The Most Underrated Skill – Teamwork Skills in Daily life - (+ Definition, Team Roles according to Belbin)

Teamwork Skills are among the top requested social skills when it comes to job applications.

Are you good at Teamwork?

Well, if you work well together with others as part of a team, it doesn’t only boost your career chances.

Being good at Teamwork will also:

Help you get new job opportunities
and help when it comes to your personal life.

Just imagine you are moving to a new city. Getting the furniture from one place to another is a struggle. Are you good at working in a team when friends or family help? Or do you prefer to carry the workload alone?

In this post you’ll learn:

How to describe Teamwork Skills & The Definition of Teamwork
The Importance of Teamwork
How to get Better at Teamwork
Belbin’s Roles in Teams

Let’s jump right in:

What Does Teamwork Mean? - Defining Teamwork

According to Lexico, teamwork describes “The combined action of a group, especially when effective and efficient.”.

Therefore all team members have a shared goal. Each teammate might have different functions, but ultimately they work towards a common goal.

Effective means that all participants work together not separately, discussing decisions and actions openly to come to a shared approach.

Efficiently, on the other hand, signals that each team member picks tasks that fit well to their skills and experiences. Someone who studied finance will most likely choose the financial part of the project.

If we use simple words to describe teamwork skills it would be to have the abilities to work well and effectively together in a team setting.

So, why is teamwork important?

In your personal life, you will often find yourself in a team situation. For example, when you move, do household or garden chores, raise children with your partner, and so on.

Good Teamwork Skills thereby play a central role when communicating with others and can help avoid confrontations and misunderstandings. Overall, improving your teamwork skill will improve your communication process with others (and it is a great soft skill to add to your cv.)

Also Read :6 proven listening exercises to never get in trouble with your boss again – genius ways to boost your active listening skill as a young professional

Let’s take a look at the importance of teamwork skills:

You’ll come up with a lot more ideas and solutions to a problem in a team.
The workload will be shared, you don’t have to do everything alone.
You’ll get better at solving conflicts.
Good Teamwork tightens relationships.
It’s more fun, duh.
You can learn from each other.

You know all that, but have no idea how to actually be a good team player ? Let’s take a look at, how to improve teamwork skills?

Teamsituations can be frustrating. When people keep discussing, but don’t come to a conclusions. Or certain teammembers come completely unprepared. And what to do if you are shy? They keep talking, but you can’t share your opinions. You might think it would have been much easier and faster if you’d just done it alone.

Listen. This is like the most important team skill.
Set the goals at the start of the team situation. (See to it that everyone is on the same page) Clearly communicate what you want to achieve.
Set boundaries and rules. You know there are people in the team, who are super enthusiastic? Or you are the super enthusiastic one? Give shy people a chance to talk and agree on rules and boundaries beforehand:

- - Agree to raise your hand, when you want to state an opinion.
  - Don’t interrupt, while people are speaking.
  - Look at the speaker.
  - Don’t mumble when something upsets you. Clearly speak your opinion.
  - Take responsibility when you fail.

We’ll do a full post on how to improve your teamwork skills later on. Those are our quick tips 😉

How is collaboration different from teamwork?

According to civilservicecollege, collaboration does not have a leader, instead, all members are treated equally and therefore ideas, as well as decisions, are made together. Teamwork, on the other hand, has an appointed leader and distributes tasks to each member.

Belbin’s Different Roles in Teams and their Skills (+ Examples):

According to Belbin, there are nine roles in a team:

Plant
Resource Investigator
Co-ordinator
Shaper
Teamworker
Monitor Evaluator
Implementer
Completer
Specialist

Let’s go through each role. See how they are different and how you can figure out which of your friends has which role.

We also added the likely skills of each role, as well as their weaknesses. So tell us, what is/are your role (s) based on Belbin’s teamwork model? 🙂

The Plant

is a creative and innovative team member who creates and shares ideas with his team members. It could be an employee who comes up with new product ideas, improvements to the production process, or alternatively even a child who comes up with ideas for the family evening.

Think about you and your family, friends, your relationship, classmates or work buddies – who is always coming up with new ideas? Is it you? Your cousin? Your best friend? Who is the creative mind?

Soft Skills: Creative Thinking, Innovation, Open-minded

Weaknesses: Too optimistic, doesn’t necessarily consider if the ideas are feasible with the given resources and time frame.

The Resource Investigator

checks opportunities, and scans beforehand what resources and contacts are available to realise the new ideas. According to Indeed, Resource Investigators are usually extroverts who easily build contacts and networks. The website also states that the team role is people-oriented.

When I think about Resource Investigators I always imagine my best friend. Somehow she always has the right people, items or whatever we need to carry out our plans. Do you have someone similar in your life? Or are you the Resource Investigator?

Soft Skills: Active Listening, Good Communication, Networking

Weaknesses: Might also be over-optimistic and can get in touch with the wrong people and social circles (who are not as efficient for the project but more entertaining)

The Implementer

Implementers are less people oriented and more task oriented (accelerate UK). They want to get the tasks done and realise the ideas mentioned by the Plant.

Do you like to create plans and to-do lists? Or do you already have lists for your lists? (yes, some people have them 😀 *speaking from experience*) Maybe you are the Implementer in the team then! 😉 By the way, they are also known to be very disciplined and highly dedicated.

Soft Skills: Disciplined, organised, productive

Weaknesses: Wasting too much time on the planning phase and might be easily triggered when something doesn’t go as planned.

The Co-ordinator

will use leadership skills to assign the tasks to the team members.

Just imagine your mom pointing you to clean the bathroom while your brothers have to do the dishes. She knows exactly which tasks need to get done and who should do what.

Soft Skills: decision-making, team leadership, people management

Weaknesses: Might assign the tasks unfairly to the team members based on their own perception and likings.

The Sharper

Another great role is the Sharper who pushes the team forward. The Sharper is a great motivator and inspires the whole team to finish their tasks and goals successfully.

Yet, the role is not people-oriented, unlike expected it is actually action-oriented (accelerate UK). Do you know someone who is always encouraging you, pushing you through the hard times? Who always says the right things to boost your mood even during gloomy days?

Soft Skills: motivational, inspirational, emotional intelligence, communication and active listening

Weaknesses: Impatient when the progress of the team isn’t as fast as the Sharper expected or an obstacle prolongs the achievement of the goal.

The Teamworker

The Teamworker provides support like the Sharper but mainly focuses on how she can help the other team members fulfill their tasks.

If you are completely lost with a software, but have to hand in your taxes by the next week. Who is the one who rushes to your side and explains the program to you even though she barely uses it herself? It is the Teamworker who wants to save your butt. By the way, Teamworkers also tend to improve communication in a team and want to establish the best workflow and -atmosphere.

Soft Skills: Communication, Problem-solving, Conflict-Solving, emotional intelligence

Weaknesses: Avoids confrontations and can be indecisive (Belbin)

The Specialist

Another highly skilled person who might rush to your aid is most likely the Specialist. The Specialist role brings in the necessary knowledge and skills to achieve the goal.

It could be coding when you try to create a game, Marketing knowledge when you want to launch a website or even a language skill when you want to help your kids with the next English exam. Usually only this one role has skills that the other members don’t have (or alternatively each member is a specialist and brings in her own unique skill to the project) Do you have a special skill that you can bring in? What is it?

Soft Skills: Self-starter, logical thinking (based on her expertise)

Weaknesses: Might lack in social skills like communication and active listening or simply focuses on his tasks individually.

The Completer

The Completer is a role that really wants to get things done. Do you think about the end when you just started?

No but really, everyone needs a Completer in their team. How often have you started something but never finished it? The Completer definitely won’t let you procrastinate or even stop in the middle. She is very observant and especially bound to hitting deadlines. Also when it comes to the quality of work she is very detail-oriented and organised, no wonder they are known to be perfectionists (accelerate UK).

Soft Skills: Detail-oriented, Time management, working under pressure

Weaknesses: Might get anxious when the deadlines are near, triggered when others put less importance on reaching deadlines or details

Struggle with procrastination? Here is your solution!

Last but not least is the Monitor Evaluator

Monitor Evaluators are a very realistic role. They estimated all sides and effects of the project and tasks and aren’t afraid to judge the process or outcome. With their open mindfulness they can highlight mistakes and point out if an approach has more negative effects than positive ones(accelerate UK). So now back to you – do you have a strategist on your team? Someone who is more based on logic than on perception?

Soft Skills: Analytical and Logical Thinking, Troubleshooting

Weaknesses: can be too critical, might lack social skills and/or seem distant to the other team members.

What is (are) your Team Role(s)?

All roles - based on the example of moving apartments:

Okay, so let’s end this with an example. You are moving from one place to another and inviting your whole family to help. Just when everyone enters your home you hear your mom talk about the different ways one can bring the bulky furniture down the tight stairway.

Your dad in the meanwhile scans through the whole room and wonders how to get everything into the van. While your sisters scribbles down what needs to get done. From removing furniture to cleaning and handing over the keys. You already know beforehand that your parents will help you with carrying the items and transporting them, while your sister will stay longer to help you clean.

After a while you all notice that the van gets fuller and fuller and still a lot of items are resting in your old apartment. You try your best to de-escalate your bickering parents, while your optimistic sister keeps bringing down more and more furniture.

“We store what we can and then we will see if it all fits in”. Having to pay for the van per hour you try your best to finish early. While you walk back up to gather your bag your mom takes a last glance at the safely stored items, estimating if everything is indeed unable to topple over. Your dad in the meanwhile removes your lamps from the electricity panel.

Which person has which roles?

Don’t know your Skills? Then find them today