The document discusses various team roles and dynamics essential for effective teamwork, citing research by Kenneth Benne, Paul Sheats, and Meredith Belbin. It outlines specific roles in teams, including task-focused, individual-focused, and overarching roles that contribute to a successful team environment. The findings emphasize the importance of a balanced mix of personalities and roles to enhance team coordination, creativity, and productivity.

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Team Roles
Teambuilding
MTL Course Topics
Team Roles
TEAMBUILDING

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Team Roles
Teambuilding
MTL Course Topics
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Teambuilding
MTL Course Topics
ARE YOU READY?
OK, LET’S START!

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Team Roles
Teambuilding
MTL Course Topics
INTRODUCTION
There have been many attempts to identify the ingredients
of winning teams by listing the roles and functions that
contribute to a successful team. Some researchers put
labels on what team members do in the team; others
suggest that winning teams need a special blend of
personality types. No single model can be copied and
ensure success; teamwork is not a scientific undertaking.
But the models do help us understand the need for a range
of varying, opposing and complementary team behaviours.

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Teambuilding
MTL Course Topics
ROLES IN THE TEAM
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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Teambuilding
MTL Course Topics
TEAM ROLES
In their research, Kenneth Benne and Paul Sheats identified
seven team-focused roles:
1. the encourager, who supports others through both verbal
and non-verbal signals
2. the harmoniser, who smooths conflicts and seeks a team-
unifying path
3. the compromiser, who finds ways to satisfy opposite
points of view
4. the communicator, who keeps in touch with all the team
members, collecting and giving information
5. the standard-setter, who reminds everyone of the
importance of high workmanship
6. the commentator, who offers insight into what is going on
so that people can make informed decisions
7. the follower, who is willing to do some of the hard work
that needs to be done.

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Teambuilding
MTL Course Topics
INDIVIDUAL ROLES
In their research, Kenneth Benne and Paul Sheats identified
eight individual-focused roles in effective teams:
1. the aggressor, who uses the team to vent personal anger
2. the blocker, who holds back the team
3. the self-confessor, who uses the team to air personal
confessions
4. the recognition-seeker, who wants the rest of the team to
admire his or her efforts
5. the playboy, who wants the team to support his or her
personal adventures and risks
6. the dominator, who seeks to bend the team to their will
7. the help-seeker, who comes to the rest of the team for
help
8. the special interest pleader, who wants the backing of the
team for their own particular ideas.

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Teambuilding
MTL Course Topics
TASK ROLES
In their research, Kenneth Benne and Paul Sheats identified
twelve task-focused roles of effective teams:
1. the co-ordinator, who brings everyone's ideas together
2. the orienteer, who brings people back to the job
3. the critic, who picks holes in ideas
4. the energiser, who is keen to get everyone working
5. the procedure-explainer, who knows how jobs should be
done
6. the recorder, who checks what the team agree.
7. the initiator, who proposes new ideas
8. the information-seeker and 9. the information-giver, who
exchange information
10. the opinion-seeker and 11. the opinion-giver, who
exchange views
12. the elaborator, who spends time explaining the details of
the task.

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THE BEST TEAMS
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.
When this happened, he had found his "dream team".

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Teambuilding
MTL Course Topics
THE DREAM TEAM
Meredith Belbin's research into the best roles in an effective
team produced a dream team that scored high on personal
satisfaction and task accomplishment, ie they delivered a
product or service as required by the customer and they
each derived a high level of satisfaction from working
together.
The nine roles are:
1. a chair who co-ordinates
2. a team worker who ensures healthy team relationships
3. a company worker who gets the jobs done
4. an innovator responsible for new ideas
5. a monitor-evaluator to check and double-check
6. a completer to bring the task in on time
7. a shaper to push the team on
8. a resource-investigator to find out the best way to work
9. a specialist with expertise

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A CHEMISTRY OF ROLES
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 are:
1. the co-ordinating role
2. the go-fer role
3. the relationship role
4. the creative role
5. the observer role
6. the checking role
7. the moral role
8. the winner role
9. the leader role

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THE CO-ORDINATING ROLE
Research has shown that a key ingredient of successful
teams is the presence of someone whose main job is to find
team harmony by co-ordinating everyone's efforts.
Also known as: linker; chair; coordinator.
Functions: This role may take the chair unwillingly since he
or she does not like to dominate the team. He or she acts as
an impartial observer to what goes on in the team for much
of the time, but has the knack of getting on well with
everyone and being trusted.
Characteristics: self-effacing; laid-back; gentle; non-forceful;
seeker of acceptable solutions; compromiser; calm in the
face of problems; a peacemaker; prone to social distance;
well-liked.
Good at...finding solutions that please everyone.
Not so good at...volunteering to do work him or herself.

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THE GO-FER ROLE
The team "go-fer" is the person who happily "goes for this"
and "goes for that". Without him or her, many of the nitty-
gritty jobs wouldn't get done.
Also known as: networker; team worker; organiser.
Functions: The person who is team go-fer makes it their
business to get involved at all stages of teamwork,
organising team meetings, distributing mail, fetching and
carrying, conveying messages, reporting back. They are
almost never still. They are the ones who rush to the
outside phone in the middle of team meetings.
Characteristics: high energy; restless; talkative; excitable;
versatile; thrive on a queue of jobs; enjoy botched jobs so
they can do them again.
Good at...volunteering to do any job that the team needs
done.
Not so good at...careful, slow or thoughtful work.

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Teambuilding
MTL Course Topics
THE RELATIONSHIP ROLE
Without someone carrying out the relationship role, the
team can be cold, formal and task-obsessed. This person
brings an immediate warmth to the way the team feels.
Also known as: the team worker; upholder; maintainer;
carer.
Functions: The person who gravitates to the relationship
role wants everyone in the team to have a good time. They
may be matchmakers and can instinctively feel who in the
team will get on with whom. They work hard to create
pleasant atmospheres whenever the team meets.
Characteristics: warm; friendly; caring; welcoming; easy to
talk to; sympathetic; compassionate.
Good at...putting people at ease.
Not so good at...logical, original or purposeful thinking.

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Teambuilding
MTL Course Topics
THE CREATIVE ROLE
It is important that the team has someone in its ranks who is
not afraid to swim against the time, question what everyone
else wants and come up with creative ideas of their own.
Also known as: innovator; plant; creator; maverick
Functions: Can play Devil's Advocate to the rest of the team
by putting a different point of view from everyone else.
Revels in being seen as different and difficult and has
confidence in the importance of his or her own point of
view. Is a valuable person to prevent the team from
groupthink.
Characteristics: innovative; awkward; artistic; original;
sensitive; creative; novel; revolutionary; rarely if ever
embarrassed; a desire to be special.
Good at...putting a different point of view
Not so good at...following rules.

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Teambuilding
MTL Course Topics
THE OBSERVER ROLE
The person who fills the observer role is the team's eyes and
ears. They see the big picture, know what's going on at any
time and who said what to whom.
Also known as: explorer; promoter; resource-investigator;
observer; onlooker.
Functions: The observer offers the team unique insights into
where it is and where it is going. Their natural skill is to be
able to see everything, weigh it up and explain it to the rest
of the team.
Characteristics: watchful; reserved; curious; interested;
informed; self-controlled; prefer to volunteer others than
volunteer themselves.
Good at...collecting, using and interpreting what they see
and hear.
Not so good at...self-starting action.

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MTL Course Topics
THE CHECKER ROLE
When teams meet to discuss work plans, it is easy to get
swept away by the euphoria of new ideas. The checker is a
valuable member of the team to pour cold water on
excessive ambitions.
Also known as: controller; inspector; monitor-evaluator.
Functions: The person who checks is also likely to double-
check. By nature cautious, they don't trust their eyes and
will want to probe further than most. They ask questions a
lot at team meetings. Once they are assured of a safe
solution, they will follow procedures assiduously and
obediently.
Characteristics: careful; shrewd; serious; worriers;
calculators; loyal; dutiful; obedient.
Good at...making sure things are safe.
Not so good at...taking risks.

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Teambuilding
MTL Course Topics
THE MORALIST ROLE
Those who fill the "moral" role in teams provide the team
with its rules and laws, its "musts" and "shoulds". They add
a serious tone to teamwork and a framework for how jobs
ought to be done correctly.
Also known as: reporter; advisor; judge; critic.
Functions: The person who brings the moral role to the
team will point out the right way for the team to advance.
They are likely to criticise others, particularly the team
leader, if things don't go according to plan. They set their
own pace, have high standards, and believe themselves
examples to the rest of the team.
Characteristics: serious; perfectionist; opinionated;
censorious; sticklers for routine..
Good at…suggesting how things should be done.
Not so good at...enjoying the pleasures of teamwork.

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THE WINNER ROLE
Winners are natural stars of whatever team they belong to.
They see the team as a means for them to do well. In
studies of team roles, 27% of chief executives played the
winning role.
Also known as: completer; finisher; producer; achiever;
concluder.
Functions: The person in the winning role wants to be
successful. He or she can achieve this by producing
successful work on their own or as part of the team. They
have an instinct for making their work look good.
Characteristics: positive; up-beat; good at appearances;
attractive; charismatic; charming; quick to fit in; good at
networking; hard-working.
Good at...taking on any team task and doing it well
Not so good at...handling difficult, low-profile or complex
work.

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MTL Course Topics
THE LEADER ROLE
The person in the leader role is a leader by personality not
necessarily by appointment. If the official leader and the
person taking on the leader role work together, there is a
powerful team combination.
Also known as: thruster; organiser (of others); shaper.
Functions: The person in the leader role has the strength
and forcefulness to tackle any team task. They have a
natural ability to get others to do what they want. Their
forcefulness makes them a focal point in any team.
Characteristics: strong; dominant; self-confident; likes to
control; opinionated; fiery; argumentative; roused by
anything unfair; dynamic; loud.
Good at...getting others to do what they want.
Not so good at...sensitivity to others' weakness or pain.

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Teambuilding
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COMING TOGETHER
According to research, outstanding teams have...
1. a good co-ordinator and a good creative team player
2. a spread of mental abilities
3. a range of personalities to cover each team role
4. an awareness of what team role is missing and extra
effort to supply it.
5. Similarly, outstanding team players...
6. put team before self
7. are aware of the strengths of their own role and the
contributions of others
8. adjust their own role to fit in with others.
Models for role adaptation come from the animal world.
Ants, for example, have an enormous range of specialist
trades and can adapt in a crisis to new roles. The honey bee
goes through 14 different roles in its life cycle.

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Teambuilding
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ROLE FIT
The following account of a fictitious team
meeting shows how each of the team roles fits
in with each other.
Christopher (co-ordinator): We need some
ideas on where the new computers are to go.
It's been suggested that one stays with Angela
and the rest go in the main office. Any
thoughts?
Richard (leader): I'm strongly against that.
Leaving them in the main office is against the
whole point of the system. It's just not fair!
Alan (relationship): Steady on. Nothing's been
agreed yet. When I spoke to Angela, she didn't
see the need to have one but everyone else I've
heard thinks she should. Why don't we talk to
the specialists?
Ann (organising): I can do that this afternoon, if
you like. They've got this new programme that's
amazing and could be just right for us...
Sharon (checker): Hang on, Ann. We don't have
any money for extra programmes. We'd need to
check it out with Angela first.
Christopher...so it's back to where to put the
terminals. Sue, what do you think?
Sue (moralist): The best locations are Mike,
Angela and Sharon's desks. If you think about it,
they're the ones that really will use them most.
That's the right thing to do.
Mike (creative): I've an even better idea. Why
don't we convert them into network laptops.
Then we can all use them whenever we want.
Maureen (observer): I can see what you're
saying, but I know for certain Angela wouldn't
wear that. I know Bill suggested the same idea
last week and she turned it down flat.
Phil (winner): I've got a friend who works on
computer installations. I can get him to call in
and give us some ideas for free.

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Teambuilding
MTL Course Topics
THAT’S
IT!
WELL DONE!

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Teambuilding
MTL Course Topics
THANK YOU
This has been a Slide Topic from Manage Train Learn