Team Roles

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MTL: The Professional Development Programme
Team Roles
TEAM ROLES
What’s your preferred team role?

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Team Roles
Attribution: All images are from sources where a Creative Commons license exists for commercial use. All icons are on subscription
from thenounproject. All clipart is from free sources. The MTL Professional Development Programme is copyright of Manage Train
Learn.
Team
Roles
Introduction: Why is it that some groups of people perform at a phenomenal level and are always on
the winner’s stand, while other groups always struggle to make it? The answer lies in how people
perform their team roles. When you allocate the right team role to the right team player, and ensure
that your players are flexible enough to cover all the roles that the team needs, then winning becomes
inevitable. Here are the 9 team roles that all successful teams need.

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Team Roles
Why Your Team Role and Job RoleAre Not the Same
Your team role is the part you play in the way the
team interacts with one another. Most people
join teams in technical or specialist jobs rather
than in team roles. Their effectiveness is,
however, likely to be due to how well they play
their team role.
The team role is either a question of intuitively
fitting in to a gap in the team - which may mean
adopting a role which runs counter to your
natural inclination - or securing the team role
that fits your personality and getting others to
adapt to you.
Research into the roles that successful teams
need has been carried out by Kenneth Benne and
Paul Sheats, R. F. Bales, and Meredith Belbin.

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Team Roles
Why the Most Intelligent TeamsAren’t the Best
Meredith Belbin carried out work with management
training teams to find the best mix of roles in
successful management teams (ie achieving a high
level of member satisfaction as well as doing the job
to a high standard).
To his initial surprise, Belbin found that teams of
highly intelligent managers, - what he called "Apollo"
teams, - consistently produced poor results. By
measuring managers on personality ratings, Belbin
tested different combinations of people with
different personalities until he found a mix of roles
that produced regularly high scores.
The various research into team roles suggests that
there are some nine characteristics that need to be
present for teams to work consistently well together.
These roles may be allocated to different individuals
based on how well they are personally suited to
these roles; or these functions may be carried out by
members of the team regardless of their own
preferences but because they need to be done.
The nine roles in Belbin’s mix are based on the
model of personality types known as the
Enneagram.

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Team Roles
1. THE CO-
ORDINATOR
Research has shown that all great teams need
someone whose main job is to co-ordinate all the
team’s activities. This person may or may not be
the official team leader. They are like the team’s
compass, a quiet point in the middle of activity.
People gravitate towards the co-ordinator to get
their bearings and re-fuel.
John Howard co-ordinating his troops
Flickr attribution: /dfataustralianaid/10674837835/

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Team Roles
2. THE GO-FER
The team “go-fer” is the person who happily
“goes for this” and “goes for that”. He or she is
perfectly happy to do all the nitty-gritty jobs that
nobody else wants to do and without which
things would soon break down. Always highly
energetic, the Go-fer doesn’t mind what they
have to do. They even enjoy botched jobs just for
the pleasure of re-doing them!
If I hurry, I can kill two birds with one stone
Flickr attribution: /peronimo/15124270228/

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Team Roles
3. THE
RELATER
If you don’t have a Relater on your team, team
life quickly becomes cold and formal. The team
Relater is the team’s people person. They want
everyone in the team to enjoy themselves. With
a sixth sense that tells them when someone is
not happy, one of their natural gifts is acting as
the team matchmaker as they instinctively know
who will work well with whom.
So what did he do next?
Flickr attribution: /sicamp/4077389615/

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Team Roles
4. THE
MAVERICK
The Maverick is not a natural team player but is
still essential to the good health of the team.
That’s because the Maverick is the person who is
not afraid to swim against the tide. He or she
doesn’t care if they are in a minority of one even
when everyone else takes a different stand from
them. Such a role is an invaluable defence
against groupthink, the tendency of the team to
think as one.
(Mavericks love the thrill of being different from
other people. They try out new ways just for the
emotional experience of what it feels like to be
noticed. This is a picture of one person walking
against the flow outside Shinagawa railway
station, Tokyo.)
They can’t stop me doing it my way
Flickr attribution: /adforce1/4127701722/

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Team Roles
5. THE
OBSERVER
The Observer is the team’s eyes and ears. They
see the big picture, know what’s going on, and
can foresee problems before they arise. Often
team Observers are gatekeepers, possibly
receptionists, secretaries, or security personnel.
They not only know the official version of events,
but the unofficial as well.
Now I wonder where she’s off to
Flickr attribution: /digitalartberlin/7154988567/

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Team Roles
6. THE
CHECKER
Checkers are people who like things to be done
in an orderly fashion. When others in the team
run away with ideas, the Checker will always call
them back to dot the I’s and cross the T’s. By
nature cautious and suspicious, Checkers always
search for the safest route for the team to travel.
We’ll keep you safe
Flickr attribution: /44534236@N00/5355768753/

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Team Roles
7. THE
MORALIST
Those who fill the “moral” role in teams provide
the team with its rules and standards, its musts
and shoulds. They are the standard bearers for
the right way for the team to proceed. They hate
it when others break the rules and insist that the
team should act according to plan including a
high standard of performance.
This is how it’s got to be done
Flickr attribution: /imagesbywestfall/4333774018/

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Team Roles
8. THE
WINNER
Winners are the team's stars. They have an
instinct for promoting the team and themselves.
When others on the team feel down, Winners
gee them up. And when the team face tough
assignments, they either put themselves forward
as the team’s champion or rally the team to
motivate themselves to new heights.
The look of a champion
Flickr attribution: /44333718@N05/4177479296/

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Team Roles
9. THE
LEADER
The Leader role is not always filled by the official
team leader. The Leader is a leader by
personality and nature. He or she is often the
most dominant person in the group and
invariably the most confident and most fearless.
They can get others to do anything for them
which is why official team leaders need these
people on their side and not against them.
I know the way, follow me
Flickr attribution: /hamed/327939900/

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Team Roles
This has been a Slide Topic from Manage Train Learn
AFinal
Word
When you have a team in which there is an equal mix of all of these 9 roles, it’s like belonging to a
Dream Team. Everyone’s needs are met and the balance of roles ensures that the team moves
forward and fulfils its potential.

Team Roles

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