Tag: roles

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:

1. Plant – Creative, imaginative, unorthodox. Solves difficult problems. Ignores incidentals. Too pre-occupied with own thoughts to communicate effectively.
2. Resource Investigator – Extrovert, enthusiastic, communicative. Explores opportunities. Develops contacts. Over-optimistic. Can lose interest once initial enthusiasm has passed.
3. Co-ordinator – Mature, confident. Clarifies goals. Brings other people together to promote team discussions. Can be seen as manipulative. Offloads personal work.
4. Shaper – Challenging, dynamic, thrives on pressure. Has the drive and courage to overcome obstacles. Prone to provocation. Liable to offend others.
5. Monitor Evaluator – Serious minded, strategic and discerning. Sees all options. Judges accurately. Can lack drive and ability to inspire others.
6. Teamworker – Co-operative, mild, perceptive and diplomatic. Listens, builds, averts friction. Indecisive in crunch situations.
7. Implementer – Disciplined, reliable, conservative in habits. A capacity for taking practical steps and actions. Somewhat inflexible. Slow to respond to new possibilities.
8. Completer Finisher – Painstaking, conscientious, anxious. Searches out errors and omissions. Delivers on time. Inclined to worry unduly. Reluctant to let others into own job.
9. 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. 😀