Their assertive and outgoing nature may grate on other personalities, and they can be prone to conflict if someone disagrees with their plans. Whilst there are many benefits to the shaper personality type, these individuals can sometimes become aggressive in their drive to get things done. They tend to be very driven and are often competitive, finding that pressure only makes them work harder. Shapers tend to be outgoing and extroverted individuals who find it easy to interact with other people and have no problem expressing their thoughts and feelings. They are spurred on by challenges and enjoy discovering different ways to overcome obstacles, always bringing a positive attitude to difficult situations. They are one of the most useful of Belbin’s personality types to have on a team, as they provide the necessary drive to keep up the momentum of a project and ensure that deadlines are met.Ī shaper always has a project’s objectives in sight and motivates their fellow team members to reach these. The shaper is the team member who drives everyone forwards. What are the 9 Belbin Team Roles?Īs well as identifying that there were nine key roles that people fall into when working in a team, Belbin’s theory also sorted these roles into three different categories depending on their focus action-oriented roles, people-orientated roles and thought-orientated roles. The practical applications of this theory were explained in more detail in the 1993 book “Team Roles at Work”, which established the theory as one of the most important in team management. In 1981, Belbin published a management book titled “Management Teams: Why They Succeed or Fail” that proposed that there are nine different personality types that can be identified in any team, each falling under one of three categories depending on their primary strengths.

After an extensive research project studying management teams at what is now Henley Business School, Belbin and a team of other experts from a range of backgrounds formed the basis of the theory of team roles.

What is Belbin’s Theory?ĭr Meridith Belbin is a British psychologist and researcher whose early work focused on observing group and individual behaviour in the workplace.

In this article, we explain each of Belbin's nine team roles, what these individuals are like and what their strengths and potential weaknesses are when working in a team. When it comes to managing a team, it can be incredibly useful to know what kinds of personality types you are working with so that you understand how best to delegate tasks and interact with each member. One of these is Belbin's theory of team roles, which posits that there are nine different types of people who all have a unique role when working in a group. When it comes to understanding group behaviour, there is a wide range of different models out there that explain how different personality types work as part of a team.

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