Belbin Team Roles and Leadership

Belbin leadership: strengths-based, context-driven interventions towards authentic, purposeful leadership.

At Belbin, we empower leaders to lead authentically, according to their strengths.

Belbin theory states that if you understand how you contribute to a team, you can develop your leadership skills and strengths, and manage your weaknesses. 

CEOs and team leaders worldwide use Belbin theory and practice to boost their leadership skills.

They become more effective, aware leaders, who use those skills purposefully and within the context of their team.

How we help leaders

• We work to help leaders not only to become more self-aware, but to apply their learning and situate their self-knowledge in a team context. 
• In a volatile and rapidly-changing world, many leaders are aware that they don’t have all the answers, but are wary of ceding power in case it results in chaos.
• We enable distributed team leadership by helping individuals understand when and how to lead.
• Without followers, there are no leaders. Leaders need to build credibility by developing trust and creating a learning environment, rather than a blame culture.
• We help leaders cultivate the trust and psychological safety that drives team performance.

What does being an authentic leader really mean?

Leaders need a grasp of the so-called ‘triad of awareness’ – an inward focus, a focus on others, and an outward focus.

The first two help to cultivate emotional intelligence, while the third improves a leader’s ability to strategise, innovate and manage the organisation.

Emotional intelligence begins with self-awareness, or listening to your inner voice. Leaders who hone this skill are able to make better decisions and lead more authentically.

Our focus on others allows us to be empathetic leaders and build strong relationships with others.

It enables leaders to relate to others, find common ground, be inclusive of different viewpoints and consult others in decision-making. It builds ‘cognitive empathy’ – the ability to understand someone else’s perspective.

But for leaders, this can be hard to come by. As we rise through the ranks, those who work for us are less likely to give the honest, open feedback necessary for effective leadership. In addition, research from Berkeley suggests that higher-ranking individuals tend to listen less to (and interrupt more) those beneath them in the power structure.

As Goleman goes on to say, we need “a structured way to match our view of our true selves with the views our most trusted colleagues have – an external check on our authenticity”.

How does the Belbin framework and language help?

In order to harness the insights others can provide, we need a structured, balanced and evidence-based feedback stratagem which enables leaders to cultivate leadership skills and greater emotional intelligence.

The Belbin reports provide just this. Many personality (or psychometric tests) are self-reported, so they are limited to the leader’s own view – the inner voice.

Belbin incorporates Observer feedback from co-workers, and analyses and compares the two in depth, so that the individual’s self-knowledge can be contextualised in light of the behavioural assets others see in them.

Free of preconceptions, leaders can work towards maximising their own strengths and aligning the two sets of views into a more authentic and coherent leadership style.

Moving beyond ‘command and control’: solo vs team leadership

In his book, Team Roles at Work, Meredith Belbin describes the difference between solo an team leaders.

The solo leader:

• Plays an unlimited role and ‘interferes’ or micromanages. This is likely to be objectionable to those who are charged with the day-to-day running of the business.
• Strives for conformity. They try to mould people to particular standards, rather than showing an appreciation for diverse perspectives and contributions.
• Collects acolytes. Solo leaders are not interested in honest feedback. Instead, they surround themselves with admirers and sycophants who will reinforce their viewpoints.
• Projects objectives. The solo leader issues edicts and makes it clear what is expected of others. These objectives are the domain of the leader, rather than being reached by consensus.

By contrast, a team leader:

• Deliberately limits their own role. They delineate the boundaries of their role according to their Team Role strengths and delegate other work to colleagues. They are more concerned with outcomes than with interfering with the specifics.
• Builds on diversity. They value differences between people and seek out different perspectives. 
• Seeks out talent. Team leaders do not expect to be wiser, more creative or more strategic than colleagues, so they are more humble than solo leaders. As a result, they are not threatened by people with particular skills or abilities, but see an opportunity for greater team performance in including others with skills distinct from their own.
• Develops colleagues. The team leader encourages others to work within their strengths and cultivate latent talents. 
• Creates a sense of mission. Rather than forcing others to follow decrees from on-high, the team leader projects a vision or framework in which others can work, according to what they can contribute.

Next steps

We use the framework, theory and language of Belbin Team Roles to help leaders be to move from solo leadership, to authentic team leadership..

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