In my dealings with clients, I've noted that many managers who were appointed to leadership positions have little training or experience in selecting and leading a team. In most instances, these managers were appointed to a leadership role based on their functional skills, technical knowledge and corporate political network.

New leaders who do not understand team dynamics and are insensitive about team members' behaviours often create a team that is constantly engaged in conflict. As a result, leaders end up channelling energy and time into resolving team conflicts rather than achieving business results.

Dr Meredith Belbin, who published Management Teams - why they succeed or fail, set to identify the characteristics which make a good team. Based on research in UK and Australia , Belbin found that for every successful team, there are nine roles that can could be seen in operation. Hence, when selecting people for a team, filling the nine roles was as important as choosing technical skills or experiences.

Belbin defines a team role as "a tendency to behave, contribute and interrelate with others in a particular way".

Sussing people out

The key to selecting a successful team is to have a good understanding of the team roles, their scope, their limitations and their relationships with each other. The personal characteristics, associated with the team roles as assessed by psychometric tests, can be a good guide to use when selecting a team member.

Coordinator: The coordinator displays powers of control and coordinates the resources within the team. He constantly keeps his eye on the objectives and constantly aligns the team activities towards the end results. However, the coordinator may not necessarily be the appointed leader. When he is not the appointed leader, he may need to promote harmony in the team without threatening the team leader.

When selecting a person for the coordinator role, the typical personality profile display him as dominant, assertive but helpful. He is normally mature, confident, and calm and has a good deal of trust and belief in people.

Shaper: The other leader type role is the shaper. He is energetic with a drive to get things done. He likes action, quick results and pushes himself and believes his ideas are the best. He is always challenging inertia, ineffectiveness and complacency in the team.

However, the shaper is not normally popular as he may offend people's feelings in his pursuit for results. A shaper's personality profile often shows that he is very assertive and extroverted. He may also display a degree of insecurity, nervous energy, lack of self-assurance and self-belief.

Resources investigator: He is a glamorous, noticeable "people oriented" team member. He is someone who explores opportunities and develops contacts. He is highly sociable and hardly ever in his place with others for long. His driving force and contribution is to explore resources and ideas outside the team. Staff suitable for this role often displays high enthusiasm, extrovert and capable of being a diplomatic communicator.

Plant: The creative input to the team comes from the plant - an innovator or ideas person. His thinking can be unorthodox, knowledgeable and imaginative. His strength lies in his capacity for advancing new ideas and strategies.

Research had shown that whatever his background, whether it is marketing, finance or production, the plant made by far the most positive proposals. The plant's typical traits include high intelligence, an assertive self-confidence coupled with uninhibited self-expression.

Monitor evaluator: His strengths lie in his ability to think critically, analyse ideas and to evaluate their feasibility and practical value with the overall team objectives. He is good at assessing proposals, monitoring progress and preventing mistakes.

He can help colleagues interpret complex information, and come to optimum decision given the usual ambiguous data most managers are confronted with. His typical traits will be skepticism, critical and analytical abilities.

Implementer: He is formerly known as the company worker as he is the workhorse of the group who turns plans into tasks. He is hard working, conscientious and methodical. The implementer scores highly on sincerity, integrity, consciousness and self-disciplined.

Team worker: While the earlier roles describe characters that place power, task, structure, status and ideas high in their priorities, the team worker is perceptive of the feelings, needs and concerns of the people in the group.

He normally displays the characteristic of being warm, empathy without a strong competitive streak or need for power.

Completer finisher: He maintains a high sense of urgency to ensure end results are met. Good at follow-ups and meeting deadlines. He normally displays good self-control and strength of purpose.

Specialist: This role was not in the original research. It was subsequently identified and included as an important element of the team. A specialist normally provides knowledge and skills that is rare in supply.

Get together

So what makes a good team? A well-balanced, flexible and all-round successful team will have all the roles represented as each role contributes to the success of the team.

The above are "pure" roles discussed in terms of observed behavior and psychometric scores. While nearly everyone fits into one of the nine team roles, you are likely to have the characteristic of more than one role though it may be less dominant than the main role. Such characteristics allow some flexibility as one can switch to a secondary role when needed.

However, in reality a manager seldom has the opportunity to select a team with the ideal team roles. Nonetheless, having a good understanding of the team role can help the manager allocate and adjust the role for the team member accordingly.

Steps must be taken to understand individual team member's behavioural traits and the roles they may play in the team. Any misalignment and differences should be identified upfront during team formation. Take necessary action to bond and keep the team together.

New leaders have to be committed and patient when building a successful team, as the journey is never smooth. However, the reward can be sweet if you have succeeded in creating a winning team.

Case study

A previous company I had worked for had just engaged a new CEO. The new CEO believed the old organisational structure by his predecessor was "autocratic-driven" and could not support his aggressive growth plan. Having learnt about Belbin's team roles, the CEO decided to consciously select team members who could play different team roles in his management team.

Because the new CEO is a coordinator, he decided to select a senior team member who can complement him in driving business strategies. When it came down to choosing the role of the marketing director position, the CEO had to choose between two strong and capable candidates.

One of the candidates has the characteristics of a shaper while the other candidate had pretty similar qualities like himself. The CEO decided to choose the shaper candidate, despite being the lesser-qualified one, as he needed someone could play the execution role in the team.

Other team members selected by the CEO were:

• The operations manager who was an implementer. He was good at translating general concepts and plans into practical terms for execution.
• The finance manager became the completer finisher, constantly reminding the team about deadlines and had creating a sense of urgency for the rest of the members.
• The human resource manager assumed the role of the teamworker. She was sensitive to the needs, concerns and feelings of the team and took steps to maintain good relationships among team members.
• The sales manager took on the role of resource investigator. He filled the team with up-to-date information through his network of contacts.
• Lastly, the technical manager who took the role of a specialist. He contributed to the team with technical know-how during business discussions.

This team assembled by the new CEO delivered "magical" results during their few years together. Their key achievements were noted below:

• Sales increased more than double within five years.
• Business expanded into seven countries.
• First in the regional business group to achieve ISO 14001.
• Successfully built a 6 Sigma culture in the organisation.
• Successfully implemented a new ERP system with minimal business interruption.

Sam Chia
General manager
Performance Consulting
www.hrnet-consulting.com