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Eight Color Personalities Put a Spin on Workplace Communications

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You know better than most that there are more than just four generic personality types around you at home, at work or even when you’re out and about around your neighborhood. Personality is like color; there are as many shades and hues as the eye chooses to see. Strong personal characteristics can certainly follow similar patterns for different people, but they always take slightly different forms depending on the person.

Our individual histories, both environmental and genetic, teach us how to display our personalities. We subconsciously and consciously adjust our behavior in new situations whether we are at a party meeting new people for the first time or interacting with a different team in our company. We each display our personalities differently, even if there are many similarities between us.

Four more personality types

The four color personalities chart can be broken up into eight color personalities, or even 16! There is no way to represent every single personality out there in the world, but by breaking major character traits down into easy categorizations, people can begin to understand why they are the way they are.

Aside from the main four color personalities- Cool Blue, Fiery Red, Earth Green, and Sunshine Yellow- there are also four more subsets of these types that can be created. Rather than call them by a color they are called by a role they might play in the workforce that fits their personality type. These four personality types are known as the Coordinator, Helper, Motivator, and Reformer.

Coordinators are negotiators. They are willing to toe the line between two groups to come to a consensus and to make sure everyone’s voices are heard. They respond best to people who are willing, relaxed, and easy going.

Helpers seek agreement to reach a consensus during a meeting or about a project. Helpers are in tune with others who trust one another, are inventive with their solutions, and who are receptive to new ideas.

Motivators, Coordinators, Helpers, and Reformers

Motivators want to get things going and are particularly in tune with people who can match their active nature and fast paced problem solving style. Motivators don’t respond well to people who don’t speak up or who cause friction in a group.

Reformers get things done. They rely on thought and logic to solve problems and don’t always appreciate emotional appeals when dealing with a professional problem.

Jung opened up an entirely new world with his discoveries, and discoveries into the psychology of personality and the self are still being made today. Insights Discovery is based squarely on Jung’s theories, and as such is an invaluable tool in helping people understand themselves and others. Schedule me, Scott Schwefel, as your keynote speaker, and I will come to your group and address the differences in personalities in a truthful, fun, and easy-to-understand way. Follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to share my blogs with the color energies you work with!

Lending a Helping Hand

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Someone who is a ‘people person’ is known for being warm, sociable, and friendly to a fault. They will go out of their way to lend a helping hand to people they know, people they work for, and occasionally someone they don’t know. Someone who is known as a people person could also be called a Helper, or, as Carl Jung labeled it, the Feeling type personality.

Helpers are sensitive to the needs of others and are always available to lend a hand when others need assistance. At work and in their personal lives they are warm and sociable, always accommodating to others. They are driven by consistency and ambition to succeed with and through others.

Positively a Helper

Helpers seek to create an atmosphere of positive social relationships with the people around them, at work and home. Helpers are ideal in mediation or counseling situations as they are very steady, consistent, and seek the correct solution for another person’s problem. Helpers are great at giving advice and are often sought out for their honesty.

Helpers are best assisted by coworkers and friends who can give a Helper the same care they are given. Helpers can become overwhelmed by taking care of people around them; everyone, even a Helper, needs a support network. Just like Helpers are sought out for advice and a listening ear, Helpers also need these things from their friends and coworkers.

Helpers value loyalty in their friends and appreciate when others help them out. Unfortunately, when Helpers don’t feel like others have given as much for a job or relationship as they have, grudges can form.

Helping a Helper

Helpers struggle to say no, which can cause them to be overwhelmed in work and social situations. They often refuse to turn down requests for help that can cause them to be distracted and anxious that they can’t deliver a great solution to every project they have taken on. Criticism should be given in the right way so that a Helper doesn’t see it as a personal attack; keeping criticism objective is very important for Helpers to improve their work lives.

Sometimes, Helpers need help too. As leaders, Helpers need help to assert their authority. When individuals with Helper personalities are in charge of a team, they are often more concerned with everyone getting along than they are with the results. As Helpers are more attentive to the people rather than the project, others may view them as lacking in proactive tendencies. Focusing a meeting on the actual results of a project can help a Helper realize that disagreement or discussion isn’t a bad thing; rather, they should be encouraged.

If you would like further help in identifying yourself or someone you know who may be a helper, schedule me, Scott Schwefel, as your keynote speaker. I will come to your group and address the differences in personalities in a truthful, fun, and easy-to-understand way. Follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to share my blogs with the color energies you work with!