What makes a team successful?

Put the right person in the right place.

And if you then create a diverse team with different team roles, then let those team members do what they are good at. In a football match you wouldn’t use your goalie as a striker, would you? A team is successful through the collaboration of different team roles because they supplement each other. By having a keen eye for the different talents within the team and having their different tasks align with their qualities, you can make the most efficient use of the differences.

Every person is authentic in 2 to 3 roles.

Belbin discovered 9 different team roles and concluded that, based on their unique personality, everyone has two to three team roles that suit them. What role you utilise depends on the situation you find yourself in. These two to three authentic roles come fairly effortlessly, they’re performed naturally. The other six team roles cost more energy and feel unnatural. And yet, Belbin discovered that team members would sometimes take on those roles. He referred to this as “role sacrifice”. (More about each role > in the next article).

Belbin concluded that if people work in a team, they have three types of roles within that team:

Professional role – A person’s expertise within a specific area. E.g. sales or finance.

Organisational role – A person’s position in the organisation and the duties and responsibilities that come with that position. E.g. assistant or director.

Personality role – This is the team role that Belbin’s model is all about, the characterising way in which someone behaves, makes their contribution, and interacts with others. E.g. Shaper and Team-worker.