Team Members' Roles

What are team members’ roles?   Why are they necessary to the team?   After defining each person’s role on a team, what are their responsibilities? Can a team have dual roles and responsibilities?   Does your personality have to match your role on the team? What are the benefits and advantages of working within a team? These are all questions that are not clearly defined in the beginning. This can cause the overall scope of the project to be difficult, lack of communication between team members and can result in conflict among team members.
As members are placed, the first task is to determine the overall mission of the team.   Each member should feel comfortable to voice his/her strategies for the overall purpose.   Members must have equal say on the scope and consideration of their ideas toward the success of the project (personal communication, December 2005).   After defining the overall objectives, the team must decide on the implementation of shared responsibilities.
Shared responsibilities of the team would include scheduling project meeting times, determining when to meet, how often to meet, where to meet, who will be responsible for scheduling meeting request(s), who will be responsible for preparing and sending out agendas routinely, who will be responsible for taking and publishing minutes, and status updates for periods in between the scheduled meetings.   The team could also focus on document review deadlines and approvals for the project.  
There are various roles a team must outline within the team for success in completing a project.   According to the web site for Team Technology (2007) there can be several role descriptions for a team, they are as follows:
1. “Coach – one who tries to create harmony by creating a positive atmosphere, motivating everyone else on the team and building a great rapport.
2. Champion – one who brings ideas and thoughts to the team.   This person often brings out the priorities and focus of the team.
3. Explorer – one who...