Completer Finisher

Published 6 September 2012

The bench at the end of the Dales Way

I was recently on a work related training course on Project Management, which is not the normal way I’d start writing something on Rambling Man. But I was, and as part of the course we did a personality test called the “Belbin Team Inventory“.

The idea of the Belbin Test is that it gives an idea of how the person being tested behaves in a team. The test measures the person against nine different team roles. These team roles include such things as being the person who inspires others, those who like coordinating and those that are specialists in one subject. The idea is that a team should be made up of various types of people, and it’s one way of seeing what types you have.

For each role you get a score. Those with a high score are basically roles that the person being tested probably should be doing. Those with a very low score are those that the person really shouldn’t be.

As well as finding out that I probably should never be a project manager (oh the irony!) I found out what roles I was generally good at doing in a team.

The highest score came from the role named “Completer Finisher”. The description of the role isn’t quite what you’d think although is appropriate, but the title does sum me up quite well if nothing else. In a work environment I’m someone who likes to finish things; to get that sense of closure of a job well done.

And that regularly finds its way through to my personal life too, and nowhere is it more true when it comes to walking. There are some people who are happy to do half, or a quarter of a long distance walking route. And then there’s people like me who don’t feel content until it’s done.

Case in point, I’ve got a short section of the North Downs Way to do before I can claim I have finished it all and it’s been nagging me for several months that I need to do it. Similarly there’s the remaining half of the Limestone Way which has been sat there since February, waiting to be done.

Now I have a weeks leave in early October. A big part of me would love to go to the Lakes and climb some fells. Maybe even get the tent out (and be a little on the cold side probably.) But deep down I know I cannot. There’s a huge elephant in the room making me need to finish what I’ve started. And that’s what I’ll do. And that’s probably what any good Completer Finisher would do.

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