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01/29/08 | Report as spam
Belbin's Team Role Inventory
A useful model also to understand different roles people play in teams is M. Belbin's Team Role Inventory. Belbin describes 8 roles people play, which are much like the ones described in the article: Information Seeker, Plant, Completer-Finisher, Coordinator, Shaper, Monitor/Evaluator, Team Worker, Applier. Belbin maintains that people predominantly play only a few of these roles, which they assume as they grow. Belbin's questionnaire is available on site and I have used it on the MBA Leadership classes I teach across Europe; the instrument is 95%reliable with a margin of error of 2-5 %. The usefulness of the model however is that a manager can use it to find out not only how to build a team out of different personalities but also to find out about himself or herself and then decide whether on a particular occasion he/she should assume a different role from the ones he/she assumes most of the times. Apparently, self-awareness of people of the roles they play can help them adjust to roles useful for their teams.
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03/14/08 | Report as spam
Team roles
In addition to Belbin, the Team Management Profile (www.tmsdi.com) is also a really useful feedback tool exploring preferences at work. The profile provides you with one of 8 roles and the quality of these reports from just 60 questions is amazing. It also has got the backing of the BPS. I've used the tools in team events, coaching sessions and leadership events and it has always gone down really well.
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01/30/08 | Report as spam
RE: Key Team Personality Types
Know and have worked with too many people who would place themselves in the The Agitator classification and use this as justification for their actions.
Unfortunately while they see themselves as leaders (although more often than not this is a level of trust they rarely do achieve) they fall in the destroyers classification as they build no value and pull down all that is around them before moving on to do the same again eleswhere.
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01/30/08 | Report as spam
A must in every company
It's important to mention that the lack of any of these roles completely unbalances a company. No company can survive without having all of them in key positions. It provides rythm to the business.
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01/30/08 | Report as spam
RE: Key Team Personality Types
What do I think? I think I am extremely tired of these paradigms that perpetuate the myth that people can be pigeon-holed into one personality type all the time.
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01/30/08 | Report as spam
Pigeonholing and its Dangers
I agree wholeheartedly with you that pigeonholing people can be detrimental to the team.
But compartmentalizing team members is done on a constant basis and usually in simpler terms than these, such as who is leadership material and who is not.
I think that what taxonomies like this one offer is a variety of ways to think of peoples' contributions to the team. They also can prove useful in getting an idea for people's motivations and how to plug into them. But I think they should be used loosely, not as some kind of final word.
That having been said, I'm proud to say that I'm a Wild Card.
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01/30/08 | Report as spam
often mis-used
It's been my experience that the danger is "typing" people is that it becomes an excuse for bad behavior. When used correctly understanding temperment can help manager put together a very well balanced team. People tend to lose site though, that is is a preference not a skill . . .
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01/30/08 | Report as spam
RE: Often Mis-used
As with any instrument, you need to use it properly. Something like this can deepen management and team members appreciation of each others' "quirks" and make them sit up and listen. Misused it can pigeon-hole people and lead to dismissiveness on the part of other team members. Comments like "Oh, you're just an agitator" come to mind. There is a difference between use and misuse.
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01/30/08 | Report as spam
RE: Key Team Personality Types
A pitfall for using those models is that people tend to classify a person in one, and only one, of those categories.. We could be combination of all those with different degrees, or even with different degrees in different situations or jobs or projects.. etc
Honestly I disregard those techniques more and more-- as they tend to be used against the others on the team rather than used for better communicating with others. Which to me is a team damaging practice rather than building practice..
Just my 2 cents..
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01/30/08 | Report as spam
Falling Into More Than One "Type"
True that people are more complex and less predictable than a classification like this suggests.
I hope the savvy manager treats these as a start of the process of understanding team members and not a blueprint.
I would also personally not make classifications like this a part of the discussion with team members. Not only do people not like being classified, especially if it's not how they see themselves, but I think others are right that it creates divisions where they needn't be and justifications for all manner of behavior.
I think it really is just a way for managers to begin thinking about the complexity of team members' contributions in their own head.
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03/14/08 | Report as spam
Reply
Certain people do possess more than one quality as they contribute to the group in various aspects. But, these roles should not be disregarded for this reason. Just because the roles are separated into different categories does not mean that one person cannot fill more than one of the roles at a time.
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03/24/08 | Report as spam
reply
I agree with what you said because teams don't always fit these categories word for word and a lot of times it is a combination of multiple categories as well as attributes that are not listed here.
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03/25/08 | Report as spam
We agree
We believe that is a factual statement. You cannot just say someone fits into a category every time. The way people act and are change from project to project.
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03/16/08 | Report as spam
RE: Key Team Personality Types
Strength : your ability to tap on your latent talent and add value to your job
Weaknessess : need to identify them and work on them to improve. it should be viewed as an opportunity for continuous improvement.
Weapon: Skills, tacit knowledge that need to capitalise and translate into actions... Unleash key potentials..
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03/24/08 | Report as spam
Personality Types
We feel that this personality mix, is maybe not the best way to describe out team. Though each point has a place for a team memeber, you can't really place just one person in each catagory.
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06/02/08 | Report as spam
Question
For the Agitator, how can impatience be considered a weapon? To me, impatience has always been a weakness, not a weapon.
TCB
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09/02/08 | Report as spam
RE: Key Team Personality Types
It is easy to see impatience as a weapon - while everyone else is arguing about the detail, the impatience in the agitator pushes forth the notion that it's time to start doing rather than just talking about it. Impatience pushes inactivity out the door.
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09/05/08 | Report as spam
RE: Key Team Personality Types
All valid comments. A few thoughts, pideonhole or not people do exhibit patterns of behavior. Any model or construct can be misused based on lack of understanding or manipulative intent. I am not sure the term "weapon" is appropriate. Team members are sometimes competitive enough as it is. We don't want "war" to erupt.
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09/05/08 | Report as spam
RE: Key Team Personality Types
I would say these profiles describe roles or modes of working more than they describe individual "people". As with De Bono's Six Thinking Hats of Decision Making, each team member should be capable of putting on different hats depending on what they are working on and where the project is at.
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04/01/09 | Report as spam
especially if it's not how they see themselves, but I think others are right that it creates divisions where they needn't be and justifications for all manner of behavior.
