By Bob Coulter
Senior leaders and owners of companies across North America have grown their careers and businesses because of their talents, drive and commitment levels. Most of these individuals have been very hands-on people who have gotten things done and worked very hard to achieve their objectives.
In the last few years, we continue to see individuals that are on a quest for personal improvement, and that helps them increase their effectiveness. These leaders have decided that they can’t do everything themselves, and need to be able to work with people on their team so that they can share the load with others. This is challenging when you have been the person who has always carried the entire burden for your business.
The next step in professional development needs to come down to growing leadership effectiveness. Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, writes, “Leaders have the capacity of knowing their emotions (self-awareness), managing emotions, motivating oneself, recognizing emotions in others and handling relationships.” To me, this means that we need to know how we are wired—and how the people we work with are wired. The clearer we see ourselves, the better prepared we will be to lead and drive performance improvement in our organization.
What’s your color?
The Insights Group has done a great job of helping define and understand different personalities. Its color energy model can be used to understand the relative strengths and weaknesses of a person’s personality. By understanding our personality energy color—and that of our employees—we can create the right color palette to ensure harmony and effectiveness in the business. According to Insight’s color model, our energy is predominantly red, yellow, green or blue.
RED: Individuals who have strong red energy are extroverts who have a predominant problem-solving thinking style. You will see them as positive, fiery, bold and assertive.
YELLOW: People who are best described as cheerful, uplifting, spirited and need to be with people. These individuals are extroverts whose feelings guide their problem-solving.
GREEN: An individual with green energy is an introvert who uses a feeling style of problem-solving. Key characteristics of someone with green energy are calm, soothing, nurturing and focused upon fairness.
BLUE: Individuals who exude blue energy are described as objective, detached, analytical and like working by themselves. “Blue” people are introverted with a “thinking” style of problem-solving.
Avoiding color clashes
It is important to understand what energy you need and what energy feeds your co-workers—and how to make those colors work together.
For example, think about the communication challenges you have had within your company. Often, this could be caused by working with people who are your opposites. We need to be aware of how our personality (and our energy) comes through when we are having a good day—and especially when we are having a bad day. Those bad-day examples are what drive our co-workers crazy.
Your company’s effectiveness will come from each team member spending time in the places that give them the most energy. Capitalize on your energy strengths by scheduling tasks that “drain” your energy to be done first, so you can get back to your areas of strength to recharge our batteries.
The most successful leaders are able to consciously modify their behavior to better meet the energy needs and successfully connect with their team members. To make this happen, we need to relate to others in an empathetic, dynamic and aware way, creating the possibility of enhanced mutual understanding and relating at an intellectual, emotional and/or spiritual level.
Stephen Covey once said: “We see the world not as it is, but as we are.” Our belief window comes from our experiences and frame of reference, so if we can better blend the energy colors in your organization, we can help paint a masterpiece of success.
For more information on the Insights Group’s color system, visit www.insights.com and click on the Learning Solutions tab.
Bob Coulter is a training coach and consultant with JP Horizons. Visit www.jphorizons.com.
