Personality Characteristics: Anxious, dominant, extrovert.

Some observers of teams in action have suggested that a team needs a social leader, who is the permanent head of the group, and a separate task leader, who is in charge of a specific project - much in the way that a nation needs both Head of State, who is permanent, and a Head of Government, with a specific job to do. If so, the SHAPER is the task leader and the CO-ORDINATOR is the social leader. The SHAPER is most likely to be the actual leader of the team in those cases where there is no CO-ORDINATOR, or where the CO-ORDINATOR is not in fact the leader.

SHAPERS are highly motivated people with a lot of nervous energy and a great need for achievement. They are out-going and emotional, impulsive and impatient; sometimes edgy and easily frustrated. They are quick to challenge, and quick to respond to challenge (which they enjoy and welcome). They often have rows, but they are quickly over and they do not harbour grudges. Of all the team members, they are the most prone to paranoia, quick to sense a slight and the first to feel that there is a conspiracy afoot of which they are the object or victim. They like to lead and to push others into action. If obstacles arise, they will find a way round. Headstrong and assertive, they tend to show strong emotional response to any form of disappointment or frustration.

The principal function of SHAPERS is to give shape to the application of the team's efforts, often supplying more of their own personal input than do CO-ORDINATORS. They generally make good managers because they generate action and thrive under pressure. They are well suited to making necessary changes and do not mind taking unpopular decisions. They are always looking for patterns in discussions and trying to unite ideas, objectives and practical considerations into a single feasible project, which they seek to push forward urgently to decision and action.

SHAPERS exude self-confidence, which often belies strong self-doubts. Only results can reassure them. Their drive, which has a compulsive quality, is always directed at their objectives. They are usually the team's objectives too, but then SHAPERS, much more than CO-ORDINATORS, see the team as an extension of their own ego. They want action and they want it now. They are personally competitive, intolerant of woolliness, vagueness and muddled thinking, and people outside the team are likely to describe them as arrogant and abrasive. Even people inside the team are in danger of being steamrollered by them on occasions, and they can make the team uncomfortable; but they make things happen.