Many organisations assume that assembling a group of high-performing individuals will automatically create a high-performing team.
In reality, the opposite often happens.
Teams frequently struggle not because of capability gaps, but because of imbalances in the behavioural contributions required.
Belbin Team Roles can help understand the behavioural dynamics in a team to help improve overall team performance.
Consider some simple, imbalanced team examples:
The main performance issue in teams is rarely capability.
More often, its due to the having the wrong behavioural mix or a lack of behavioural diversity for what the team actually requires.
Belbin identified 9 Team Roles that represent the different ways people contribute to group success.
These roles fall into three broad clusters as below.
High-performing teams rarely contain exact same level of representation of each role.
However, they do ensure that the critical role contributions are present based on the actual purpose of the team.
Shaper
Implementer
Completer Finisher
Coordinator
Teamworker
Resource Investigator
Plant
Monitor Evaluator
Specialist
In practice, several style patterns can often be found in organisations.
Recognise any of these?
Too many Plants and Resource Investigators, too few Implementers or Completer Finishers.
Result: Lots of ideas and enthusiasm, much focus less delivery.
Dominated by Implementers and Shapers.
Result: Work may get done quickly and deadlines met, but innovation or team spirit may disappear.
Strong Teamworker presence with few Shapers.
Result: Supportive working atmosphere, but may lack drive and results focus.
Several structural factors can encourage the development of team imbalance.
Without a framework such as Belbin to help counteract this, these factors can often remain “invisible”.
Instead of focusing on skills or personality, Belbin helps you to understand how people actually behave in a team environment.
Only recruiting people who “fit the culture”
Promoting individuals with similar leadership styles
Functional silos which shape behaviour
Lack of awareness around behavioural contributions
Identify missing behavioural contributions
Understanding overplayed team roles
Improving recruitment decisions
Designing more balanced teams / project teams
Reducing conflict / behavioural misunderstandings
When reviewing a team, consider:
If several questions like these point to the same individual(s), there may be a behavioural gap in the team.
Find out more about Team Building with Belbin.
The most successful teams are not built from identical high performers.
They are built from complementary contributors.
Belbin provides a simple but powerful way to ensure teams are not only talented, but have the right balance to succeed.
Whether you’re a Chief Executive, Managing Director, Line Manager, Supervisor or Team Member, Belbin Reports and our expert support can help you become an even more effective.
Understanding behavioural strengths and weaknesses can enable you to improve the performance of your team.
For a no-obligation consultation, contact Belbin Scotland to find out how we can help through the delivery of the Belbin Test and Reports, Management Courses, Team-Building Workshops, Facilitated Team Sessions, Coaching, and much much more…
Completing a Belbin Self-Perception Inventory to generate your own Belbin Self-Perception Report enables you to accurately assess your preferred Belbin Team Roles.