Belbin Team Spirit

Belbin versus Personality Profiles: What’s the Difference and Why It Matters

Belbin Positive Attitude

When it comes to understanding people at work, there’s no shortage of models.

From Insights Discovery to DISC and MBTI, many frameworks are based on the psychology of Carl Jung. 

Exploring how people prefer to think, feel and interact.

But while these personality tools can be enlightening, they often leave a crucial question unanswered:

How does this help the team actually work better together?

That’s where Belbin Team Roles comes in.

Which one might give you the edge when it comes to building better teams?

Let’s take a closer look.

9 Belbin Team Roles

The Core Difference: Personality Profile vs Behavioural Profile

Most Jungian-based tools focus on personality preferences; The internal wiring that influences how people approach life.

They’re great for self-awareness and understanding communication styles.

Belbin, on the other hand, focuses more on observable behaviour; What people do and contribute in a team.

It’s not about what’s going on inside your head; it’s about how your actions affect others and the success of the group.

Put simply:

A Personality Profile can tell you who you are.

Belbin shows you what you bring to the team.

Why Behaviour Beats Personality for Teamwork

Here are 10 reasons why Belbin takes a more practical approach to building effective, balanced teams:

1. “It ain’t what you do it’s the way that you do it…that’s what gets results.”

Belbin looks at behaviour in context. Say you might prefer to plan quietly (a personality trait). However, if your team needs ideas, you might act as a Plant and generate creative solutions. Belbin helps you capture and understand that flexibility in approach.

2. Built for Teams. Not Just Individuals

Personality profiles focus more on self-understanding. 

In contrast, Belbin focuses more on how individuals combine, clash and complement one another to form effective teams.

3. Nine Distinct Roles for the Real-World 

Belbin identifies nine team roles such as Shaper, Implementer and Teamworker. Each with strengths and allowable weaknesses. It offers a nuanced view of contribution rather than grouping people into a handful of primary types or colours.

4. Allows for Change 

We all behave differently depending on the situation. Belbin recognises that our team role preferences can shift as projects, teams or roles evolve. Alternatively, Personality profiles tend to assume we’re relatively fixed in our style.

5. Feedback Matters

Belbin includes optional input from colleagues through Observer Assessments. This provides a 360° view of how others see your contributions. Personality tools typically rely on self-perception only, which may be unintentionally biased.

6. Strengths and Weaknesses are Valued

Every Belbin role comes with “allowable weaknesses” – natural trade-offs that make strengths possible. Whearas, Personality profiles often separate these traits. In contrast, Belbin normalises them as part of the overall behavioural profile  picture.

7. Practical Workplace Applications

Belbin Reports can link directly to team building, leadership, recruitment and conflict resolution. They don’t just describe people. They can help you use the information to tangibly improve performance.

8. The Science Behind Team Roles 

Belbin is based on decades of research at Henley Management College, observing real managers in real teams. It’s data-driven and workplace-tested, not purely theoretical.

9. Reducing Friction

By highlighting complementary roles and potential clashes, Belbin helps teams resolve differences constructively. Whereas, a Personality Profile often stops at “you’re different”, without explaining how to work together more effectively.

10. Straightforward Language

Belbin’s role titles are practical and memorable (“Coordinator”, “Completer Finisher”), not abstract concepts or psychological “jargon”. Which makes it easier to discuss and understand.

9 Belbin Team Roles

The Bottom Line

Personality profiling can be an excellent starting point for self-awareness. Therefore, if you want to turn that awareness into team effectiveness, Belbin Team Roles is the bridge between knowing yourself and working better with others.

Belbin helps teams recognise what each person contributes, where gaps or overlaps exist, and how to play to everyone’s strengths. It’s not about pigeonholing – it’s about unlocking potential.

Bring Belbin to Your Team

Belbin Report - Team

At Belbin Scotland, we help organisations use Belbin to improve teamwork, leadership, and communication.

Whether you’re developing managers, hiring for fit, or building stronger project teams, Belbin gives you a clear, practical framework for success.

Discover Belbin Reports

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Want to improve your team?

Get in touch to find out how Belbin can improve your team.
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Belbin was selected from a range of psychometrics due to its focus on the individual in the team environment. It has been a fantastic tool throughout our journey. We began our culture initiative with Belbin and built upon the focus of team work to integrate the process within our recruitment procedure.
Deeanne WinkHR Business Partner
Deeanne Wink
We have used the Belbin assessment tool to support the development of Job Profiles and as a tool to consolidate agreement on the skills and attributes the recruiting panel are looking for. It can help surface different perspectives and support agreement of what is really important in the role all before you have even spoken with candidates.
Leona McDermid CEO
Leona McDermid
Whilst individuals across our company had some awareness of Belbin and the benefits it can bring to individuals or teams, as an organisation we wanted to work alongside the team at Belbin Scotland to improve our understanding and embed a shared language. We have utilised the individual tests and reports for consecutive years across the organisation and are seeing the rewards at an operational and strategic level.
Kirsty Summers HR Co-ordinator
Kirsty Summers
Our management team felt they left the session with practical tools and techniques they could apply back in the workplace, such as preparing for and holding supervision meetings with staff and giving and receiving feedback. I would recommend Belbin for any management teams keen to improve self-awareness and how this can be used to improve their ability to develop their staff and work more cohesively as a team.
Sarah HartlessHR Manager
Sarah Hartless
Belbin has been hugely impactful for our staff that have undertaken the diagnostic tool and participated in live sessions. Our talent programme for aspiring senior managers used Belbin for the first time last year, and it has now become an integral part of the programme.
Katie MenziesInterim Head of Talent, Leadership and Supporting Change
Katie Menzies
Aberdeen Foyer used Belbin individual assessment and group feedback as a way of opening up conversations between the team, building trust and confidence in each other and as a way of revealing people’s strengths and preferred styles of management.
Sarah HartlessHR Manager
Sarah Hartless
Our client’s Team really enjoyed the Belbin feedback sessions and I’d go as far as to say it actually bonded them. The better understanding of the individual strengths and allowable weaknesses led to improved team cohesion, improved communication and importantly built trust.
Mervyn StanleyManaging Director
Mervyn Stanley
The Belbin Scotland team have been incredibly supportive, responsive and knowledgeable in helping us establish this resource, bettering our training opportunities for employees going forward.
Kirsty Summers HR Co-ordinator
Kirsty Summers
Can’t thank Belbin Scotland enough for the great support and the benefits we got from using Belbin. From team working & productivity to recruitment success.
Neill RentonCountry Manager
Neill Renton
There are no right or wrong answers with Belbin and that is key, it has been most useful for shining a light on individual strengths.
Deeanne WinkHR Business Partner
Deeanne Wink
Participants in the programme have commented how much they enjoyed undertaking the Belbin assessment and putting it into practice in a face to face session. For anyone looking to develop their teams and give their people a greater understanding of what they have to offer, I would definitely recommend Belbin.
Katie MenziesInterim Head of Talent
Katie Menzies
Feedback from our management team was overwhelmingly positive, they felt the reports helped them to understand their own behavioural strengths, weaknesses and how to manage these, as well as building an understanding of other managers preferred working styles.
Sarah HartlessHR Manager
Sarah Hartless
The Belbin framework provides valuable insights into individuals' preferred roles within a team, highlighting their strengths, weaknesses, and potential contributions. By understanding team members' preferred behaviours and in ASV terms, where they prefer to play on the pitch, ASV aimed to improve communication, collaboration, and overall team effectiveness.
Duncan SinclairCEO
Duncan Sinclair
Belbin helped us be more specific in our advertising of the roles and go into the recruitment process with more confidence around the type of person and skills we were looking for. Would highly recommend as a process.
Leona McDermid CEO
Leona McDermid
We use Belbin to discuss inclusivity and leading diverse teams. It has provided delegates with greater insight into how they can create more effective teams and empower others based on their strengths. It has also given our staff the opportunity to reflect on their own role in their teams and what they can bring to create success.
Katie MenziesInterim Head of Talent
Katie Menzies
We quickly began to see improvements in behaviours between client team members resulting in an improvement in overall business performance. We also identified that with a lack of strength in a particular role, and our client had to look externally to bring someone in to complement the existing team. I was absolutely delighted with the results and would have no hesitation in engaging Belbin in a similar situation in the future.
Mervyn StanleyManaging Director
Mervyn Stanley