Leadership Skills

Team Roles

what makes the team function is the individual team members. There are many roles necessary to enable a team to reach its goals. Formal roles are often connected with specific responsibilities. Informal roles are those that relate to an individual's personality, and these informal roles are what make are destroy team project. Individual team members must build harmony and coordinate tasks. To accomplish that may require team members to assume roles such as

Listener: One who actively listens and encourages others to participate. This person is usually well organized.
Enthusiast: One who supports others and encourages team trust. This is a "people" person and is very expressive.
Engager: One who initiates action and asks questions to get others involved. This person drives the action and takes charge.
Negotiator: One who gives up something to foster cooperation. This person is cooperative and likes stability.
Catalyst: One who moves projects forward. This person may be a cheerleader and inspire the team.
Optimist: One who always sees the bright side of things. This person has a positive attitude. (The opposite of this would be the Pessimist.)

These roles are good to identify, but that does not mean that each person assumes only one role on a team or one role at a time. Some members may lean more towards one particular role, but another team member may take on a role as the need arises.

As the team leader, there are three primary roles: leader, manager, or facilitator. These differ in that:

The leader is concerned with doing the right thing
The manager is concerned about doing things right
The facilitator is concerned with helping people do things

A good leader will assume these roles as needed. There is no clear cut rule about which role to use in which situation, but good leaders try to cover all three simultaneously.

Leadership Skills
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Velda Arnaud, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Lead, Educate, Serve Society
leadeducateserve@gmail.com