What colour mix are you?

Earlier this year I learnt about Clarity4D, a personality profiling tool that I think will be really useful to a lot of my clients. Another personality profile tool? I hear you say... well, yes it is one of a number on the market but this has a number of advantages.

It's a lot simpler and more memorable than some others. It's less expensive. And it's very effective both for individuals and teams.

The premise is that each of us has a mixture of different energies in our personality. These can be expressed as colours. If we each understand our own preferences, and those of our colleagues, we can communicate with each other much more effectively and optimise our own work performance.

Red energy is outgoing, taking charge, wanting action, impulsive. Yellow energy is friendly, sociable, interested, upbeat. Green energy is supportive, thoughtful, inclusive and open. Blue energy is data-driven, careful, taking time and preferring analysis.

Everyone is a mix; no-one's personality is one colour alone. And importantly, no colour is better or worse than any other. We need to have a mixture. But when you know your colour profile, you understand how you take in information best, how you prefer to work, and how people can access you and your skills optimally. Crucially, you can explain this to other people, simply and without judgement.

Likewise when you know a colleague's colour profile, you see how to approach them in the way they will be most receptive to, you appreciate why they work the way they do, and you can get better results when working with them.

Clarity4D isn't an appraisal system, there is no ranking or scoring, and it's not linked to specific work tasks or industries - it can be applied to any team, including youngsters and sports teams.

When everyone understands this common language of colour, it is so easy to discuss peoples' particular suitabilities or differences, identify why clashes happen, put effective teams together, and create a comfortable atmosphere where regular feedback is easy, non judgemental and helpful.

What's not to love?