Getting the right mix of people in your team can be a near-impossible task. Christian Doherty considers whose job it is to recruit the right mix, and talks to former Avon HR director Anne Gill about which tools she used to recruit the perfect team.
As any football manager will
agree, getting the right blend is
critical in successfully
structuring a team. A team solely
comprised of individualists will soon run
into trouble, while one based on constant
consultation and without necessary
leadership is unlikely to deliver timely and
insightful decision-making. Given that the
best staff will expect to be deployed in
ways that nurture and develop their
talent, ensuring teams are staffed with the
right balance of skills is one of the more
esoteric but critical parts of the CFO’s job.
No matter how close the relationship
between the functions is, identifying and
nurturing talent is not something that the
CFO can outsource entirely to HR. Indeed,
to do that leaves the CFO in a weak
position if skills gaps emerge.
But are senior finance executives
putting talent management and team
building high enough on their agenda?
A recent EY survey suggested there is
further to go.
Among the survey respondents, 82%
agreed CFOs have a duty to mentor and
coach potential replacements within their
company. “It’s a core function of the CFO
role to make sure that you have capability
in the organisation, and that you get
involved in that at all levels,” said Helen
Kilpatrick, director-general of financial
and commercial at the UK Home Office.
“You need to make sure you have that
pipeline of talent over the long term.”
Indeed, boards and investors now expect
senior members of the management team
to take responsibility for succession
planning in their own department. But
given the amount of time the CFO at
mid-market level and above will be
expected to spend on investor relations,
technology, strategy and operational
matters, it’s a wonder they would find
the time to spot the next generation of
finance talent.
For finance directors and their HR
counterparts then, the selection of
recruits and their deployment in the right
teams has become both more subtle and
scientific in recent years. That is in large
part through the emergence of team-building models. Anne Gill, until recently
HR executive director of home shopping
cosmetics company Avon UK, used Belbin,
a standard tool used to categorise staff
into particular boxes, such as ‘the
implementer’, ‘the co-ordinator’, ‘the
team worker’ and so on (see The nine roles according to Belbin).
“In my experience Belbin really helped
us to develop a balance of complementary
skills in a team, as well as assisting team
members in understanding their role in
the team,” says Gill. “For some, the
categorisation developed by going
through the Belbin exercise helped them
to focus on both adding to their strengths
and working on their weaknesses.”
Team members gain a better understanding of how they are viewed by fellow team members
Applying a model
Pioneered by British management theorist
Meredith Belbin in the 1960s and 1970s,
the tool’s success has spurred other
providers to develop programmes and
tools to help businesses identify the gaps
that exist in their workforce and how best
they can be plugged. But Belbin himself is
clear there is no such thing as the ‘ideal’
team – simply teams that are more or less
suited to a specific task – it’s a horses for
courses approach. The model can be
applied to most teams, and Gill says that
at Avon it was mainly used for junior
teams being formed and for creating
project teams for a specific purpose.
So how does it work in practice? “We
used Belbin when putting together a
company-wide project team in the UK, the
remit of which was to enhance the Avon
‘representative experience’. It was an
efficient way of quickly identifying the
skills we had among the project team
and where we had gaps. Using this information, we were able to supplement
the missing skills, which, it turned out,
were mainly ‘plant’ and ‘implementer’, to
ensure the team had access to the full
range of skills. As a result, the team was
able to produce tangible service
enhancements to the representative
experience, including changes to the
delivery box, making it easier to open for
the Avon rep.”
In Gill’s experience, Belbin has the
added benefit of being easy to use. “Team
members only need to spend 15 minutes
on the questionnaire where they complete
the self-assessment module, which works
well. Questions are non-threatening and
in my experience the common language
enables a good team discussion.”
Using Belbin – and indeed other models
that aim to categorise skill sets (Myers
Briggs was also a popular tool at Avon) –
helps teams to acknowledge and recognise
each team member’s contribution,
something that can often get forgotten
about or taken for granted in the day-to-day business of getting the job done.
“We also found that going through the
Belbin process increases self-awareness of
team members,” says Gill. “They gain a
better understanding of how they are
viewed by fellow team members, which in
turn can drive better performance either
through mentoring or training.”
More broadly, when adopted by the
business as a whole, the Belbin team
profile can be really useful in generating
discussion on team strengths/weaknesses,
which in turn can lead to the creation of
an action plan to address roles that are
under-represented. It can also be used in recruitment, especially if team assessment
and benchmarking has identified some
specific gaps. Avon did not generally use
this as a recruitment tool – if used in
recruitment, the individual report would
be used as a basis for further exploration
and validation at interview.
Limitations
These types of projects may only need a selection of roles depending on the task. For instance where the FD is working on developing finance systems, he may, through consultation with colleagues in HR, decide that the project only needs a certain type – ‘the resource investigator’ and ‘monitor evaluator’, for instance.
So, for all its strengths, like all models, Belbin – in Gill’s view – has its flaws. “For a start, unless used properly, it can ‘pigeonhole’ people and limit them to just a few specific roles. By doing so, you may find you are limiting potential development. This pigeon-holing extends to stifling staff from stretching themselves – if someone finds they are the ‘completer finisher’ in a group, it can be an excuse for managers to let them always perform this role.”
It needs to be remembered individuals rarely fit neatly into the categories – team members need to adapt their behaviour to fit different roles; and of course, the converse is also true: individuals may fall into more than one category.
Of course, central to the effective selection and management of teams is the interface between the CFO and HR. In this instance, it’s worth asking what HR brings to the table.
“In the first instance, they should partner with the CFO to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the finance team,” explains Gill. “It is HR’s role to understand the business drivers as well as the external factors and challenges facing the finance team: the sluggish economy, the need to cut costs and respond to new regulatory and tax pressures.”
HR can also play an invaluable supporting role by developing its work on organisation design, where HR professionals can determine the most appropriate model to deliver on organisation strategy. For instance, does the business require a shared service centre for transactional processes or specialisms? At Avon, Gill helped create an EMEA shared service centre as part of a cost efficiency exercise.
The second major area of importance for HR is in talent management: that is, to define capability requirements (skills, behaviours, experience) needed to deliver on the business strategy as well as ensuring the right mix in the teams.
“HR must also support the FD in developing a competency framework to specify functional, technical, team behaviours and competencies,” Gill says. “HR has the ability to assess talent against required competencies, to identify gaps and develop a talent plan to assess team behaviours.
“Lastly, HR must take the lead on performance management. That means not only assessing team performance against team goals, but also aligning individual objectives to the team and business goals. These performance assessments also include team and individual behaviours across the business.”
These models are not going to deliver all the answers, but the good ones that are cleverly used can help CFOs and HR directors ask the right questions to improve performance.
The nine roles according to Belbin
- Plant: creative, imaginative, and free-thinking, the plant generates ideas and solves difficult problems, but ignores incidentals, and is too preoccupied to communicate effectively.
- Resource Investigator: outgoing, enthusiastic and communicative, they explore opportunities and develop contacts. This type is over-optimistic though, and may lose interest after initial enthusiasm.
- The Co-ordinator: mature, confident and identifies talent, as well as clarifies goals and delegates effectively. They can be seen as manipulative. Offloads own share of the work.
- The Shaper: challenging, dynamic, and thrives on pressure. They can overcome obstacles, but are prone to provocation, and can offend people’s feelings.
- Monitor Evaluators: sober, strategic and discerning. They are open-minded and judge accurately, but lack drive and ability to inspire others, and can be overly critical.
- The Teamworker: co-operative, perceptive and diplomatic. They listen and stall friction. However, they are indecisive in crunch situations.
- The Implementer: practical, reliable, efficient, turns ideas into actions and organises work, but can be inflexible and slow to respond to new possibilities.
- The Completer Finisher: painstaking, conscientious and anxious, but polishes and perfects. They are inclined to worry unduly and reluctant to delegate.
- Specialist: single-minded self-starters who are dedicated and provide rare knowledge and skills. They contribute only on a narrow front and tend to dwell on technicalities.
Source: Belbin.com
The competing models
MYERS BRIGGS
This model asks individuals to complete an online questionnaire, following which a team profile is created. Once that is completed, a facilitated discussion takes place on how the team profile supports the team’s goals, and tries to help understand how individuals operate in a team.
Myers Briggs is based on the idea of equipping managers with the ability to understand team dynamics, and in so doing improve individual self-awareness, and appreciate how each team member works, with the ultimate aim of improving team relationships. This model is only used for individual and team development, not selection, but Myers Briggs was the most commonly used model at Avon, and for good reason – it was effective.
FUNDAMENTAL INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS ORIENTATION (FIRO-B)
This looks at how personalities can influence team effectiveness, and as such principally focuses on ‘interpersonal need’. Firo-B is based on the theory that people play roles in teams depending on their own interpersonal needs in relation to the needs of others.
Managers using Firo-B look at the need for inclusion, control and affection (openness), and through careful use, the model can help predict the role a team member will play. It holds that if individual needs are met, then the team member is far more likely to engage, contribute, collaborate and generally be more productive.
Firo-B improves self awareness and team compatibility, and it can be used in selection only as part of other selection tools, as well as to support further exploratory interviews at the selection stage. It is quick and easy to apply and not too expensive.
INSIGHTS DISCOVERY MODEL
This is based on colour insights (Insights Discovery Model) and is a fun way to discover personality type through identification with four colours: Cool Blue (cautious, precise), Fiery Red (competitive, determined), Earth Green (encouraging, patient) and Sunshine Yellow (dynamic, persuasive). It’s a clever, shorthand and is an easy way to describe personality types.
GRPI – GOALS, ROLES, PROCESSES, INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS
Crucially, in common with the most successful models, GRPI facilitates a good team discussion on self awareness and how to understand behaviours of other team members. These models are not going to deliver all the answers, but the good ones (cleverly used) can help CFOs and HR directors ask the right questions to improve performance. Crucially, in common with the most successful models, GRPI facilitates a good team discussion on self-awareness and how to understand behaviours of other team members.
THOMAS-KILMAN CONFLICT MODE INSTRUMENT (TKI)
This conflict mode instrument tool is designed to help teams better understand the nature of conflict/tension and how to approach and manage team dynamics and conflict. It facilitates learning to use five practical, situation-specific styles for dealing with conflict effectively (competing, collaborating, compromising, avoiding, accommodating). In doing so, the TKI model claims to “help trainers, managers and other professionals open productive one-on-one and group discussions around conflict”. One of TKI’s main selling points is the speed and ease of use – the exercise only focuses on 30 items, and takes just 15 minutes. It is easy to understand, and requires no special training or certification to administer.
Anne Gill now runs her own HR consultancy, Kinisi Ltd, which provides HR solutions to businesses.
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Update History
- 08 Jan 2014 (12: 00 AM GMT)
- First published
- 10 Jan 2023 (12: 00 AM GMT)
- Page updated with Further reading section, adding related resources on getting the right mix of people in your team. These additional articles provide fresh insights, case studies and perspectives on this topic. Please note that the original article from 2014 has not undergone any review or updates.