Team Roles

Why Define Team Roles?

• Provides guidance on expectations for each responsibility.
• Gives everyone on the team a job/responsibility.
• Makes it easier to allocate tasks and responsibilities.
• Avoids having a few people take all the responsibility and then risk burnout.
• Ensures transition of roles to new members.

Defining SLT Roles

Leadership is a key role in an SLT but there are many other important roles that need to be filled. Each SLT will need to:

• Identify the roles needed. Some common roles include leader, recorder, timekeeper, and data profiler.

• Once you identify the roles, you need to identify someone with the skills and knowledge to perform the tasks assigned to the role.  For example, a person who is comfortable with data and with creating reports should be your data profiler.  Someone who is very organized should be the team’s recorder.
• To prepare for absences or other emergencies, you should identify a second person to fill each role, so all tasks are covered. For example, you would not want to cancel a meeting just because the leader cannot attend.  If you have a back-up leader, the meeting can go on as scheduled and your SLT will not lose momentum.

• You will need to clearly define the tasks for which each role will be responsible before, during, and after each meeting.  This will make it clear for each person and eliminate questions such as who is preparing the materials for the meeting and who is going to complete certain tasks.

What’s Next: Share the team roles handout when you first meet with your team.