Team Roles

As a team member, I'm a chameleon that is very influenced by the makeup of the team. In fact, nearly all of my personality evaluations (including those facilitated by professionals) land me smack-dab in the middle. Because of this, I can float between styles and team member roles to fill holes. (As an aside, I'm a Libra. Perhaps my need for balance explains why I'm always adjusting to fill the gaps.)

Generally speaking, though, my most comfortable role is task-facilitating. Again, based on the other folks on the team, I can easily take the role of direction giver, information giver or seeker, elaborator, urger, monitor, process analyst, summarizer, or any combination of these (Whetten & Cameron, 2016). I do tend to shy away from being an enforcer. This is likely because I have an internal locus of control and generally assume others will do assigned tasks because they feel compelled. This hasn't impacted me too much, but I am aware that it is a risk from a leadership standpoint. I'm also not the one that will remind the team about practicality. Again, from an internal locus of control standpoint, I'm usually of the opinion if you can think it, you can do it.

When considering relationship-building roles, I am almost always the tension reliever. Growing up with four uncles and teaching sixth grade have really given me quite the sense of humor. I also have matured into confronting role out of necessity with my role as a leader of cultural transformation. Regarding the remainder of the relationship-building roles: supporting, harmonizing, energizing, developing, consensus building, and empathizing (Whetten & Cameron, 2016), I access these when there is a need to be filled.

I think I am very good at actively engaging my team; I definitely prefer to have consensus from a team before moving forward with a decision (recognizing this is not one of my most comfortable team member roles). In fact, last week, I insisted that we leave out significant portions of a presentation to our executive team because our own team was not in agreement on the content. The presentation was produced by one member without feedback until the final review prior to presenting. I used my confronting skills to push back. Now, when we have more time we can come to consensus on the portion that we are in disagreement about, we can focus on collaborating on the message. It may require some discussion, but ultimately presenting a unified message is important for this project.

I spend a majority of my time working with teams, and I have honed my skills. I always try to act with thoughtfulness in my team member exchanges. This enables me to move between roles and fill valuable needs for teams.

References
Whetten, D. A. & Cameron, K. S. (2016). Developing management skills, 9^th ed. Boston, MA: Pearson.