How to spot the signs of team overwhelm (and what to do about it using Belbin Team Roles)

Edition 1 - Address stress using Belbin team roles

So here begins a 3 part series on spotting and addressing stress in your team. This is particularly important during this time when so many of our team members may be working remotely and we have to be more alert to indicators.

Stress may present differently in different people. If we start by thinking of 3 of Belbin’s 9 Team Roles we can find some clues to indicate stress and how to respond.

Plants (PL)

First your creatives. Ideas people tend to fall into 2 groups: quiet ones who like to work alone (Plants PL) and gregarious ones who thrive on interaction with others (Resource Investigators RI).

Strangely, even though they need their own space, Plants can often feel stressed even in lockdown: whilst they value freedom to explore their ideas fully, they also need stimulus and public recognition of their ideas. If you notice ideas have stopped flowing through, or resistance to deadlines, or not joining meetings, your Plant may be stressed. Try: set time to regularly speak with them alone, offer them time out and help with rescheduling; and broadcast their value in team meetings.

Resource Investigators (RI)

Your RI may be missing opportunity to ply their strongest skill and without the stimulus of other people they may become bored and demoralised – and either stop contributing at all or strive to dominate your time and team meetings: signs of stress. Try giving them research projects which require contacting others outside of your team or the organisation; and give them some scheduled time on centre stage in team meetings to share their findings and seek further input.

Team Workers (TW)

And don’t forget your Team Workers (TW), your Carers: they stress when they can’t help others! Building strong relationships is important to a TW and they are concerned about feelings – their own and others. You are likely to notice that under stress they may fumble decision making, and they fuss about how others may be faring. Don’t take them for granted: avoid pressing them to be decisive; try delegating some caring responsibilities to them and have them connect directly with your Plants and RIs in a practical way.

Next

Next, we’ll look at possible indicators of stress in other team members. Perhaps you have a Shaper (SH) in your team; someone impatient with stagnation and always applying pressure to drive the team forward? Or a Coordinator (CO); like a SH they have a strong focus on goals and objectives but they are also skilled at getting things done through people? We’ll also look at the expert Specialists (SP) with particular technical skills who indicate stress quite differently again.

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If you’d like more information about how Horizon can help you to make the most effective use of the people in your team – we are offering a limited number of complimentary assessments and a debrief for a Manager in your organisation to provide some insight to how fascinating and useful this inventory can be. Please contact amyphillips@horizonmg.com.au if you’d like to take us up on this offer or discuss anything further to improve the performance and satisfaction of your people.

PARTS 2 AND 3

Part 2: Shapers (SH), Coordinators (CO), Specialists (SP)

Part 3: Monitor Evaluators (ME), Implementers (IMP), Completer Finishers (CF)