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BELBIN Job Comparison ReportUsing evidence from Charas (2015) to connect team behaviour, governance and profitability
Boards are often treated as collections of high-performing individuals. Directors are selected for their experience, networks and expertise, while governance codes focus on appointments, structures and independence.
Yet despite decades of research, links between these individual-level factors and corporate performance remain inconsistent.
A landmark study by Solange Charas (2015) offers a crucial insight: the board’s team dynamics – how directors work together – are far more important predictors of profitability than who sits around the table. This finding opens the door to a more holistic approach to board effectiveness, one that aligns closely with Belbin’s research into team behaviour.
Belbin’s research discovered that performance is not determined solely by the capabilities of individual members, but by the balance of roles, interactions and patterns of behaviour that emerge when people work together. Charas’s research provides empirical support for this view at the highest organisational level.
What the research found
Charas gathered data from 182 board directors who assessed both their personal effectiveness and the effectiveness of their board as a team. She also collected information on their organisation’s profitability.
A striking pattern emerged. Whilst directors rated themselves as highly effective individually (around 90%), only around 30% rated their board as a team to be equally effective.
This “self–team gap” reflects a common phenomenon: talented individuals do not automatically combine into an effective team.
Crucially, Charas found that board-team functioning was eight times more predictive of corporate profitability than individual director characteristics such as experience or demographics.
Specific factors associated with improved profitability included:
- high-quality interaction between board members;
- reduced information asymmetry (i.e., more open sharing of insights);
- directors with strong social capital and higher cultural intelligence;
- high team potency – the belief that the board, as a group, can perform well.
Conversely, boards that focused heavily on compliance at the expense of value-creation activities experienced a negative impact on profitability.
The implication is clear.
The way a board works together directly influences how well an organisation performs.
This is where Belbin comes in
Belbin Team Roles offer a practical framework for understanding and improving team dynamics – including at board level. Charas’s findings align with several core Belbin principles.
1. Performance depends on collective behaviour
Belbin emphasises that teams outperform individuals when behavioural roles are well-aligned and complementary. Charas’s research mirrors this: board dynamics, not individual traits, drive outcomes.
2. Balanced teams reduce blind spots
Information asymmetry – a major risk highlighted in the study – often arises when teams lean too heavily on certain behavioural contributions while neglecting others.
- For example, a board dominated by Shapers and Specialists may push forward quickly but miss caution, detail or stakeholder considerations.
- A board heavy in Monitor Evaluators but light on Plants or Resource Investigators may produce careful analysis without innovation or external insight respectively.
Using Belbin at board level helps reveal these imbalances and mitigate the risks they create.
3. Effective board behaviour requires diversity of contribution
Cultural intelligence and social capital, both linked to profitability in the Charas study, highlight the importance of directors’ ability to build relationships, share information effectively and create an environment where diverse perspectives are heard.
Belbin provides a practical framework and common language to make these contributions visible and valued at board level.
4. Team potency grows when people understand the team’s strengths
Charas identifies team potency as a positive predictor of profitability. Belbin reporting helps boards build this confidence by making visible what each member brings, clarifying strengths and reducing the interpersonal friction that undermines trust and potency.
5. Balancing compliance and value-creation
A board’s collective behaviour often determines where its attention goes. Understanding strengths and addressing balance can ensure that compliance is balanced against value creation. For example:
- Belbin Team Roles such as Implementer, Completer Finisher and Monitor Evaluator are well-placed to support compliance requirements.
- Shapers, Plants and Resource Investigators naturally drive value-creation, strategy and innovation.
A balanced Belbin profile helps boards avoid over-rotation towards compliance at the expense of strategic contribution, driving profitability.
Why Belbin can support profitability
Bringing Belbin into the boardroom allows organisations to do what the Charas study recommends: focus intentionally on team dynamics rather than only on structural or individual inputs.
Specifically, Belbin can help boards:
- diagnose behavioural patterns that influence decision-making;
- improve interaction quality and reduce information asymmetry;
- ensure that governance, challenge and creativity are all represented;
- increase team potency by reinforcing the collective strengths of the board;
- support succession planning, director induction and board composition decisions with behavioural insight.
Belbin does not replace other governance frameworks, but strengthens them by addressing what Charas identifies as the missing piece: how the board behaves as a team.
Conclusion
Boards are not merely assemblies of experts – they are teams whose dynamics directly affect organisational performance. Charas’s research provides empirical evidence that team functioning at board level is strongly linked to profitability.
Belbin offers a practical, evidence-based way to shape those dynamics, helping directors understand one another, reduce hidden risks and work together more effectively.
For organisations seeking to enhance board effectiveness, improve decision-making and, ultimately, support profitability, integrating Belbin into board development is not simply a useful exercise – it is a strategic advantage.
