Belbin Team-roles were conceived by
Dr Meredith Belbin. They are a personality classification style, and can be used as an alternative to the
Myers-Briggs Type Indicators. They apply directly to work, and styles of working, and are less useful than
MBTI as generic personality descriptors. On the other hand, Belbin not only classifies working styles, he also considers the kind of styles which will combine well together to create a strong team. For this reason I find the analysis more satisfying than
MBTI, at least in a work context. Another strong advantage of the Belbin classification style is the acknowledgement that with any great strength there will normally be a matching weakness: Belbin claims that these are ok, as long as other team members can compensate.
The nine team roles are:
- Plant
- A strongly creative person
- Coordinator
- Enables other people to perform at their best
- Monitor Evaluator
- A good critic
- Implementer
- Someone who actually gets things done
- Completer Finisher
- The classic anal retentive detail monster
- Resource Investigator
- Someone imaginative and enthusiastic, one who spends a lot of time doing lunches with very senior people
- Shaper
- Gets other people to get things done. The slavedriver
- Teamworker
- The peacemaker, gets on well with everyone
- Specialist
- Deeply technical, a great problem-solver
You can read more about the types at http://www.belbin.com/. You can also take online assessment there, but unfortunately you have to pay for it!