Team Roles: How to Create a Balanced Team

Team roles are the distinct duties and functions of each member of a team, defined by individual characteristics such as intellectual capabilities, personal strengths, and behavior. There are several classification methods, including the theory pioneered by Dr. Meredith Belbin at Henley Business School. In this theory, Belbin’s team roles were categorized into nine specific archetypes: team worker, monitor evaluator, resource investigator, coordinator, plant, specialist, shaper, implementer, and completer-finisher.

Assessing individual strengths allows you to build the best team possible for the desired objective. One team member may work quickly, while another has an eye for detail. Team dynamics can become unbalanced when team members have similar strengths or weaknesses. A healthy, balanced group contains various team roles and encourages the natural abilities of each team member.

The primary information you need to determine team roles is to identify each team member’s typical behaviors and personal strengths. You can achieve this through questionnaires, group discussions, or one-on-one interviews focused on self-assessment. Encourage team members to be honest about their strengths and weaknesses, and include areas where they’d like to improve.

This list includes different roles from multiple team role theories. There may be a crossover between some roles in terms of their contributions to team success.

1. 1. Challenger: This team member questions everything to narrow down a group of ideas into the optimum solution or action to take. A challenger is the devil’s advocate of the team, weeding out hidden issues in otherwise unexamined ideas.
2. 2. Coach: This leadership role involves providing one-on-one assistance to team members, especially concerning specific tasks or learning new skills. Learn more about different leadership styles.
3. 3. Completer-finisher: This member is the detail-oriented perfectionist of your group. Though they may be introverted, their desire for excellence pushes the rest of the team to aim toward quality.
4. 4. Coordinator: A coordinator is the extroverted team connector, a leader capable of communicating information between multiple team members to promote collaboration and motivation.
5. 5. Critic: Like a challenger, a critic is skilled at examining all sides of an idea before making a final choice. They are critical thinkers and encourage the team to view all topic perspectives under discussion. Learn more about critical thinking.
6. 6. Doer: Doers are proactive and enjoy completing tasks assigned by the team leader. Doers have no problem asking for help when they need it.
7. 7. Implementer: An implementer is action-oriented but pragmatic and, above all else, disciplined. An implementer’s calm stability when approaching tasks makes them a good role model for the rest of the team.
8. 8. Initiator: This team member is a vocal contributor when it comes to sharing opinions. They provoke conversation at team meetings and encourage examination of all possibilities when decision-making. Learn more about decision-making styles.
9. 9. Monitor-evaluator: The monitor-evaluator is most useful when assessing the value of a particular idea and then putting the idea into motion. Analytical and level-headed, their objectivity makes them excellent at problem-solving.
10. 10. Plant: The plant of your team is a creative thinker with bold ideas who may want to work alone on their ideas before presenting them to the rest of the group. Though they may not be the most vocal member of the team, they provide worthwhile innovation.
11. 11. Resource investigator: The resource investigator is a people-person who’s most interested in growth and exploring new ideas. They’re great networkers and are an excellent resource when you want to expand your business or vision.
12. 12. Shaper: Shapers are natural leaders and facilitators best used in team management. They keep your team on track to reach team goals and are quick problem-solvers.
13. 13. Specialist: A specialist is a thought-oriented role, providing specific knowledge of one particular area.
14. 14. Team worker: A team worker is an extrovert who works well with others. They improve team performance by being mutable and easy-going, adapting to challenges in the work environment, and keeping the peace in times of stress.
15. 15. Thinker: This logic-oriented team member is an expert idea generator, organizer, and problem-solver, excellent at breaking down a plan into components and actions.

Depending on your objectives for team-building, you may find the balance you need requires more or less of a particular energy or skill set. Follow these steps to achieve a balanced team:

1. 1. Identify strengths. The first step is assessing your team’s strengths and weaknesses through a questionnaire, self-perception inventory, group discussion, or one-on-one meetings. This assessment will give you a starting point for assembling your team from individual roles.
2. 2. Assess the balance of team roles. Avoid assigning multiple members with similar strengths to the same team, as conflict can arise. If you find your team is missing specific roles (for example, it needs a creative thinker to generate ideas or a detail-oriented person to monitor quality), make adjustments. You may also find that a single team member can fill multiple team roles.
3. 3. Review and adjust team roles regularly. Observe the group’s performance at team tasks and how well the members get along. You may find areas of conflict or that a team member has learned a new skill set. Assess the group regularly to evaluate progress and adjust accordingly.

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