Colour personality profiling as a leadership tool - Veterinary Woman (2024)

Home Career Development Colour personality profiling as a leadership tool

Guest blog by Jo Woods, Leadership and Development Coach and founder of Shine Coaching.

I’d like to take you on a whistle stop tour of people and colour personalities. We’ll look at what personality profiling is, which might be your dominant colour, how you can benefit from understanding different personalities, and some ideas you can take away to apply the understanding in your practice.

There are many personality profile tools out there including Myers-Briggs, Insights Discovery, DISC, 16personalities, Big5, to name but a few. I trained with a company called Clarity4D as I love their approach to making personal profiles simple and accessible for everyone.

So what are personality profiling tools? It might surprise you to know the roots go back to the ancient Greek philosophers who discovered the four elements (water, earth, fire and air). Fast forward 2000 years to the early 1900’s, and the psychologist Carl Jung also identified differences in personality types. Linking the elements to the four types identified by Jung, the Clarity4D model adds four colours (blue, green, red and yellow) to make it easier to recognise and remember the different types of personality.

Questions in a personality profile test can seek out information about our likely temperament, decision-making methods, personal attributes, values and communication style.

And the key for me there is communication. There’s a reason that Chapter 1 of Thomas Eriksons book Surrounded by Idiots is called “Communication happens on the listeners terms”. Everything we say to someone else is filtered through their frames of reference, belief, experiences, memories, values, biases and preconceived ideas. This is one of the many challenges of communication: you simply can’t change how the listener receives what you say. But you can become a more effective communicator by adjusting yourself to how other people want to be treated.

Colourful personality types

Let’s dive into colours. Based on two axes (Introvert / Extrovert and Thinking / Feeling), four quadrants can be made that describe personality types. While we are all a mixture of all four colours and have capacity to use 100% of all four colours, we do have a natural preference for using some of the colour energies over others. Consider the phrase “in my element”. When you’re in your element, you’re probably doing something that you enjoy, maybe it feels like it comes quite easily to you, quite naturally. Chances are, whatever you’re doing is in line with your colour energy, with your element.

Did you know? Whether you’re an Extrovert or Introvert has nothing to do with being loud or shy as most people think, but more with the preferred way of recharging your energy levels. Do you need time for yourself? Or do you prefer hanging out with a group to regain energy?

People leading with Blue and Red energy tend to be more task oriented and make decisions based on logic. They instinctively search for facts. They naturally notice tasks and work that needs to be done and are easily able to provide an objective and critical analysis.

Those with Green or Yellow as their dominant colour tend to be more relationship driven and make decisions based on gut instinct. They instinctively employ personal feelings and look for the impact on people. They’re naturally sensitive to people’s needs and reactions and tend to seek consensus.

Anyone with Blue or Green as their dominant colour are more introverted and need time to themselves. They tend to think and reflect first, then act later. Those leading with Red or Yellow energy are more extroverted and get their energy from being around others. They usually act first, then think and reflect later.

Understanding attributes

Before we start looking at colour characteristics, let’s just clarify a really important point: there is no right or wrong colour, no right or wrong colour combination. This isn’t about evaluating people’s skills or pigeon-holing people, it’s about having a better understanding of your natural preferences and behaviours. And scientific or not, there’s a real benefit in seeing the blind spots and realising that people do not think, behave, or feel the same. Ultimately, the underlying goal is to improve communication and connection.

Let’s look at the attributes of each of the colours, starting with Blue. Do you recognise these strengths in yourself? Remember there’s no right or wrong, we all have different strengths. And you don’t have to exhibit every single behaviour listed here to be a dominant Blue, it’s about building a picture.

What about Red; could that be your dominant colour?

Or Green?

Or Yellow?

Any surprises? Can you start to recognise not just your own dominant colour but maybe that of your team and colleagues?

Seeing through a different lens

Those descriptors might be considered as how we see ourselves, but what about how other people see us? Are they seeing our strengths, or do they view our behaviours through their own lens?

For example, we know that people with high Blue energy are great with details, facts and asking questions. But how might that come across, say, to someone with Red or Yellow as their dominant colour? If the other person hasn’t taken the time to understand them, they might find them picky or critical. But we’d be lost without that level of detail and precision in the world.

What about those leading with Red? They’re determined and excellent at decision making, but how might they be misunderstood by someone with dominant Green or Yellow energy for example? Others who are more interested in relationship building might find high Red energy too impersonal and a bit aggressive, but we need action takers to move things forward.

Let’s think about people with Green as their dominant colour. We know that they’re a safe pair of hands and very inclusive, but how might they come across, say to someone leading with Blue or Red energy? A bit wishy washy maybe, not good at decision making. But without their considered and calm approach we’ll end up with a lot more conflict.

And people with high Yellow energy? They’re creative, enthusiastic, full of ideas. But how might they come across to others who don’t understand them? They might seem disorganised, chaotic even. But we need that passionate optimism, that dynamism, that innovation in the world.

It is crucial to understand that people do not think, behave, or feel the same, and that someone who behaves differently from you is not wrong, they are just exactly that: different from you.

In terms of preferences by gender, the male population tends to lead with higher Blue and Red energy and the female population tends to lead with higher Green and Yellow energy.

Insights

But so what? Why bother with knowing what different personality traits you, your colleagues or your team have? Because that improved understanding – of yourself and others – means you can:

• Better understand – and play to – your strengths and identify your blind spots
• Recognise and value the differences in others and their preferred ways of communicating
• Raise your awareness of the impact of personal behaviour on the team
• Understand the behaviours expected in different situations and modify your reactions to different attitudes or behaviours
• Improve relationships by interacting and communicating with your team and colleagues more effectively
• Build collaboration and co-operation, ultimately leading to innovation
• Improve efficiencies by reducing errors, missed deadlines and wasted time/resources
• Identify which kind of tasks are most suitable for different people
• Discuss how your team prefer to be managed
• Create growth opportunities and help bring out the best in each person
• Discuss opportunities for changing the nature of people’s tasks and placing them in optimal positions that allow them to thrive
• Keep team wellbeing and motivation high during challenging times
• Create closer relationships with suppliers and customers

Let’s consider a practical application of understanding people’s differences. If you’re a left-handed veterinary surgeon, for example, it makes it easier for you if your surgical kit is set out in a way that you prefer. And from a personality point of view, knowing whether your colleagues are extroverted or introverted, for example, means you know whether they’re going to find it easier or harder to participate in a busy conversation, and you can adapt and support them accordingly.

What examples can you think of in your practice? Maybe there’s been a time where actions haven’t been followed up after a meeting, or you’ve struggled to delegate a task to a colleague. Could a lack of understanding and communication be at the root of that?

Putting it into practice

Now that we understand a bit more about the differences between people and the benefit of having that understanding, let’s look at how you can use it to everyone’s advantage. Here’s some Dos and Don’ts for communicating with each colour type.

Communicating with someone with high Blue energy

DOs ….

• Be clear, specific, factual
• Give time for reflection
• Provide detail in writing
• Remain focused
• Set an agenda before and summary after
• Start with info and context
• Ask lots of questions especially why’s
• Have a Plan B — share alternatives/opinions
• Support your point with examples/anecdotes
• Give them all the info – don’t withhold

DON’Ts ….

• Put them on the spot
• Jump to conclusions
• Send meaningless thank you emails
• Don’t cc the world
• Get too emotive about plans in progress
• Waste time
• Waffle

Communicating with someone with high Red energy

DOs….

• Get to the point – What’s the goal?
• Purposeful brainstorming
• Concise but contextual (why, what, how)
• Action oriented
• Business focused, save the socialising
• Follow the agenda
• Focus on the bottom line

DON’Ts ….

• Move too slowly
• Take things personally — work isn’t personal
• Tell them at the last minute
• Come unfocused
• Be vague

Communicating with someone with high Green energy

DOs….

• Explain why – the reason something needs to be done (e.g. context, background, reason)
• Give advance notice
• Let them know if/how something will affect them and their colleagues
• Allow for feedback/forum for discussion
• Be respectful — tone of voice, listening
• Be caring, attentive, genuine
• Keep your promises

DON’Ts ….

• Give them any surprises
• Tell them what to do/how to do it
• Look over their shoulder/micromanage
• Be aggressive
• Make rushed decisions
• Assume they’re a pushover or will always say yes or take your side

Communicating with someone with high Yellow energy

DOs….

• Use humour
• Smile and be happy
• Ask them questions
• Enthusiastic and passionate
• Positive reassurance
• Communicate — don’t withhold information
• Okay to go off topic
• Involve and engage them
• Be dynamic

DON’Ts ….

• Bog down with details
• Dominate
• Let misunderstandings occur – provide an explanation
• Leave them out of the picture
• Be pessimistic
• Be curt

Key takeaways

While we have a natural preference for using one colour energy over others, we are all a mixture of all four colours and have capacity to use 100% of all of them.

There is no right or wrong colour, no right or wrong colour combination.

People do not think, behave, or feel the same, and someone who behaves differently from you is not wrong, they are just exactly that: different from you.

You can’t change how the listener receives what you say but you can become a more effective communicator by adjusting yourself to how other people want to be treated.

Effective communication is the key to all relationships. Clearer communication means stronger relationships. Stronger relationships lead to superior outcomes.

Shine Coaching helps SME’s improve individual and team effectiveness by supporting overwhelmed managers become confident and respected leaders.

To discuss Clarity4D personal profiles or find out about how 1:1 coaching can improve confidence, communication, delegation, prioritising, teamwork and more, email Jo Woods jo@shinewellness.co.uk or connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jo-woods-coach/

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