Results Driver: you push the group toward action
You push the group toward action and results: it’s hard for you to watch a stalled task without stepping in to move it forward.
When a conversation drags on without any concrete decisions, you’re usually the one asking, “so, what are we actually doing?”
A role oriented toward action, according to Bales
Social psychologist Robert Bales studied the internal dynamics of small groups in 1950 and distinguished two broad types of contribution within any team: task-oriented (moving forward, deciding, producing results) and socioemotional (tending to the climate, relationships, cohesion). The results driver role fits squarely into the first group: your main contribution to the team is keeping momentum toward the goal, even when everyone else gets stuck in discussion.
How this role shows up
- You actively step in to steer long conversations toward a concrete decision.
- Execution takes priority over prolonged discussion, especially when the deadline is tight.
- You quickly spot stalled tasks and propose, without waiting for someone else to, how to unblock them.
- The team’s energy tends to rise when this role is present and active.
The pace that can leave things out
This role’s blind spot is pace: pushing too fast can leave out legitimate doubts or important nuances other team members haven’t had time to raise. Before forcing a decision, a brief pause with a question like “does anyone see something we might be missing?” is something that, in some cases, could help avoid costlier setbacks down the line than the time saved at the start.
The blind spot Marshall Goldsmith identifies in this profile
Executive coach Marshall Goldsmith, in What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, raises an uncomfortable idea for anyone who’s gotten far thanks to their ability to drive results: the very trait that made you stand out (not being able to stand a stalled task, stepping in to unblock it) tends to turn, without the person noticing, into an obstacle as their responsibility grows. Goldsmith points to a very specific habit that tends to accompany results-oriented profiles: wanting things to move forward now, even if that means not leaving enough room for someone else to raise a legitimate doubt before deciding. The hard part, according to Goldsmith, is that accumulated success makes this blind spot harder to see: if pushing has always worked, it’s harder to accept that the same impulse starts working against you once the team needs something more than speed.
If your main contribution to the team is more about tending the climate and relationships than pushing toward results, check out the cohesion builder role. You can go back to your full result in the What’s My Team Role? test.
Want to know more about yourself?
Discover your result with one of our related tests.
Frequently asked questions
Where does the distinction between task-oriented and people-oriented roles come from?
From Robert Bales's pioneering work (1950) on small-group dynamics, which identified two broad types of contribution in any team: the kind oriented toward moving the task forward, and the kind oriented toward tending the group's climate.
Does a team always need someone in this role?
It almost always helps: without someone pushing toward action, teams with a lot of discussion and little decision-making can easily stall out.
Can this role come across as annoying to others?
It can, if the push toward results doesn't leave room for process or for other team members' legitimate doubts.
Is this the same as being the team's leader?
Not necessarily. You can drive results from any position on a team, without holding the formal leadership role.
