are more successful when comprising a diverse and balanced mix of behaviours.

Dr Belbin identified nine distinct clusters of behaviours displayed in teams, known as the Belbin Team Roles. Teams typically performed more effectively when they had all nine Team Role behaviours represented across team members.

Each Belbin Team Role has a combination of strengths and weaknesses, and no team role is more important than any other. They all have their part to play in a successful team.

A high-performing team may benefit from having all nine team roles represented, but not necessarily all are required simultaneously. Depending on the tasks or objectives to be delivered, specific team roles or combinations of roles can enhance performance and delivery when utilised effectively.

Understanding and applying the Belbin Team Role theory can improve the long-term performance of individuals, effective teams, and organisations.

Some of the many benefits Belbin Reports can help deliver include:

Self-Awareness

Helping us to understand our and others’ behavioural strengths and weaknesses, supporting our emotional intelligence.

Effective task allocation/delegation

Allocating tasks or responsibilities that are better aligned to suit each person’s natural behavioural strengths.

Recruitment and Selection

To accurately and objectively assess the behavioural profile of a candidate against the requirements of the role for better hiring decisions.

Increased Productivity

By playing to strengths and managing weaknesses within the team.

Team Selection

To form more effective, balanced, high-performing teams and improve job satisfaction.

Coaching and Mentoring

To develop skills and knowledge in the workplace.

Team Building

To understand team culture, build trust, improve morale and motivation.

Effective Communication

Understanding what communication style for the most effective individual or team communication.

Virtual teams

To improve the quality and outputs delivered through remote teams working towards a common goal.

Multi-functional teams

To enhance collaboration across business functions.

Conflict Management

To develop skills and knowledge in the workplace.

Project teams

Enabling project-focused teams to deliver effectively against deadlines and budgets – ensuring team members feel motivated and included.

Decision Making

Improving decisions by considering different behavioural styles and the impact these may have.

Enhanced Innovation and Creativity

Tapping into specific Belbin Roles that can add value to different stages of the creative process.

Belbin builds better teams.

At Belbin Scotland, we embrace the power of Belbin Team Roles, the ‘Gold Standard’ approach to developing highly effective, cohesive teamwork.

Belbin Team Roles reports and theory have developed over the last 50 years and are backed by rigorous research.

Belbin Team Roles identify individuals’ specific contributions and behaviours to a team, enabling a deeper understanding of the behavioural dynamics of a team to build a more harmonious and productive workplace.

Empower Teams

By identifying individuals’ unique roles within a team, Belbin facilitates the creation of more balanced teams where every team member can play to their strengths.

Belbin Users can address individual behavioural weaknesses by tapping into the natural strengths of others in the team.

Taking a more strategic and tactical approach to teamwork can deliver improved alignment of roles to strengths, enhanced productivity through better task allocation, reduced conflict and building high-performing, collaborative teams.

Revolutionise Recruitment

Integrating Belbin Job, Candidate, and Job Comparison reports into your recruitment process will deliver a more robust and objective candidate assessment than CVs or interviews alone.

Belbin reports allow any hiring manager to accurately assess the behavioural attributes required for any role and compare any candidate’s behavioural strengths and potential weaknesses against what is needed.

Using Belbin can deliver a more objective and accurate selection process and help ensure that any new hire has the necessary technical skills/knowledge/qualifications and the right behaviours required for the role. Getting recruitment “right first time” through technical AND behavioural fit helps ensure that new start employees are aligned to the team / organisational culture from day one.

Cultivate Leadership

We believe effective leadership isn’t about a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach. When a Leader understands their own Belbin Team Role preferences, it can help them understand their strengths and areas to work on to adapt their style according to the needs of their team or task in hand.

Applying Belbin’s theory enables a more flexible and responsive approach to leadership style.

Through understanding the diverse mix of roles within the team, leaders can utilise Belbin’s theory at the strategic or operational level to maximise employee engagement, increase motivation and enhance performance.

Belbin Scotland is committed to unlocking the potential within teams through the insightful application of Belbin Theory. Whether you need to enhance team collaboration, improve recruitment strategy or develop an adaptable leadership style, Belbin helps build better teams’

What are the Belbin Team Roles?

Belbin Team Roles are a set of 9 roles that Dr Meredith Belbin and his research team identified through their study of team dynamics in the workplace. Belbin provides an understanding of an individual’s behavioural strengths and potential weaknesses when contributing to or working in a team.

Each role offers a unique contribution to a successful team, and by applying this, teams can work more effectively through a more balanced or suitable behavioural composition for what they need to deliver.

The 9 Belbin Team Roles are:

1. Plant (PL):

Creative, imaginative, and unorthodox. Generates ideas and solves complex problems. They may have difficulty communicating their ideas effectively with others.

2. Resource Investigator (RI):

Extrovert, outgoing, enthusiastic, and communicative, the RI explores opportunities and develops contacts. Once the initial enthusiasm has passed, the RI may lose interest and move on to new things.

3. Co-ordinator (CO):

This person is mature and confident and can make a natural “chairperson”. They clarify goals and delegate effectively by tapping into team members’ strengths. Their coordination input might be perceived as manipulative rather than persuasive.

4. Shaper (SH):

This person is dynamic and thrives on pressure. They have the drive and courage to overcome obstacles. They may be prone to provocation and might upset others with their direct approach.

5. Monitor Evaluator (ME):

Strategic-minded, logical, and discerning, the ME sees all options and judges accurately. Others may perceive their ability to spot rather than solve problems as pessimistic or sceptical.

6. Teamworker (TW):

Cooperative, mild-mannered, perceptive, and diplomatic. Good, empathetic, and active listener. Their desire to “keep the peace” and avoid conflict may be perceived by others as indecisive, especially in challenging situations.

7. Implementer (IMP):

Disciplined, reliable, practical and efficient. Adept at turning ideas into actions. Organises the work that needs to be done efficiently. Others may see their desire to stick to the process as needing to be more flexible.

8. Completer-finisher (CF):

Painstaking and conscientious, they seek out errors or omissions and aim to complete on time to high-quality standards. Striving for perfection may be seen as being inclined to worry unduly over the details. They do tend to “sweat the small stuff”.

9. Specialist (SP):

Single-minded, self-starting and dedicated. Provide knowledge and skills in rare supply. As they focus their energy on their subject matter, they may not appreciate it or want to get involved in work outside their scope or area of interest.

Understanding and applying the 9 Belbin Team Roles within a team context can lead to more effective teamwork by achieving a behaviourally balanced team, where all the required team roles are represented, and potential weaknesses are mitigated by playing to the strengths of others in the team.

Belbin Reports and Assessments

Belbin offers six reports with various practical applications to support recruitment, selection, talent management, and development.

Belbin Individual/Self-Perception Report

This report provides insight into your Belbin TeamRoles” strengths and possible weaknesses. It can help you understand how to contribute to a team to maximise your behavioural attributes. An Observer Report version offers a more rounded perspective by providing the opportunity to gather and analyse feedback from a minimum of four colleagues at no extra cost.

Belbin Team Report

This report provides an overview of how individuals work together in a team. It gives insight into each person’s roles to be most effective and highlights potential gaps or overlaps across the different Team Role behaviours.

Belbin Working Relationship Report

It compares vital behavioural elements of two Individual reports side by side to help identify how the pairing might work together and can highlight areas such as shared strengths, behavioural gaps, and potential areas of conflict.

Belbin Job Report

Provides an accurate assessment of behaviours required for any role to improve and enhance the objectivity of the selection process. For a more rounded perspective, a Job Observation questionnaire can also be completed by other personnel who understand the role, such as the incumbent job holder, who may know the role better than anyone else.

Belbin Job Comparison Report

This report accurately compares the behavioural requirements of a role with the attributes that an internal or external candidate possesses to assess their suitability for the role objectively. While a candidate may look like a good fit for the role based on their qualifications, skills and experience, behavioural fit should also be crucial in the selection process.

Belbin ‘Get Set’ Report

The junior version of Belbin is aimed at people who have yet to enter the workplace or are at an early stage in their career. It is typically used by schools, colleges, and universities or for apprenticeships and work placements. Get Set is in a workbook format and helps students, apprentices, or people on work placements understand their behavioural strengths to help build confidence as they enter the workplace. Additional supporting material is available, such as slides, handouts, and lesson plans.

Belbin Workshops

Belbin Scotland offers a variety of workshops, both in person and across Scotland, designed to help implement Belbin methodologies and reports at individual, team, and organisational levels. Workshops range from short, introductory sessions from around 2 hours to 2-day events, all customisable to meet any specific client requirements or requests. Belbin Scotland also provides a range of leadership, management, supervisory, and personal skills development workshops, team building, and recruitment and selection workshops.

Belbin Accreditation and Certification

We recommend the Belbin Accreditation for anyone who wants to use Belbin Team Roles regularly or in-depth to help teams achieve their full potential. Accreditation is suitable for a wide range of professionals, including;

Leaders, Team Leaders, Line Managers and Supervisors
HR/Human Resources
Learning and Development and Training
Recruitment and Talent Management
Facilitators and Coaches
Business and Management Consultants
Lecturers and Teachers

The three-day Belbin accreditation process can be completed in person or online. It covers Belbin theory in depth, explores the content and practical application of each Belbin Report, and explains how to deliver Belbin feedback and your own Belbin Workshops.