Belbin Project Management Roles are 9 roles defined by Dr Raymond Meredith Belbin, a UK researcher, and Management Consultant.
Plants
Plants are independent, clever and original. However, they are often weak in ‘connecting’ with other people – weak in communication.
Plants are often innovators and inventors and can be highly creative. They like to work on their own and often react badly to criticism. Their ideas can be radical, but may lack pragmatism.
Plants are often very useful at the beginning of a project when creativity and thinking ‘out of the box’ is required.
Resource Investigators
Resource Investigators are usually extroverts. They are enthusiastic and good at communicating – and are therefore often liked by peers. As the name suggests they are good at investigating possibilities – exploring and reporting back. However, unless they are stimulated, their enthusiasm wanes.
MonitorEvaluator
Monitor Evaluators are serious-minded people and prudent individuals. They are slow in decision making because they like to be thorough in their analysis. Usually they have high critical thinking ability. They are very rarely enthusiastic!
In a project they are very good at analysing and evaluating ideas – weighing up the pros and cons of options. They can often come across as over-critical.
Co-ordinators
As the name suggests these people are able to get others to work towards shared goals; to work collaboratively. They are not necessarily the cleverest members of the team, but they see the ‘big picture’. They are mature, confident and trusting individuals with a broad outlook and generally command the respect of the team.
Co-ordinators make excellent team leaders or Project Managers – particularly on complex projects with diverse skills and personalities.
Shapers
Shapers are highly motivated people, and have a great need for achievement. To be focused on winning is their key objective – as such they make good leaders. They thrive under pressure. They can be strong extroverts and possess strong drive. They can lack interpersonal sensitivities.
As the name implies, Shapers try to impose some shape into activities and discussions. Because of their high drive, they are highly effective members of a team in making things happen – action.
Implementers
Implementers are practical and possess good common sense. They are strong on self-control and discipline, and tackle problems in a planned and systematic way. Typically, this person shows high loyalty to the team (and company) and is less concerned on issues of self-interest.
Implementers are highly useful in a project team because of their reliability and dependability. They favour hard work. The implementer isn’t picky about the task that he undertakes – he is focused on what needs to be done to complete the job. Implementers often rise to senior roles (i.e. project executives, programme managers and senior management positions) because of their competency in tackling all necessary tasks.
Team workers
Team workers are the essence of the team – they are the most supportive members of the project team.
They show flexibility and adapt well to different situations and different people. They are perceptive and diplomatic. They tend to be popular members of the team and are good listeners.
Their drawback can be indecision – particularly in pressurised situations.
They play an important role in preventing interpersonal problems arising. Morale is better and people work better together when Team workers are around.
CompleterFinishers
Completer Finishers are good at paying attention to detail and following through work activities. They will not embark on a task unless they are confident they can finish it. They hate delegating; preferring to tackle all tasks themselves. They are often anxious on the inside but portray a calm exterior.
Completer Finishers are invaluable on project tasks that require a close attention to detail and high levels of accuracy. They also foster a good attitude within the project team towards meeting schedules.
Specialists
Specialists pride themselves in acquiring specialist skills or specialist knowledge – often technical skills. They show great pride in their subject area and usually lack interest in other areas. They become the expert by sheer commitment in a narrow field.
Although they are not very good at working collaboratively, they play an important role by providing rare skills. They are likely to be the person in the team (and maybe even in the organisation) who knows more about their subject than anyone else. They are called upon to bring their in-depth experience to a project.
For more information visit: The Nine Belbin Team Roles