Many people come to me saying ‘oh you do the colour thing’ and obviously, yes that is true, but there is also a lot more to it than that – the first being that you aren’t one colour, you’re a fabulous mix of all of the four colours.

We refer to the colours as preferences or energies, noting that the combination of our preferences is not an indicator of our skills, but how we prefer to behave in the workplace.  Naturally we find some things easier than others and it is therefore useful to know this when we are working with different people, aiming to achieve high performance in teams or when leading or managing.

Insights Discovery is a fantastic journey into self-awareness, helping us to connect more effectively with others by first understanding ourselves.

Created by Andi Lothian in 1993, using the work of Carl Jung, the Insights Discovery profile uses four colours to describe our typical behaviours.

On a good day

We have all four of these traits within us, to a lesser or greater extent and I’m sure you can recognise where you use them more in certain situations – for example, if presenting to an audience or having a quiet conversation with someone.  We do, however, return to a default style.

For example, with the following order:

Sunshine Yellow, Fiery Red, Cool Blue, Earth Green – this is likely to be fun and energetic, action orientated, using a detailed plan and finally possibly not doing activities with high levels of quiet patience!  Yes, this describes me!

With the opposite order of colour preferences:

Earth Green, Cool Blue, Fiery Red, Sunshine Yellow – this is likely to be calm, inclusive and democratic, full of detailed planning, getting on with things and less likely to be making a noise about it, preferring to quietly progress under the radar.

The world is full of opposite types and different ways of doing things – here is an example of two people I worked with, who through Insights Discovery, established an enhanced understanding of their differences and therefore had a more productive working relationship afterwards:

Senior Manager:

Fiery Red, Cool Blue, Sunshine Yellow, Earth Green

Their approach was driven, task and results orientated, concerned with the success of the team to meet business objectives and was very fact orientated in one to one meetings.  They didn’t share much about themselves personally.  They were assertive and confident in their communication.

Manager: (who reported to the Senior Manager)

Earth Green, Sunshine Yellow, Cool Blue, Fiery Red

Their approach was very people orientated, they liked to share and ask for information on family events and had a caring approach in the way they managed.  They were calm, reflective, bubbly when in the right environment and would always ask about feelings and care for people deeply and personally.

This is a superb example of where the working styles were completely the opposite – neither wrong, just different!  The manager sometimes felt unappreciated and the senior manager would wonder why their direct report was so sensitive!

When we refer to the Good Day Behaviours, plus the Bad Day Behaviours, we can see where there is a potential for misunderstanding and misinterpretation of events.

On a bad day

So how can Insights Discovery help you in the workplace?

Do you ever have that situation where you just ‘don’t get someone’?  Having your own profile and ideally too for the person you are struggling to work with, this will enable you to understand how you often behave – your good and bad traits, you’ll understand how you approach tasks, make decisions, think or feel your way through challenges and explain how introverted or extraverted you tend to be.  You’ll also understand whether you tend to work in the ’here and now’ or whether you’re very conceptual or future-orientated.  Understanding these differences can only be a good thing and how much better to understand yourself before you go out into the world upsetting your team members and colleagues!

So what order do you think your colour preferences are in?  What impact does this order have in the way you work and communicate with others?  Are there some people you can already identify who are completely different to you?  What do you need to do to connect more effectively with them? How can you make the most of the positive traits in your colours?

If you’re curious and would like to know more, please do contact me to make enquiries for an Insights Discovery profile and coaching session which will explain everything from your strengths, weaknesses, blind spots, and suggestions for development.

Also, please check out my Insights Discovery page