This may be a strange question for some, but for those of you who know…you know! Undergoing training to try and understand yourself and your team members, with an easy-to-digest colour profile system, can help lead you to build successful and profitable relationships.
The idea behind the system – devised by Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung – is that it helps to guide you in communicating with all manner of people in your workplace – from CEOs and finance managers to marketing assistants and HR departments. We’re all different, and although we don’t fit into a single category, this system incorporates four colours to help identify your core profile.
Sunshine yellow, cool blue, earth green or fiery red. Which one are you?
If you haven’t heard about this approach, the book ‘Surrounded by Idiots’ by Thomas Erikson is a great place to start. The colour profile principle offers insight into how that person may be; for example – a ‘sunshine yellow’ is typically very sociable, dynamic, demonstrative, and enthusiastic. A ‘cool blue’ may be measured, precise, detailed and calm.
Discovering yourself and discovering others
Training on understanding others can lead to improved team dynamics and more effective communication, with a positive outcome for all involved.
These sessions can often surprise those who take part. For example, a sunshine yellow may recognise themself as a happy, bubbly, ‘the glass is half full’ kind of person, who loves life and gives everything they can to all they do. But there can be downsides to this – they may, through the training, become aware that they can be easily led by others and rarely feel in control of various situations.
Developing an even greater understanding of team members, their profiles and how best to interact with them can also be inspiring. There’s no manual on how to deal with each individual, but training in this field has helped guide many into making the best of each interaction. It also helps teams to know how best to approach each other – how some may need information presented and what body language to use when communicating with them.
Different strokes for different folks
Learning about people is interesting – put them in a work environment and it can be even more intriguing. The CEO who enjoys a friendly game of tennis at the weekend can become a fiery red (assertive, strong-willed) on a Monday when they run the morning meeting – wanting the facts and knowing the direction of movement is clear. The finance manager who had a fantastic time at a gig on the Saturday turns cool blue (composed, precise) on Monday morning as the quarterly finances need evaluating – does the data match up? They need all the evidence.
Our roles don’t define us as people, but colour profiles can help us to understand why we become a certain person when we walk through the front door of the office. Understanding people through personality tests will never give you a completely clear picture, but it can be the difference between a short meeting with agreed actions, or a long meeting with exasperated staff and, perhaps, some friction.
Body language, tone, pace of delivery, facts and introductions are pivotal to a successful interaction – no matter how brief, or business sensitive. This training has helped some of our staff in their professional development as well as in their personal lives.
Back to basics
With things returning to some level of normality in 2022, face-to-face meetings are returning. We’re leaving the laptop in the bag and meeting in person once again – here at AD, we can’t wait! We really value the human interaction. In fact, we’ve previously written about the importance of face-to-face and how first impressions are so vital. We think this will be particularly pivotal this year.
To find out more about how we and our partners can help you develop more confident communications with any audience, get in touch.