Some observers of teams in action have suggested that a teams need a social leader, who is the permanent head of the group, and a separate task leader, who is in charge of a specific and defined project. If so, the Shaper is the task leader and the Co-ordinator is the social leader. The Shaper is the most likely to be the actual leader of a team in those cases where there is no Co-ordinator, or where the Co-ordinator is not, in fact the leader.
The Shaper is full of nervous energy: they are outgoing and emotional, impulsive and impatient, sometimes edgy and easily frustrated. They are quick to challenge, and quick to respond to a challenge (which this type of person enjoys and welcomes). They often has rows, but these are quickly over and the Shaper does not bear grudges. Of all the team, this type of person is the most prone to paranoia, quick to sense a sight and the first to feel that there is a conspiracy afoot and they are the object or the victim of it.
The principal function of the Shaper is to give shape to the application of the team's efforts, often supplying more of their own personal input than the Co-ordinator does. The Shaper is always looking for a pattern in discussions, and trying to unite ideas, objectives and practical considerations into a single feasible project, which this type of person seeks to push forward urgently to decision and action.
The Shaper exudes self-confidence, which often belies strongs self-doubts. Only results can reassure this type of person. Their drive, which has a compulsive quality, is always directed at their objectives. Which are usually the team's objectives too, but then the Shaper, much more than the Co-ordinator, sees the team as an extension of their own ego. The Shaper was action and they want it now. They are personally competitive, intolerant of wooliness, vagueness, and muddled thinking, and people outside the team are likely to describe this type of person as arrogant and abrasive. Even people inside the team are in danger of being steamrollered by this type of person on occasions, and this type of person can make the team uncomfortable, but they make things happen.