SELF-

AWARENESS
AND REMOTE WORKING

+44 (0)1223 264975  team@belbin.com  www.belbin.com

© BELBIN 2020.
We’ve been reading a lot about what remote working means for
teams and leaders, but what does it mean for you, sitting at your
desk (or on your sofa!) wondering what happens now?

Even for organisations who have already embraced At Belbin, we believe that
remote working in some capacity, having most – or all – of
knowing yourself is the starting point
the workforce working from home for the entire working
week, without the option of face-to-face interaction, is
unchartered territory. Belbin behaviours aren’t just about teamwork. They’re a
guide to your strengths, your preferred styles of working,
Many employees will be wondering what is expected of
your motivations and aspirations, and the areas where
them, how best to communicate with their manager and
you tend to seek help from others.
others in the team, and how to spend their day.
Understanding these key features of the way you work
What kind of routine is appropriate? Are you expected
gives you insights into why you prefer some kinds of work
to be at your desk all the time, or is it flexible, so long
to others, and enables you to manage expectations (your
as you are handling your workload? What are the new
own and others’). A virtual world can present additional
rules for keeping in touch with others? And how do you
challenges to collaboration and communication, so this
juggle work alongside the other demands made upon
self-insight is more important than ever.
your time, when the boundary between work and home
becomes blurred?

+44 (0)1223 264975  team@belbin.com  www.belbin.com

© BELBIN 2020.
Create your working environment Unleash your potential

Whilst we may not have control over our location, we can A change of environment might lead us to work in
still shape our working environment by creating routines different ways. We might be required to think of
and strategies that fit our working styles. innovative solutions to problems, cover for colleagues
who are unavailable or take on different kinds of
For example, if you struggle when out of a routine, can
work. Fortunately, although we all have our strengths
you create a timetable that will help you to organise
or preferred ways of working, we also have a set of
your day? Are you someone who seeks out interaction
behaviours called ‘manageable roles’. These are latent
and would struggle with isolated working? If so,
strengths which can be called upon when needed and
can you arrange regular times to meet online with
cultivated. The current upheaval to our working lives is a
colleagues to discuss your projects or relevant issues?
great opportunity to take a leap outside our comfort zone
Do you enjoy thinking time but tend to procrastinate? If
and discover and develop talents we didn’t know we had.
so, what strategies can you deploy to ensure that ideas
turn into actions?
When things go wrong
You and your team
Alongside the opportunities, virtual working presents new
challenges. Virtual communication can be more difficult
Some people find it easier to prioritise than others, just
without the nuances of tone or cues from body language.
as some find it easier to keep to deadlines or keep things
In addition, so-called ‘attribution error’ is more common
organised. As we adjust to new ways of working, it’s more
with remote working. If someone is out of the office, we
important than ever to understand the strengths of others
might assume that they are busy in a meeting or with a
in the team, so that we know the resources around us
client. However, if a remote worker is unavailable, we are
and how we can best help others. In turn, knowing and
likely to be less charitable in attributing a reason, and
articulating our Team Roles to others within the team
deduce that they aren’t ‘putting in the time’.
helps us to understand the impact our behaviours have
on others. Some may struggle to find their motivation when
working alone. Others may find themselves working at
Once you have received your Belbin Individual Report
different times or may feel unable to ‘switch off’ with
based on your own perception, the next step is to ask
phones and laptops pinging away nearby. All of this
for input from those you work with (called Observer
can lead to burnout, so it’s crucial to set your individual
Assessments) so that you can get a rounded view of how
boundaries in light of the way you work and the most
others understand your contributions. Without Observer
common difficulties you encounter in your working
Assessments, you are working in another kind of isolation
life. If you can predict how you’re likely to respond
when it comes to your behaviours, because you may be
to different situations, you’ll be one step ahead in
aspiring to one role while others see talents of which you
forestalling problems.
may be unaware.

+44 (0)1223 264975  team@belbin.com  www.belbin.com

© BELBIN 2020.
Set yourself up for success

It’s crucial for you and your manager to communicate
expectations clearly. If you’re fortunate enough to have a
strong working relationship with your manager already,
it’s likely to be easier to change tracks over to virtual
working. If not, using a common language to explore
strengths and potential weaknesses is a great first step.
The language of Belbin Team Roles helps us to identify
and articulate our contributions more clearly, and also
to discuss the difficulties we encounter, in dispassionate
terms. What’s more, your Belbin Individual Report is
a practical tool, offering advice and guidance to help
develop strategies for more effective working. And once
your manager has completed their own Belbin, you
can take the opportunity to analyse the relationship
with our Working Relationship Report, which compares
the two sets of data and points up some areas for
discussion. This can be a great way to address new
challenges (or even problems that preceded remote
working) through a new lens.

ARE YOU READY TO BEGIN YOUR BELBIN JOURNEY?

THERE’S NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME.
CONTACT US. TEAM@BELBIN.COM

+44 (0)1223 264975  team@belbin.com  www.belbin.com

© BELBIN 2020.
Management
A Belbin Team Role Guide to
Managing your Team when
no-one is in the office
There is a distinct possibility that ‘a work from home’ policy may come into force sometime soon.
As a manager, are you ready?
You may have the right IT setup in place and phones on
divert, but managing virtual working is much more than this.
Is your management ready to go virtual? Are you heading
for a team of virtuosos or a virtual nightmare reality?
When your team aren’t in the office, what can you do to
motivate them? How should you communicate and how
frequently? Should you wait for your team to get in touch,
or should you be chasing them for updates and issuing
deadline reminders? And how do you handle the strain
virtual working can place on communication and keep the
human touch?
Whilst our Team Role behaviours may not change
when we are working separately, altering the lines of
communication can throw obstacles in the team’s path,
and some are likely to adapt more readily to remote
working than others. So, extra care is needed in managing
those behaviours and ensuring that everyone can still give
of their best.
Managing each Belbin Team Role
behaviour remotely – your rough guide
Of course, we’ve simplified things a bit. Each of us has more than one Team
Role strength, and the way our preferred roles interact present nuances in our
working styles. But here’s a starting-point when considering the benefits and
potential pitfalls of each role in a virtual scenario.

Completer Finisher Resource Investigator Co-ordinator

Team Role behaviour Team Role behaviour Team Role behaviour

When managing a virtual Completer
Finisher, providing clarity around
priorities and deadlines is key.
Since they aren’t the most effective
delegators or time-managers, it
would be wise to check in on a
regular basis. In addition, Completer
Finishers tend to experience high
anxiety levels. Why not ask the
Teamworker to keep an eye on them?
There may be a tendency for the
rest of the team to overload the
Completer Finisher with work.
(“Could you just check this through
for me?”) This could cause problems,
so ensure that everyone is aware of
the ground rules in this regard
They’re not in the office much
anyway, so you should be quite used
to managing them from a distance.
However, with events and meetings
cancelled, there’s a risk they might
find themselves at a loose end or go
completely off the radar. Encourage
regular check-ins, but don’t press for
too much detail.
They’re likely to prefer a phone or
Skype call, but ensure that you’re in
control. Resource Investigators are
often over-talkative and may not let
the rest of the team get a word in.
Without the social cues on which we
rely when we share the same space,
you’ll need to be firm.
Co-ordinators are wonderful at
engaging others and ensuring that
everyone has their say. However,
ensure they do not take advantage
and delegate more than their fair
share. Regular contact via email and
phone is required. Give them the
role of chair in any virtual meetings
and make sure they address the
challenges of remote teamworking
explicitly, to allow any arising
difficulties to be aired and resolved.
Their calm and confident manner
can also help to quell any rising
panic that may occur. Ask them to
insert a sense of perspective if things
start spiralling.

+44 (0)1223 264975  team@belbin.com  www.belbin.com © 2020 BELBIN Associates.

Plant
Team Role behaviour
Plants prefer to work alone – they
come up with the ideas for the team
to take forward. So, leave them
to it… up to a point. Give them
questions and problems to solve,
and plenty of encouragement. But
check in gently, to see if they are still
on-track – their attention may have
wandered if a new idea has piqued
their interest. And don’t expect an
immediate response to email if they
are engrossed in problem-solving. A
phone call may be preferable.
Remember, a Plant can be sensitive
to criticism of their ideas, so if you
are a high Shaper, Implementer or
Monitor Evaluator, try and adopt a
less task-focused or critical approach.
Allow them space to communicate.
+44 (0)1223 264975  team@belbin.com  www.belbin.com
Teamworker
Team Role behaviour
Teamworkers are proficient
communicators. They are
diplomatic, perceptive, and are
probably going to struggle if they
feel cut off from others.
Give them a role that enables them
to keep in touch with the rest of
the team. Maybe they could send a
daily (or twice-daily) email ‘checker’
to find out how everyone is doing?
Perhaps they could instigate a
short social chat online? Whilst you
might be tempted to skip this part
when the pressure is on, remember
that it is key to maintaining trust in
unusual circumstances.
Keep in touch by phone and
remember: they will be the first
ones to tell you when someone else
has a problem.
Shaper
Team Role behaviour
This could be tricky as Shapers like
to be the loudest in the room. When
they are by themselves, who will stop
and listen? They may start making
demands by all available means –
phone calls and emails – to ensure
that no-one is slacking or taking their
eye off the ball.
They could alienate the rest of the
team – their email style is likely to
be blunt and to-the-point. Normally,
the team wouldn’t take this too
personally (an effective Shaper
is good-humoured enough to get
everyone back onside) but without
the social interaction, relationships
could be tense.
Make sure that you keep your
promises and respond in a timely
fashion. The Resource Investigator
is the best to deal with the Shaper
behaviour in this situation – why not
give them a joint project?
© 2020 BELBIN Associates.
Monitor Evaluator Implementer Specialist
Team Role behaviour Team Role behaviour Team Role behaviour

They much prefer to work by
themselves – at last, they will have
time to sit back and reflect on
the best course of action without
the rest of the team constantly at
their door. To that extent, Monitor
Evaluators are fairly easy to manage
remotely. However, they do tend to
over-analyse. There is a risk that this
tendency could go unchecked and
slow progress to a standstill.
Keep in touch, ask for updates. Do not
ignore. Remember, although Monitor
Evaluators may not give you the
answers you want, they are usually
the answers you need.
The Implementer is the one you can
rely on to carry on as normal. Reliable
and hardworking to the core, the
Implementer will take a different
working environment in their stride.
However, processes will have to be
adapted or changed, so ensure they
are aware of this.
They will appreciate being given
responsibility for organising new
processes – or anything that will
appeal to their practical proclivities.
Keep in touch via email. Put together
a spreadsheet you can talk through.
Like the Plant, Specialists thrive
when they are by themselves. Ensure
that you have given them an area
of research they can delve into, but
don’t forget to check in – you’ll want
to disseminate any salient findings to
the rest of the team.
Communication via email is probably
best, but ensure that you ask very
specific questions to minimise the
probability of receiving information
overload in return.

The ties that bind

Of course, it isn’t all down to you as manager. In order to operate effectively in challenging and rapidly-changing environments,
your team members need to be aware of their own – and each other’s – strengths, so they know who to call on, and where and
how to make allowances for one another.

At Belbin, we believe in empowering teams with an accessible language to articulate and explore their behaviours, as well as
practical, applicable advice on how the team works. Armed with this knowledge, teams can gain confidence in their individual and
collective abilities, and build the kind of trust that holds strong even when they’re apart.

Good luck! We’re here to help – maybe now is a good opportunity to ‘Belbin’ your team? Get in touch today.

+44 (0)1223 264975  team@belbin.com  www.belbin.com © 2020 BELBIN Associates.

Returning to
the six basics of
HOW WE
WORK BEST
In these uncertain times, we’re all trying to figure out
what to do next. When it comes down to it, what matters
is how we behave, how we organise ourselves and how
we communicate with one another. And, difficult though
it may be for many businesses, a crisis presents us with
opportunities too. We need to adapt, but it isn’t all
damage limitation. There are some positives, if we are
willing to shift our perspective and return to the basics of
how we work best.
1. I n times of uncertainty,
we fall back on what we know 2.  We need to keep things small to
keep them manageable

In our Belbin workshops and courses, we spend a lot
of time putting live teams under pressure, whether
against the clock, or against one another. That’s
because it’s a quick way to elicit real, unpolished
behaviours. When the chips are down, any pretences
fall away and we revert to what we know and how
we’re used to behaving.
Keeping teams small is a crucial (but often overlooked)
factor in team success. The organisational chart may say
one thing, but now that’s stuck to the wall of an empty
office. Suddenly, we need people to work remotely, but
the larger the group, the more difficult it is to arrange
online meetings, achieve consensus, meet deadlines,
the list goes on...

This can mean that we see strengths – people
supporting one another (a Teamworker trait), keeping
a level head and advising (like good Monitor Evaluators
do) or providing key connections between people (as
Resource Investigators are often well-placed to do).
It might also mean that we see the downsides of
our behaviours, such as high anxiety (keep an eye
on Completer Finishers), low mood from isolation
(which may hit sociable Resource Investigators and
Teamworkers the most) and perhaps frustration
from those who are unable to work as efficiently as
they’d like (Implementers) or see deadlines fall by the
wayside (Shapers).
When we ask people to obtain Observer feedback
from colleagues, to inform their Belbin Report, we
often recommend asking 4-6 people. That’s because
it’s not usually possible for one person to work closely
with more than that number. Where large groups are
in disguise as teams, we often find that smaller ‘sub-
teams’ emerge, to help people get back to that magic
number. Now that many of us are no longer in the
office, where team membership was likely influenced
by our physical location, we’re likely to see these ‘real
teams’ more clearly, and might feel freer to form new
connections where they are needed.

We know not everything fits into a Team Role

framework, but when working through uncertainty,
it’s useful to understand these tendencies, because
our Team Role strengths are outward manifestations
of what makes us tick, our priorities and our view on
the world.

+44 (0)1223 264975  team@belbin.com  www.belbin.com © 2020 BELBIN Associates.

3. Communication changes 4. We need to be together

With many of us working from home, it’s clear that
communication is going to change. On Monday, Microsoft
Teams crashed when millions of Europeans began
logging in from home. Whilst it’s important to get the
technology right, it’s equally important to consider the
human implications of these changed communications.
On the plus side, we might find that we re-evaluate
the importance of meetings, limit meeting times and
discover more innovative ways of sharing content, such
as video conferencing, webinars and live chats. We
might become more disciplined about the timeframes
for meetings and use the technology to ensure that all
voices are heard.
It’s heartening to see volunteer groups and individuals
popping up to offer practical support. Whilst some may
enjoy working from home, and find that they are more
productive with fewer distractions, it’s not the same for
everyone. Some may find that the isolation interferes
with their ability to work effectively, especially those for
whom social interaction is a key part of their Team Role
make-up. As well as ensuring that tools are available
for online meetings, it’s also important to allow teams
some social time together, especially when things are
stressful. Apart from letting off steam, social time builds
the trust that teams need to keep going.

On the downside, many of us are losing the opportunity

to speak face-to-face. If we’re relying more on email,
that also means we might have less control over
the tone of our words, and perhaps aren’t receiving
cues (through facial expressions and body language)
about how they are being received. It’s important to
remember that the Team Role framework is not only for
describing how people behave, but for offering clarity
around approaches to work. For example, imagine
that you want a colleague to proof-read a strategy
document where the strategy has already been agreed.
Using a Team Role shorthand to clarify that you want
a ‘Completer Finisher eye’, but don’t want the other
person to ‘ME’ (Monitor Evaluate) the work at this stage,
will save time and effort on both sides.

+44 (0)1223 264975  team@belbin.com  www.belbin.com © 2020 BELBIN Associates.

5.  We need trust and
psychological safety
Coach Tammy Turner speaks eloquently about trust
and psychological safety in teams. In short, trust
is measured by – and exists between – individuals,
with one person giving the other the benefit of the
doubt. Psychological safety is a team construct,
which measures if it’s OK to share and make mistakes
without fear of recrimination, and gives each of us,
as team members, the benefit of the doubt in making
your contribution.
With teams working remotely, informal opportunities
to speak to a colleague or a manager about our
concerns or mistakes might be lost, and we might find
ourselves having to announce those reservations or
errors on a larger stage. What’s more, the stakes are
higher if people don’t feel able to speak out, because
it might take longer for mistakes to be identified. So, if
we are to create (or preserve) an environment in which
each team member feels confident in getting it wrong,
there is work to do. We need to celebrate behavioural
diversity and recognise the challenges where some are
contributing in a different way to others. For example,
a Plant providing ideas to a team of Monitor Evaluators
and Implementers needs space to explore and
communicate those ideas without being immediately
quashed or reasoned out of it. In turn, when Shapers
want to move first to implement a new responsive
policy, Monitor Evaluators, need to feel able to apply
the brakes.
We want to do all we can to support teams who are changing the way they work at the moment.
We are here for you. We are all in this together.
+44 (0)1223 264975  team@belbin.com  www.belbin.com
6. We use our resources
There’s a likelihood that a team’s usual resources may
be strained or unavailable, with members falling ill
or dealing with changes in circumstances. Whilst the
inevitable disruption may cause difficulties in the
short-term, it also presents an opportunity to explore
other avenues and forge new connections across
teams. Who else do we know in the organisation who
is good at detailed work and has been freed up from
a project put on hold? Can someone with strong
Resource Investigator tendencies source the widget we
need, since their conference was cancelled? If we are
used to delivering our product in a particular way that
is no longer viable, can we draw Plant contributions
from another team in the short-term to help generate
new ideas?
All of this starts with knowing our strengths,
individually and in our teams. Simply put,
these strengths enable us to use the resources
available to us more fully, organise ourselves
more effectively, and communicate with fewer
misunderstandings.
In moments of crisis, we need to work quickly and
effectively, but with compassion for one another’s
limitations and the inevitable errors that happen
when time is of the essence. As organisational
units, teams are uniquely powerful engines. Given
a framework that helps each member articulate
strengths and admit weaknesses, teams can
achieve more collectively and mitigate each
other’s shortcomings. Let’s get it done.
© 2020 BELBIN Associates.
 Belbin® Report
How to leverage the potential of
virtual teams with Belbin

June 2018 | www.belbin.com | © BELBIN 2018
 How to leverage the potential of virtual teams with Belbin
Virtual teams carry a lot of potential. In deploying virtual teams, organizations can gather the best
human capital for the job, wherever in the world their people may be.

Companies can reduce running costs, whilst allowing employees to manage work/life balance more
flexibly and interact with colleagues around the world. But there are a whole slew of potential
problems to avoid – missed cues, cultural divides, failing technology and the risk of isolation, to name
but a few.

When they’re good, they’re very, very good…

65% of respondents to Ernst & Young’s 2013 survey said that the extent to which
teams are facilitated by technology – i.e. working virtually – rather than face‐to‐face
interaction had increased over the past three years, with 55% of respondents saying
that teams had become more geographically distributed.

And virtual teams have a lot going for them – not least diversity, since people
from different cultural backgrounds can easily be brought together from
disparate locations. “If you do manage to harness the promise of diversity,”
says Henrik Bresman, Associate Professor of Organizational Behaviour at
INSEAD, “you can benefit a great deal from more information and a wider
range of view.”

A 2009 by WHU‐Otto Beisheim School of Management

showed that well‐managed virtual teams could outperform
those that are co-located or work in the same office. Another
report quoted in Harvard Business Review suggested that
using virtual teams could improve employee productivity up
to 43%.

June 2018 | www.belbin.com | © BELBIN 2018
 Years before technology made virtual teams commonplace, Dr Meredith Belbin was writing about how
this kind of team might work successfully by identifying strengths.

"The essence of a team is that its members form a co-operative association through a division of labour
that best reflects the contribution that each can make towards the common objective. The members do
not need to be present at the same place and at the same time to enable the team to function.“
– Dr. Belbin, Management Teams: Why They Succeed or Fail, 1981

But when they’re bad…

It’s not always good news. A 2005 Deloitte study of IT projects outsourced to virtual work groups
found that 66% didn’t deliver on the clients’ requirements. And research has uncovered that people
who work remotely can receive lower performance evaluations, smaller pay rises and fewer
promotions. It turns out that, even if they’re working just as hard remotely, leaders associate physical
presence in the office with commitment and reliability, even if they were doing so unconsciously.

Sarah O’Connor, in the Financial Times, describes how “the economics of agglomeration” affects a
company’s bottom line. “When companies cluster physically together, they tend to be more
productive.” That’s why productivity is 32% higher than the UK average in London, where companies
can collaborate and compete more effectively, swapping staff and ideas within a stone’s throw.

So how do you harness the benefits of diversity and remote working, whilst imitating what
co-located teams do best?

We’re often asked whether – and how – Belbin theory applies to virtual teams, and how the language
of Team Roles can help to overcome the pitfalls that prevent some virtual teams from succeeding.
Here are our tips.

Choose your people carefully.

It’s crucial to discover the strengths and weaknesses of each team member and consider the impact
this may have on a virtual team in particular.

June 2018 | www.belbin.com | © BELBIN 2018
 Belbin Team Roles are ways of behaving, relating to, and communicating with, others. Each Team Role
behaviour consists of strengths (what that individual can offer to the team) and associated weaknesses
(less desirable characteristics which are simply the flipside of the strength). If the virtual team is
coming together for the first time, it’s an ideal opportunity to discover each other’s Team Roles. This
can open up discussion as to what each person has to offer, who will do which kind of work, and which
people might make good (complimentary) pairings.

“With the vast majority of companies acknowledging that teamwork is absolutely crucial to their
competitive performance, it has become essential to get the chemistry right.”

Give some thought to size.

When teams get above four or five, people stop putting in the work, because they feel less responsible
for the end result. Dr Meredith Belbin’s ideal team size is four, so that each team member is
accountable and no one person has the casting vote when making decisions. This means that decisions
need to be made by persuasion and consensus. It’s also important to break teams down into sub‐
teams when the numbers get too big. There’s only so much one team can feasibly do, and adding more
people is not always the answer.

Clarify goals and guidelines.

In their study of high performance teams, Ernst & Young found that shared commitment, and building
and sustaining a genuine desire to achieve a collective goal was even more important for teams that
are geographically distributed, than for others. Not only this, but it’s important to frame this collective
vision in terms of team members’ individual needs, so that each person knows how they fit into the
whole.

June 2018 | www.belbin.com | © BELBIN 2018
 When team members extrapolate issues from their locality, and assume these apply to the business as
a whole, this can shift the team’s priorities unduly and take them off track. And when people forget to
‘think global’, they assume others are on the same page and misunderstandings occur. Having an
international language like Belbin, with no cultural affinity or bias can break down these kinds of
barriers and offer a different kind of currency for exploring difference.

Build trust.

In a virtual team, where it can take longer – and be more difficult – to figure out the ‘lay of the land’, it
is crucial that a team culture is established where individuals feel able to speak up if they disagree or
feel something is amiss, without fear of punishment or rejection – in effect, what Google defines as
‘psychological safety’.

According to Harvard Business Review, in addition to encouraging team members to share their
backgrounds and talk about their lives, leaders should ask people to share – with all team members –
how they work best and what they hope to bring to the team. As well as overcoming the isolation that
can result from remote working, this helps team members to build connections and understand who
they can approach for different issues. This helps the team to work more efficiently and can avoid time
being wasted by work being allocated to the wrong person.

The language of Belbin Team Roles can give new teams a shorthand to discuss their preferences and
working styles, and to figure out how to allocate work most effectively according to strengths.

Bring interaction into sharp focus.

Ernst & Young found that cross‐border teams could be more sensitive to how colleagues are thinking
and feeling than “in‐person” teams, simply because they’re more aware of the possibility for
misunderstandings to occur. As a language that goes across cultures, Belbin Team Roles is a practical,
everyday way to aid interactions and avoid misapprehensions.

A key takeaway from Ernst & Young’s paper is the importance of taking differences into account, not
just ignoring them. By flagging up differences, Belbin helps to celebrate diversity and raise awareness
of individual differences, but it does so in a non‐confrontational way. For example, after hearing an
idea from a creative team member, another might want to evaluate that idea, casting doubt on its
viability.

In Belbin terms, this creative individual is a Plant; the one analysing the idea, a Monitor Evaluator. It is
the Monitor Evaluator’s job to examine an idea from every possible angle to ensure that it will work.
But, if perceived merely as negativity, this process can offend the Plant. If presented in Team Role
language, it can be more easily understood as part of the process of working an idea through to the
finished article. This prevents the focus being placed on the individual (and the quality of their idea) as
a personal reflection on them.

June 2018 | www.belbin.com | © BELBIN 2018
 Encourage honesty and have someone speak out when things are being left unsaid.

It’s vital that team members are honest with one another, and that this honesty is active, not passive.
Harvard Business Review introduce the concept of “observable candour” and even go so far as to
suggest an “official advocate for candour” in each virtual team meeting, picking up when something is
being left unsaid, and calling out criticism that isn’t constructive.

Once the team has been working together for a certain amount of time, Belbin Observer Assessments
(or 360‐degree feedback) can provide opportunities to show how well an individual is projecting their
strengths and preferences. If there are negative elements to behaviour which are adversely affecting
the team, these can be brought into the open in a non‐confrontational way, so that they can be
mitigated. Whilst not all problems within the team can be framed in Team Role terms, it’s a good place
to begin breaking down conflicts and examining the kinds of differences which can cause friction
between individuals.

Use Team Roles to help your people adapt to virtual working.

Like co‐located teams, virtual teams need a balance of Team Roles in order to succeed. The exact
combination required – and when they should be added to the mix – will vary depending on what the
team is required to do. But it is important to remember that virtual teamworking may come more
easily to some than to others, and that some Team Role contributions rely more heavily on visual cues
which may be absent in virtual teamworking.

Plants & Specialists may relish the freedom and independence remote working offers, but they may
need close monitoring to ensure that they remain in line with the team’s objectives, as they may
become distracted by ideas or other subjects of interest, respectively.

Monitor Evaluator, Shaper & Completer Finisher behaviours are perhaps the most likely to be
misconstrued in virtual teams, for different reasons. Monitor Evaluators may be seen as
uncommunicative or overly negative; Shapers, too harsh, and Completer Finishers, splitting hairs.
Different cultural expectations have the potential to magnify these difficulties, so it is vital that the
importance of these contributions is reiterated when these roles come into play.

Resource Investigators & Teamworkers might find that they need to adapt their communication style
to relate to others within and outside the team. Teamworkers might be required to bridge cultural
gaps, whilst Resource Investigators may find that they need to listen more (rather than talk) on group
calls, to ensure that everyone is given ‘airtime’.

Co-ordinators & Implementers are responsible for the organisation of people and tasks, respectively.
Implementers will face organizational changes on a logistical level – ensuring that plans are clear and
concise, with no room for ambiguity across time‐zones. According to Harvard Business Review, virtual
teams work best with a ‘monitor and mentor’ approach to leadership, which fits most closely with the
Co-ordinator role. It is also stipulated that sharing and rotating power in a virtual team engenders
trust, so it may fall to the Co-ordinator to identify the best person to lead the team at any given stage,
and to ensure that this process takes place.

June 2018 | www.belbin.com | © BELBIN 2018
 Observe the touchpoints.

It is best, say experts, that virtual team members meet face‐to‐face at key points during the team’s life
cycle: at the beginning; when introducing a new team members, and when important milestones are
reached. Bringing people together at these crucial points can help build trust, clarify goals, set
expectations and maintain engagement levels.

In Ernst & Young’s study, 72.1% saw regular face‐to‐face meetings as the most valuable way in which
teams interact: “Spending time – and budget – on face‐to‐face meetings and investing in how people
interact and understand how others work, is as important as the content of the meeting.”

If meeting in person is impossible – and economic constraints sometimes prohibit business travel –
visual technologies are preferable as a substitute, offering the opportunity to read body language and
other cues which can nuance intonation. These meetings are useful for assessing team dynamics and
introducing pairings with different strengths, whose complimentarity might make them an effective
working duo.

Whatever your virtual team is set up to do, Belbin offers a shared understanding of
behavioural styles and a common language. This can bridge cultural divides and help to
mitigate the loss of physical and social cues that virtual working often entails.

Whether your team is virtual or co-located, begin your Belbin journey today at
www.belbin.com.

June 2018 | www.belbin.com | © BELBIN 2018
 About the author

Victoria Bird is the Head of Research & Development at Belbin. After graduating from the
University of Cambridge, Victoria joined the Belbin team in 2006. She is passionate about
delivering the data, insights and analysis which help spread the Belbin message to individuals
and teams worldwide.

References

• “The power of many – how companies use teams to drive superior corporate
performance”, Ernst & Young, 2013

• “Why personal touch still matters in the virtual tech world”, Sarah
O’Connor, Financial Times, July 2017

• Getting virtual teams right – Keith Ferrazzi, Harvard Business

Review, December 2014

• How to build trust in a virtual workplace – Keith Ferrazzi,

Harvard Business Review, October 2012

• What Google learned from its quest to build the

perfect team, New York Times, February 2016

June 2018 | www.belbin.com | © BELBIN 2018
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June 2018 | www.belbin.com | © BELBIN 2018