Introduction to Belbin Team Roles

Belbin® Team Roles are used to identify people’s strengths and weaknesses. This information provides a foundation for teams to achieve better business results.

Who uses Belbin Team Roles?

Individuals who want to understand their contributions to a team and increase their self-awareness
Teams who wish to identify their strengths and weaknesses to help achieve better results and be more effective
Trainers, consultants, managers and organizations who want to get the most out of their people

What are Belbin Team Roles?

Belbin Team Roles is a methodology for developing successful teams. Belbin is an evidence-based, data driven approach to improving team performance. This approach is unique for examining and understanding how individuals contribute, interrelate and behave and how best to maximize the strengths of each individual in the team. It is useful and effective for both personal development and for developing high-performing teams.

How are Belbin Reports used?

Belbin Team Roles have enabled thousands of individuals and organizations worldwide to:

Build productive working relationships
Select and develop high-performing teams
Raise self-awareness and personal effectiveness
Aid recruitment processes

What makes Belbin Team Roles different from other approaches?

The Belbin Team Role analysis is different from personality or psychometric assessments. It measures the different contributions team members make on a team and it does so without labeling people (individuals can multiple roles on a team). Your Team Roles report will tell you your role preferences based on your own self-perception as well as input from observers that you choose.

The Belbin Team Roles approach:

Uses individual and observer feedback to develop results, which reduces the amount of bias present in assessments that only use self-evaluations
Measures clusters of behaviour, not personality, and defines the ideal responsibilities for each role
Emphasizes getting better business results in a team setting
Provides invaluable information on three levels: individual, team and organization
Is distinctive in its ability to be used with predictable results which are empirically verified
Is used in more than 30 countries and available in a range of languages

The Nine Belbin Team Role Descriptions

Plant

Tends to be highly creative and good at solving problems in unconventional ways.

Contribution: creative, imaginative, free-thinking. Generates ideas and solves difficult problems.
Allowable Weaknesses: ignores incidentals. Too preoccupied to communicate effectively.

Resource Investigator

Uses their inquisitive nature to find ideas to bring back to the team.

Contribution: outgoing, enthusiastic, communicative. Explores opportunities and develops contacts.
Allowable Weaknesses: over-optimistic. Loses interest once initial enthusiasm has passed.

Co-ordinator

Needed to focus on the team’s objectives, draw out team members and delegate work appropriately.

Contribution: mature, confident, identifies talent. Clarifies goals. Delegates effectively.
Allowable Weaknesses: can be seen as manipulative. Offloads personal work.

Shaper

Provides the necessary drive to ensure that the team keeps moving and does not lose focus or momentum.

Contribution: challenging, dynamic, thrives on pressure. Has the drive and courage to overcome obstacles.
Allowable Weaknesses: prone to provocation. Offends people’s feelings.

Monitor Evaluator

Provides a logical eye, making impartial judgements where required and weighs up the team’s options in a dispassionate way.

Contribution: sober, strategic and discerning. Sees all options and judges accurately.
Allowable Weaknesses: lacks drive and ability to inspire others.

Teamworker

Helps the team to gel, using their versatility to identify the work required and complete it on behalf of the team.

Contribution: co-operative, mild, perceptive and diplomatic. Listens, builds, averts friction.
Allowable Weaknesses: indecisive in crunch situations.

Implementer

Needed to plan a workable strategy and carry it out as efficiently as possible.

Contribution: disciplined, reliable, conservative and efficient. Turns ideas into practical actions.
Allowable Weaknesses: somewhat inflexible. Slow to respond to new possibilities.

Completer Finisher

Most effectively used at the end of tasks to polish and scrutinize the work for errors, subjecting it to the highest standards of quality control.

Contribution: painstaking, conscientious, anxious. Searches out errors and omissions. Delivers on time.
Allowable Weaknesses: inclined to worry unduly. Reluctant to delegate.

Specialist

Brings in-depth knowledge of a key area to the team.

Contribution: single-minded, self-starting, dedicated. Provides knowledge and skills in rare supply.
Allowable Weaknesses: contributes on only a narrow front. Dwells on technicalities.

What do we do?

Provide individual Belbin Team Role Reports, either as Full Service or DIY; for those needing a high volume of reports, we offer an Extranet Package that includes the first 200 reports
Offer team reports and team mapping to put the individual reports in a more useful context
Host Belbin workshops and webinars so you can maximize use of Belbin in your organization

Find Out More

Want to Find Out More?

Just give us a shout and we’re happy to answer your questions.