Achieve A Balanced Team Through Selection
Dr Meredith Belbin has shown (1981), through his research, that all members of business teams have a dual role. The first is the functional one, which in professional service firms involves the use of technical, client relations, sales, marketing, administrative, management and leadership skills. The second role is what Meredith Belbin calls the team role. All of us who work in teams are aware of the fact that some people are good at coming up with bright ideas and others prefer to put ideas under the microscope and test them. We notice that some people are very anxious to get issues finalized and tasks allocated. Other team members are good at clarifying goals and promoting decision making. Some people are good at steering conversations and finding ways round obstacles and yet others can be relied upon to turn ideas into practical action in a disciplined fashion. Dr Belbin’s research shows that it can be helpful to a team’s efforts to have a number of different ‘temperament types’ of this sort to play off and balance each other. Indeed there is some evidence to show that teams comprising a mixture of temperaments produce better results than those consisting of people with teamworking characteristics that are similar to each other.
The implications for recruitment are clear. Selection of new people provides the opportunity to reflect on the existing make-up of the team. If it would be beneficial to achieve a better balance of team roles, then people with temperaments that are not currently present can be sought. So, for instance, if the team has a number of participants with analytical strengths but is short of ideas people, the selection process can be used to identify candidates who not only have the required technical skills and the right values and attitudes but can also demonstrate a track record of creative thinking.