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Belbin and the General Election

In the run up to the general election, we thought it would be interesting to find out how we all see the leaders of the main political parties in terms of Team Role behaviour! Are there really any differences between them? Do we observe different behavioural traits?

Is Gordon a Teamworker? Does David act like an Implementer? Does Nick strike you as a Shaper?

The results are in!

As we are nearing election day, we have looked at all your observer responses for Gordon Brown, Nick Clegg and David Cameron. Meredith Belbin has made the following comments:

(For more information on each of the nine Belbin Team Roles, please click on the link - What are Belbin Team Roles? - on the right-hand side of this page.)

Gordon Brown

Gordon Brown has the three social roles at the bottom of his Team Role profile. His top three Team Roles are Shaper, Specialist and Monitor Evaluator. This trio suggests someone who will drive his analytical thoughts through to action, on the base of acquired knowledge. His top three observer words (professionally dedicated, hard-driving and analytical) support this image. Outgoing (usually a popular word) has not been ticked at all.

David Cameron

David Cameron has the low profile roles as his bottom five. His top three Team Roles are: Resource Investigator, Shaper and Co-ordinator. This suggests someone with energy and a propensity to control others. His top four observer words are calm & confident, competitive, opportunistic and outgoing. His fifth highest word is empire-building, which can sometimes be seen as the down-side of a Co-ordinator.

Nick Clegg

Nick Clegg has the same bottom five roles as David Cameron. The difference is that his top three roles are seen as Co-ordinator, Plant and Resource Investigator. This implies someone who is keen to navigate and explore a new path. His top observer words are calm and confident, adaptable, consultative and broad in outlook. His highest negative word is critical – a Monitor Evaluator word, although he does not have the positive side of the role, which would be required for this characteristic to be accepted with grace.

A hung or 'balanced' parliament?

So, what would happen if all three parties had to work together? Would the three leaders make a balanced team? We decided to look at the other reports that can be created from your observer responses...

And putting all their data together to produce an overall team report...

These have generated many discussions (and some rather heated!) at Belbin. We will let you draw your own conclusions...

The Belbin Team

And just in case you are wondering what these Team Roles are...