Understanding your personal role preferences and those of
your teammates is important step in identifying the natural roles in your team
and those that may need to be adopted. The following two-step exercise will
assist in this process.
- Individually complete the Team Role Self-Assessment template here (save for your personal use or print a hard copy to complete by hand).
- Share your results with your teammates using a shared Google Docs spreadsheet similar to this template. This completed spreadsheet will be your team functional role profile.
Step 2: Discuss your team profile.
- Review your completed team role profile together at your next virtual meeting. The profile can be shared in your meeting application (e.g., WebEx, Adobe Connect, etc.) or simply accessed by all team members through their Google Docs account.
- Identify roles that are covered by team member style preferences, and those that are underrepresented.
- Discuss how your team will address underrepresented roles. Identify team members who are willing to stretch their personal style to adopt and learn alternative roles.
- Discuss the best use of each role, and potential inappropriate uses of each role. When should each role be stepping forward, and when should each role step-back? How will the team regulate the appropriate and inappropriate use of each role? Document this in your team functional role profile.
Click here for the team functional roles profile template (you'll need to be logged into your Google Account).
