My Belbin results – Part 1
At the JISC infoNet quarterly planning meeting on Tuesday we got our Belbin feedback. For those who don’t know what that is (which would have included me until recently), go and read the Wikipedia article.
I’m not a huge fan of being pigeon-holed, but I found the results interesting nevertheless. I’ve only got a paper version of the results at the moment and, given it’s copyrighted material, I’m just going to share edited highlights. 🙂
There are nine defined roles with the Belbin process, the characteristics of which an individual is judged to exemplify to a greater or lesser extent. These are:
- Plant – Creative, imaginative, unorthodox. Solves difficult problems. Ignores incidentals. Too pre-occupied with own thoughts to communicate effectively.
- Resource Investigator – Extrovert, enthusiastic, communicative. Explores opportunities. Develops contacts. Over-optimistic. Can lose interest once initial enthusiasm has passed.
- Co-ordinator – Mature, confident. Clarifies goals. Brings other people together to promote team discussions. Can be seen as manipulative. Offloads personal work.
- Shaper – Challenging, dynamic, thrives on pressure. Has the drive and courage to overcome obstacles. Prone to provocation. Liable to offend others.
- Monitor Evaluator – Serious minded, strategic and discerning. Sees all options. Judges accurately. Can lack drive and ability to inspire others.
- Teamworker – Co-operative, mild, perceptive and diplomatic. Listens, builds, averts friction. Indecisive in crunch situations.
- Implementer – Disciplined, reliable, conservative in habits. A capacity for taking practical steps and actions. Somewhat inflexible. Slow to respond to new possibilities.
- Completer Finisher – Painstaking, conscientious, anxious. Searches out errors and omissions. Delivers on time. Inclined to worry unduly. Reluctant to let others into own job.
- Specialist – Single-minded, self-starting, dedicated. Provides knowledge and skills in rare supply. Contributes on only a limited front. Dwells on specialised personal interest.
For those who know me (either wholly through my work online or in person) I’d be interested in you participating in a little experiment:
If YOU had to choose three of these roles to describe me, which would you choose? Why?
(for a ‘Brucey bonus’ list some keywords you’d use to describe me)
I’ll share the keywords and roles my colleagues think fit me best in a forthcoming post. 😀
3 7 8 ; )
OK, some remedial work needing to be done there… ;-)
Tough to call. General boxes with various positive & negative traits that surely don’t fit all perspectives. I’m not a big fan of pigeon-holing either.
But since you asked, I won’t pass. From online perception alone, if pushed to choose three of those options, I’ll suggest ‘Co-ordinator’, ‘Monitor Evaluator’ and ‘Specialist’.
Excellent. Just goes to show how we can create and maintain online personas different to our physical ones. :-)
Wait… So you’re not manipulative, lacking drive and utterly self-interested in real life? ;-))
This is clearly a joke and not a troll. But would the Belbin process uncover these important differences?
LOL – no, and that’s one of the points I’m trying to draw out… ;-)
from my memory of doing the same test – not all of the negatives apply – depends on whether under stress or not…
I was going for all the positives !
1,2,5. I keep meaning to figure out how to get permission to put a Belbin test up and team-mates to rate each other (using the questions, not just the pigeon holes) – I think it would be fascinating. I can come out as almost any of the types, depending on what roles I happen to be fulfilling at the time. I was highly amused that it rated me as a completer-finisher on one occasion, only to reflect and realise that is exactly what I was being in the project we were just finishing…
Interesting… :-D
A combination of 1,3,4,9?!
Hi Doug,
I would select 3, 4 and 7.
3. I would include the ‘manipulative’ tag. While, many see manipulation negatively I think it is arguably a key trait of people who are in ‘positions of power’. One person’s ‘manipulative’ is another’s ‘influential’.
4. Erm… all of it, I follow you on Twitter remember. ;-) Let’s just say I don’t think you’re afraid to stand by your convictions.
7. With this one I definitely don’t believe the more negative tags apply but you are certainly a kick starter. I’m often amazed by how much you have going on. And that is a serious compliment. As someone who considers his pallet to be pretty full, I’m stunned by what you get involved in, considering your a Dad too. I hope that I can maintain a similar level when I finally become a parent.
Looking forward to the results of this.
Regards,
James.