teresa.glenn – blog.colorcode.com

Home-schooling with Color Code

Over the past 8 months, I have occasionally been responsible for home-schooling my 9-year old twin grandsons.

My takeaway from this experience is that I chose the right career path. I am NOT a teacher, and I’m sending a great big shout out to all those who chose teaching as their career path. You are my heroes and here is why:

I am only teaching two kids! According to https://nces.ed.gov, the average primary school class size in America is 20. That means, based on Color Code demographics, teachers average 5 Reds, 7 Blues, 4 Whites, and 4 Yellows in their classes. Imagine teaching that many kids with such varying personalities!

Although my grandsons are twins, they also have very different personalities–Red (logical) and Blue (emotional)—and thus, completely different learning styles.

Make no mistake. What I observed has nothing to do with IQ. My guess is that if I were to measure their IQs they would be as identical as their cute little faces. Instead, it has everything to do with personality and how they react to their academic performance.

My Red is loaded with self-confidence and arrogance, while my Blue is burdened with self-doubt and worry. Because of this, the Blue believes that his Red brother is the smart one, and of course, the Red concurs.

Right after I watched YouTube videos like “Area Model Multiplication Explained!”, my goal was to set them on an equal academic footing. Using my Color Code knowledge of each of their needs and wants, I got to work.

My Red was getting his needs and wants met. He looks good technically and has gained approval from his teacher. My goal was to work on his insensitivity and his need to always be right. A little infusion of empathy goes a long way. Every time he teased his Blue brother for not understanding something, I interceded. I told him how proud I was that he was a good student, but being a kind person is as important as being smart, if not more so.

My goal for my Blue was to build his confidence. He worried every time he was faced with something new, sometimes reducing him to tears. When this happened, I sat with him and told him how smart he is and how much I admire his tenacity. I gave him examples like when he was learning to dive and how many bellyflops it took before he succeeded. I could see his confidence grow.

I created games that had them compete against one another. I saw my Blue begin to win as many as he lost, and I saw my Red compliment his brother on the wins instead of slugging him in the arm.

By the end of my week of home-schooling, there was a marked difference in how they functioned academically and how they treated each other. Both boys were scoring 100 percent on their assignments, and learning became a pleasant and fun experience. CC

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If you’re wondering how you can use Color Code to help with your children’s academic performance, check out our new product Parenting and Personality and the companion child assessments. https://thecolorcodestore.com/parentingguide1

Teresa Glenn has been working with the Color Code since 2006, where her main focus is product development. She has been in the publishing and product development field for over 20 years. Teresa is a core Red with a strong Yellow secondary.

Self-Awareness in the Workplace: Effective Empathy

In this article we discuss the importance of empathy in the workplace and how the four personality types can improve this important skill.

We discussed workplace bullying, but like Charles M. Glow said, “One doesn’t have to operate with great malice to do great harm. The absence of empathy and understanding are sufficient.”

With so many issues facing the workforce today, it is essential to recognize and understand your workforce’s diversity and empathize with their daily problems.

Empathy is the ability to put yourself in others’ shoes, psychologically, to understand their thoughts, feelings, needs, and wants. More importantly, it’s using that information to build relationships, teamwork, and effective leadership.

Studies reveal that empathy is positively related to job performance, and managers who exhibit empathy are more effective and better performers in their jobs. Unfortunately, empathy is the skill managers struggle with most–only 4 in 10 leaders have a natural empathy.

Many managers are naturally empathetic–Blues have an innate gift of compassion, thoughtfulness, and sincerity. Whites have a natural kindness and are willing listeners.

Others are not. Because Reds are innately selfish and Yellows are naturally self-centered, they are not as tolerant of other people’s problems and less likely to place themselves in another’s shoes.

The good news—research shows that empathy can be learned.

REDS

A Red who isn’t a natural-born empath will have difficulty developing the skill. They lack the emotional motivation of a Blue and Yellow. They will struggle with impatience when listening to others’ problems—taking the “pull yourself up by the bootstraps” approach to communication.

Reds: Learn to Listen. You need to remember that people are not machines. They have feelings. Listen and absorb what is said. Develop the ability to identify with the issues you are hearing. Don’t trivialize the problem. Be patient and offer help.

BLUES

While many Blues are innately empathic–naturally thoughtful and compassionate, they can also be emotionally controlling and judgmental. They will feel your pain, maybe even worry about it, but they will also want to take an active role in solving the problem.

Blues: Don’t Be Judgmental You don’t struggle with empathy. What you struggle with is your need to judge and control. Remember, genuine empathy is putting yourself in the shoes of another, not making them fit into yours. Learn to fight the impulse to fix another’s problems while letting them know you are there for them when they need you.

YELLOWS

Yellows can be fair-weather friends. When all is well, they are there. When things turn confrontational, they make themselves scarce. They enjoy their sense of well-being and don’t want your problems to mar them.

Yellows: Use your natural curiosity as an empathy-building block. Ask meaningful questions. Learn engaged listening. Don’t think about other things while being spoken to. Don’t interrupt. Respond with understanding comments and gestures. Eventually, these behaviors will become natural.

WHITES

Whites are kind, great listeners, and very accepting, but they can also be ambivalent and uninvolved. Whites are logical so have a difficult time understanding emotional need.

Whites—Become engaged. Excellent listening skills matter, but what you do with the information matters more. You might just be thinking, “Please. Go. Away.” Engaged listening is necessary for you to empathize with others. Step out of your own “comfort zone” shoes try to fit yourself in the shoes of others.

Only when you become self-aware—conscious of your strengths and limitations—can you begin to feel empathy for others.

Next month as our Self-Awareness journey continues, we will explore our diverse workplaces and how our filters can profoundly affect our ability to discern core colors.

Recommended Articles

https://blog.shrm.org/blog/the-importance-of-empathy-in-hr

https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/0817/pages/how-to-prevent-burnout-with-empathy.aspx

https://www.shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/hr-topics/employee-relations/Pages/Why-Empathetic-HR-Leaders-Are-More-Effective.aspx

https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-iry-fullyhosted_011&hsimp=yhs-fullyhosted_011&hspart=iry&p=empathy#action=view&id=36&vid=f583cd1ed3c72a40a9d70eaac793727e

Recommended Videos

The Secret To Increasing Your Empathy | The Science of Empathy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSiRgyCwPhE

The power of empathy: Helen Riess at TEDxMiddlebury

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baHrcC8B4WM

Self-Awareness in the Workplace: Bullying

Bullying in the workplace from a Color Code perspective.

Most of us would be appalled if someone called us a bully and yet often the perception is there. You might not realize how traumatizing your behavior is, not only to the person you have singled out, but to witnesses as well.

Not unlike playgrounds, high school halls, and social media, bullying does exist in the workplace. While the content might be different, the results are the same. Research indicates that persistent bullying can lead to or worsen feelings of isolation, rejection, exclusion, and despair. ¹

The company, too, suffers. According to the Workplace Bullying Institute² one in four employees experience workplace bullying and their engagement and/or employee status affected. Not only that, a new study suggests that co-workers who witness bullying are also traumatized by the bully’s behavior—and are as likely as the targeted person to leave their employment incurring possible costs to the employer in these areas:

Turnover
Lost Opportunity Cost
Absenteeism & Presenteeism
Litigation & Settlements
Workers Comp & Disability Insurance Claims

A single bully can have a devastating affect on the bottom line. The problem should be taken very seriously.

Who exactly are the bullies?

Many of you are thinking “Reds! They’re the Reds!” And yes, you would be right…at least 25% of the time. The truth is, it could be any of us. If you take in to account your core motive’s natural limitations, throw in the limitations of a secondary color, stir in all the negative filters you’ve adopted throughout life and voilá!—you have the recipe for a bully.

UNHEALTHY MOTIVES

There are those who go through life unable to recognize that they are not the victim, but the bully. They are unhealthy in their motives, adopting and embracing limitations and discarding or ignoring their innate strengths. Following are examples of unhealthy motives and how they might manifest as bullies.

Reds—Because I Said So! We’ll start with the most obvious choice…the Red. Red’s natural limitations can be intimidating. Heck, let’s face it–so can many of their strengths. An unhealthy Red can be aggressive and demanding. They might enjoy the power they have over their target person and humiliate them verbally in front of there coworkers.

Blues—If You’re Unhappy Here… Never underestimate the bullying capabilities of an unhealthy Blue. They tend to be overly sensitive, unforgiving and suspicious. Once you have gotten on their bad side, there may be no turning back. An unhealthy Blue’s bullying style will be more psychological, telling themselves and others they are doing it for your own good.

Yellows—This should be fun… Let’s face it. Yellows breath life into the workplace. They are popular and socially influential. An unhealthy Yellow is also self-centered, vain and loves to be the center of attention. Being the controller of the social environment, a sick Yellow’s bullying style will include using his social influence to ostracize (commonly called mobbing) his victim.

Whites—I’ll show him … It’s true that Whites are motivated by peace and that is part of the problem. Whites will do anything to avoid conflict but never underestimate his silent stubbornness. A sick White can be sneaky, sabotaging your success by pretending to comply, but not. Of course, no one will believe it was done on purpose.

GETTING HEALTHY THROUGH SELF AWARENESS

There are a great deal of positive strengths in each of the Color Code core motives that once embraced will help you overcome your unhealthy traits, but you must recognize your limitations, take responsibility and do something about them.

Here are some tips:

Examine your motives. Dig deep and be honest. What is causing you to target this particular person?
Take 100 percent responsibility for your actions. Stop blaming the other person for your behavior.
Look at your limitations. Begin working on those limitations outside of your DCM. They are the ones that are the most confusing to others.
Build on your strengths. You will be amazed at how your coworkers respond.
Remember, your softskills are far more important to your life success than your hard skills.

Next month, we’ll explore the importance of Empathy because as Charles M. Glow said, “One doesn’t have to operate with great malice to do great harm. The absence of empathy and understanding are sufficient.”

1. https://www.stopbullying.gov/media/facts/index.html

2. http://business.time.com/2012/07/12/workplace-bullying-the-problem-and-its-costs-are-worse-than-we-thought/

Self-Awareness in the Workplace: 2021—A year of challenges

Learn how questioning your motives can help you make and keep New Year’s Resolutions.

Editor’s note: This article was originally published on the Color Code blog in 2018, but the subject seems just as (if not more) relevant today. The dates have been changed to 2021 to reflect the current year.

As we come to the end of January, many of us have made and most likely broken New Year’s resolutions. In fact, statistically, only about 58% of New Year’s resolutions are successful past the one-month mark.

QUESTION YOUR MOTIVES

According to statisticbrain.com, 44.3% of resolutions are self-improvement related, and 22.8% are relationship related. Based on those figures, a person’s resolutions along those lines of self-improvement and relationships could look something like this:

Get along better with _______
Stop gossiping about coworkers
Become more engaged–a team player

But, as you can see, these resolutions are all addressing vague, behavior-based problems.

A person with these goals instead might first want to ask themselves:

Why do I feel animosity towards _____?
Why do I need to put people down?
Why am I disengaged at work?

Of course, to come up with the answers to these questions, this person would need to look deeper than their surface behaviors and examine their motives. In other words, this person would need to become self-aware.

WHAT IS SELF-AWARENESS?

Oxford dictionary defines self-awareness as conscious knowledge of one’s character, feelings, motives, and desires. So, to become self-aware, you must do an honest self-evaluation–and that isn’t easy. You might not like to admit that Kathy in Accounting isn’t the problem, but you are. You need to dig deep into aspects of your personality, character, feelings, motives, needs, and wants without beating yourself up, and then make a specific plan to improve.

There are many ways to improve your self-awareness. Following are a few suggestions you can use to continue your self-awareness journey utilizing Color Code as a tool:

ONE. When doing your self-evaluation, don’t be critical of what you find, but accept your findings as problems that can be solved. Over-examination can lead beyond self-awareness to self-consciousness, which defeats the purpose. Blues, this means you.

TWO. Think of how you relate to others and how they perceive you.

THREE. For a clear picture of all of your behaviors, you will need to see your complete profile results. A person that is a Red with secondary White is much different than a person that is a Red with secondary Blue.

FOUR. Once you have your full results in front of you, work on eliminating the limitations in colors other than your core motive, then move on to your innate limitations.

FIVE. Think of a positive person you admire–one whose character you would like to emulate–then emulate him/her.

SIX. Examine negative behaviors you have adopted from your parents, siblings, friends, and coworkers. What made you take on those behaviors as your own?

These suggestions won’t solve all your problems or magically help you lose those 15 pounds from the holiday. Still, they will help you have a much stronger foundation when making and keeping relationships and self-improvement goals.

Throughout 2021, we will be challenging you to become more self-aware with a series of self-awareness articles tackling serious a workplace issues that include bullying, conflict resolution, reverse mentoring, and corporate culture. January of 2022, we hope you will have risen to the challenge to be more successful with your New Year’s resolutions and, more importantly, your life. CC

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Harvard Study Finds Relationships Have Incredibly Powerful Effect on Our Health & Happiness

Here at Color Code we teach that life is all about relationships. Our main goal as a company is to help people understand themselves and others on a deeper level so they can improve both their personal and professional relationships. We’ve seen marriages saved, businesses prosper, families improve, etc., etc., all because people took the time to put an effort into building their emotional intelligence and relationship skills.

With that said, you can imagine how we love research that further validates the importance of what we do. Today, we thought we’d share with our readers one study we find particularly fascinating and encouraging.

Because this isn’t just any study–it’s one of the most important studies ever done on health and happiness, and the results might surprise you.

The study we’re referring to is called The Grant Study and began at Harvard University just shy of 80 years ago and continues to this day. It started in 1938 with scientists tracking the health of 268 Harvard Sophomores. They hoped the longitudinal study would reveal clues leading to healthy and happy lives.

The study has followed these 268 men throughout their lives and measures an astonishing range of psychological, anthropological, and physical traits—from personality type to IQ to drinking habits to family relationships to body type to so much more—in an effort to determine what factors contribute most strongly to human flourishing.

Of course we don’t have time to go into all the details of this extensive study but if you’re interested, you can read more by clicking the links we provided below.

However, what we quickly wanted to share with you today are some excerpts and quotes from articles written on study’s findings.

We hope this will inspire you to continue in your efforts to foster healthy relationships. Because, as it turns out, your health and happiness could depend on it… read more below to see what we mean.

The following quotes are from Robert Waldinger, current director of the study, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

“The surprising finding is that our relationships and how happy we are in our relationships has a powerful influence on our health.”

“Taking care of your body is important, but tending to your relationships is a form of self-care too. That, I think, is the revelation.”

The most recent article written on the Harvard study results, site Waldinger with the following comments:

“It turns out, that close relationships, more than money or fame, are what keep people happy throughout their lives, the study revealed. Those ties protect people from life’s discontents, help to delay mental and physical decline, and are better predictors of long and happy lives than social class, IQ, or even genes. That finding proved true across the board among both the Harvard men and the inner-city participants.”

“The researchers also found that marital satisfaction has a protective effect on people’s mental health.”

“Those who kept warm relationships got to live longer and happier and the loners often died earlier.”

“Loneliness kills,” he said. “It’s as powerful as smoking or alcoholism.”

And lastly, these final two excerpts are in reference to what George Vaillant, former director of The Grant Study, author of Triumphs of Experience: The Men of The Harvard Grant Study, and many other books, has said about what the study has taught us.

“It is social aptitude not intellectual brilliance or parental social class, that leads to successful aging.”

“When the study began, nobody cared about empathy or attachment. But the key to healthy aging is relationships, relationships, relationships”.

So there you have it! After 80 years of study and still going, scientists are more certain than ever that good relationships play a significant factor in our physical and mental health.

Thanks for stopping by our blog and best of luck to you all in your pursuit of health and happiness!

–The Color Code Team

LINKS:

Over nearly 80 years, Harvard study has been showing how to live a healthy and happy life

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/06/what-makes-us-happy/307439/

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/05/thanks-mom/309287/

The White Personality Type is Your Best Friend, and You Didn’t Even Know It!

My focus with Color Code has always been in the work and team-setting. In every Color Code workshop or keynote speech I deliver, I share what each color brings to the team. Everyone expects it when I say that “Red brings action,” “Blue brings the heart and quality,” “Yellow brings creativity and optimism,” but there is often a moment of surprise when I say, “The White type is your best friend.”

Your best friend is that person who has your back. They are the rare person in your life who will protect you from yourself. With that definition of “best friend,” the White personality type is the one best equipped to protect you from yourself if you’re one of the other colors. Although you may have to encourage them to step up and speak more often to get this benefit. Let’s walk through each one…

Reds—The Red can often get in its own way by taking action too quickly. They might begin taking action before finding out if others are ready. They are notorious for taking action prior to acquiring all necessary information. When this happens, Blues get frustrated that the Reds are “taking over,” and Yellows will often just follow along with the Red because they like the quick pace. It’s the healthy White personality type who has the potential of calmly reaching out to the Red, asking them to slow down and then with a logical approach, explain the need for a different course. It’s the logic that’s the key for the Red. Plus the Red rarely feels threatened by the White, they know the White doesn’t want to be in charge.

Blues—The Blue type is most prone to fall into the “what if” cycle where they get caught up in asking “what if this goes wrong” and “what if that goes wrong.” The problem here, is that the Blue will often focus only on what might go wrong. When this happens, the Red type just gets annoyed and desperately wants to just say something to the effect of “quit your whining and get to work!” The Yellow also gets annoyed with the “what if” cycle and jumps ship. It’s the White who is most naturally suited to reaching the Blue type. The healthy White type will offer the Blue a rational response to each of the “what ifs” and then add potential positive outcomes as well. It is the balanced, rational analysis that makes the difference for the Blue.

Yellows—The Yellow type is prone to follow the bright, shiny object at work. What I mean by this, is that they are most likely to focus on what’s in front of them, and what interrupts them as opposed to what’s important. They don’t naturally have the discipline to analyze before acting, which often results in Yellows doing a lot of work, without actually being effectively productive. When this happens, Reds get frustrated and want to say to the Yellow “quit wasting time and being stupid, that’s not important.” Blues will get frustrated and just worry about how the Yellow is “ruining everything and now it’s a disaster.” Yellows will get demoralized by both the Red and Blue here. It is the White type who is once again most naturally suited to bridging the gap. The White type is able to begin a conversation with the Yellow (and here’s the key) without judgment and without anger, help the Yellow focus on the most important, and then make a plan.

It should be stated that charactered Reds, Blues, and Yellows will probably have all learned to do this on their own, and that charactered Reds, Blues, and Yellows also have the ability to reach out to each other; but this piece explains how the White type can be there for them when they’re struggling. It’s about how their natural behaviors are most suited to mitigating the weaknesses of the other colors.

If you’re a Red, Blue, or Yellow, look around at your work team. Find the White personality type and encourage them to speak up. Make it a habit to ask for their perspective. This could be a real difference-maker for your work teams.

About the author:

Derek R. Pangelinan is 31% Red, 27% Blue, 27% Yellow, and 15% White. He has been a public speaker for more than 25 years and has spent the last 19 years in the retail industry, the majority of that time in leadership and leadership development. In his leadership development role, Derek spent countess hours speaking in front of others as a facilitator and a speaker on the topics of leadership development, trust, accountability, workplace engagement, customer service, and many other topics. In this same role, he trained many other leaders to be better speakers. Derek has used Color Code as an integral part of his trainings for well over a decade. For more info, check out: Derek Rey Consulting, LLC

Turning Life’s Lemons into Margaritas! — A Bit of “Yellow” Perspective to Brighten Your Day

An excellent guest post by one of our Certified Independent Color Code Trainers on using a “Yellow” perspective to turn life’s lemons into margaritas…

by Maria Lesetz, Happiness Coach & Motivational Speaker

“Ariel” is a woman who works at my local super market. She has quite the bubbly personality and always makes a point to say hello to me every time she sees me. She yells out “Hey New York!” and blows me a kiss. She is a hoot!

The other day I commented on her tan and asked her where she went. (You don’t get that type of tan in Oregon at this time of year!) She told me she went to Hawaii for her vacation but then proceeded to tell me what happened to her before she left for her trip. Her pocketbook was stolen. All her credit cards and checkbook were in there. She felt violated, duped and a bit mad at herself because it happened right under her nose. She left her pocketbook under her seat at a local pub for a brief second while she turned her head to look at something.

She had seen a guy with a backpack earlier, but didn’t think much of it. It was that same guy who snatched her bag while she wasn’t looking.

That’s one of those life events that can be categorized as a “lemon” – leaves a sour taste and turns that smile into a puckering facial expression where you just want to let out a scream of frustration and say “ARGHHH”!

We all have life experiences that could be categorized as “lemons”. Some more sour than others. But it is what we make of those “lemons” and how we respond to them that determines how our future life will unfold and how happy we are during even the most trying times.

Sure, Ariel was frustrated that her pocketbook was stolen right before her trip to Hawaii, but she also chose to embrace the attitude of “it is what it is”, ranted a bit, had a few choice words for the person who did it (infusing her sassy and yet bubbly personality into the way she responded), and moved on from there. She called the authorities and had them handle the situation.

She did NOT declare that her vacation was ruined because of this unfortunate occurrence. She did NOT freak out assuming that all her credit cards were already charged up to their maximum limit. She just trusted that they would catch this guy and that all would be well.

As you have probably guessed by now, Ariel is definitely a YELLOW in the Color Code. She was able to let it go easily, embracing a positive attitude that he would be caught and that she will still have a fabulous & fun vacation, whether they caught him or not.

Obviously each color personality would have a different way of responding to this situation, which would definitely impact the outcome! However, today I want to focus on how things played out for this particular YELLOW and, share with you a helpful “Yellow” analogy on approaching negative situations. So here we go.

They ended up finding the thief at the local Walmart with her credit card in his hand … busted! And she got her pocketbook back. Yes, she was a bit inconvenienced by having to contact her bank and credit card companies, but she infused her sassy personality into a difficult situation with a light-hearted energy and it all turned out ok.

She enjoyed her Hawaii vacation and came back with a great big smile on her face.

Do you think her vacation would have turned out differently if she responded in a more negative way to that event? Sure it would have. Do you think that the way she responded played a role in whether the guy was caught or not and how quickly he was caught? Of course it did.

Our thoughts and feelings create our reality.
The energy you put out comes back to you and is always a match.

I prefer the analogy of turning life’s lemons into margaritas over the common phrase of “lemons into lemonade” because sometimes in life’s difficult situations, you just don’t have access to that extreme “sweet” side. You can’t immediately reach for pure joy when you are in the thick of a negative event. But you always have access to a whole array of emotions that could lead you on the path to feeling “relief”, where you can just chill out, relax and trust that it will all work out.

So how do you turn life’s lemons into a Margarita?

Release how you feel – let it all out. Have a hissy fit if you have to. Throw a pity party. Make that “pucker” face like you would after that first sip of a Margarita. But then, choose to move on (and the quicker you move on, the better). Any action step you take that leads you to feeling some relief will start turning the situation around for the better.

Learn to chill out and take a “sip” of “ALL IS WELL”, even in the face of adversity. The attitude you bring to the situation will impact the outcome. So you might as well make it an attitude that feels good on the inside.

Tell yourself “it is what it is”. You can’t change what just happened, but you sure can change the course of what happens next.

Relax into the knowing that the Universe has your back. You’ve got this. Situations have a way of working themselves out. Can you see how much lighter that would feel if you really embraced that belief?

Whether you drink or not, “Margaritas” have a connotation of happy, fun, letting loose, relaxing with friends, a fiesta – a celebration of sorts. I see them as a “sassy” drink – one that makes you pucker initially, but as one of my friends told me, starts going down smooth.

Use this as an analogy on how to respond to life’s lemons. Let yourself feel your initial response, let it out, chill out and then just “make peace with what is”, knowing that if you believe it will turn around for the better … it will. You’ve got the power to choose how your respond to what life throws your way. Leverage that power and your mind, body and soul will thank you!

Maria Lesetz wants to live in a world where people focus more on what IS working in their lives vs. complaining about what is NOT working. She wants people to realize their power to choose happiness and then, for each individual to spread that positive energy to each and every person they meet. (Yes, of course she is a YELLOW in the Color Code!)

As an Executive Success Coach, Happiness Consultant, Certified Life Coach for Physicians & now a Certified Independent Color Code Trainer, she has been featured on Fox News Oregon, a variety of Health and Wellness radio shows, Connextion Magazine, Physician Family Media and many online Law of Attraction communities, where she has taught classes on leveraging the power of the mind/body connection!

When she is not coaching, writing and speaking, you can find her exercising on her Lovin’ Life walking path, taking cross country road trips, vacationing in Vegas & eating her favorite dark chocolate & Unsweetened Pure Leaf Lipton Iced Tea!

Learn more about Maria – and check out her latest “Finding Happiness Through Adversity” resources – at LovinLifeNow.com

Ask The Expert: Fair Treatment vs. Equal Treatment – What’s best for my team?

In this article, Color Code expert Jeremy Daniel discusses the difference between fair and equal treatment among employees and which is better for your team.

I recently had an opportunity to help out a friend of mine with some Color Code advice, and chances are, our conversation will likely be helpful to you as well. For the purposes of this article, I’ll refer to my friend as “Jack”.

Jack is an entrepreneur and is currently building a technology consulting firm. He has about 30 employees who come from all walks of life with different skill sets, backgrounds, and past life experiences. In order for his team to work well with each other, there has to be a strong sense of trust, and Jack is always working purposefully to cultivate a positive culture within the organization.

He is aware that if negativity remains unchecked, it can grow like a cancer that will eventually cause the team to fail. He’s seen that happen before (and you likely have, too).

Jack and I were discussing a specific issue that some of his team members were bristling over. One of Jack’s employees is a Yellow, and he’s a highly valuable member of the team. We’ll call him “Steve”. Steve does great work. Clients love, him, and he is highly productive, creative, and solutions-oriented.

The problem is that Steve requires a lot of flexibility and freedom in his life, which is quite common for Yellows. As a result, he works odd/inconsistent hours. Sometimes he works 70 hours a week, and other weeks, he works 25. If a buddy calls him for golf, he might not get into work until noon. (You get the idea).

Jack isn’t bothered by Steve’s schedule. He’s thrilled with the work that he produces. When I asked him about it, in fact, he said, “As long as he produces at a high level, I couldn’t care less about the schedule he keeps”.

However, others do…

Other employees have mentioned that it isn’t fair that that Steve be given the leeway that he has when they are there from 9 to 5 every day.

At that point, I felt it was important to make an important distinction between the concepts of “fair” and “equal”. While some people use these terms interchangeably, they actually have very different definitions.

What most people mean, when they cry out, “That’s not fair!”, would probably be more correctly stated as “That’s not equal!”

Equal means, “Exactly alike”. “Fair” means that you treat people as individuals with differing needs, but that you the way that you do it is just.

If employees at the firm were paid equally, regardless of their job responsibilities or the value that they produced for the company, would that arrangement be fair?

Of course not!

From a management prospective, “equal” treatment is a lot easier than “fair” treatment. You could decide to set the rules and expect everybody to fall in line with the structure you have created. If they don’t, there are known consequences.

That approach is pretty black and white; however, it’s difficult to make the occasional exception when you really need to and still treat people “equally”. That’s where you start to cross the line into trying to be more fair than equal.

The “fair” approach is a little more difficult to manage, because you need to know people’s circumstances, how to set up individual boundaries, and establish performance expectations. However, it may be a better way to get the very best from your team. For this to work, though, there has to be a certain level of respect and maturity within the group.

At Color Code, we believe that all life is about relationships, and that to make the most of your individual relationships, you have to understand how people are different one from another. If you interact with all people equally, you will miss several opportunities to connect. If you understand individual needs, wants, Motives, etc., you can adapt to each relationship so that you can make the most of it.

There are pros and cons to being fair and being equal. You have to decide which is best for your style and your team, and you may walk the line between both of those approaches from time to time.

I just think it really helps to understand the distinction, to purposefully choose your approach, and to be aware of the advantages and challenges inherent in both styles.

…By the way, Jack taught his team about the differences, and explained his desire to treat people fairly. They got the message, and the bristling has gone away. 😉

Jeremy Daniel is the Vice President of Training for Color Code. He leads our Trainer Certification Program and has been teaching the Color Code and delivering motive-based applications to clients internationally since 1998.

Ask the Expert: Limitations = Opportunity

Sometimes people ask me why we bother talking about limitations in our program. I hear things like, “Doesn’t that just create negativity?” and “We want people to feel good about themselves, so can you just skip the discussion on limitations?”

In fact, several years ago, we walked away from a very large client who represented a significant amount of ongoing revenue, over a similar question. I remember talking to the executive on the phone. I knew that they had vetted several personality-based programs (Color Code being one of them), and she called me to share their decision.

She told me that they all “LOVE the Color Code program,” and that they were excited to partner with us. They felt that our motive-based approach, coupled with our ability to make things simple, memorable, engaging, and easy-to-apply, made our program an ideal fit for what they wanted to accomplish.

HOWEVER…

She also told me that the one caveat to working with them is that we would have to agree to simply not include any mention of the “limitations” of each of the personality styles. They didn’t have any other requests, and we could leave everything else “as is”, but they insisted on skipping over any discussion about personal/professional limitations in an effort to “keep things positive”.

Our position was (and remains) that we would not agree to such an omission, and we had a lengthy discussion about why. To make a long story short, we ended up letting them walk away.

Here’s the reason why… Nobody ever has a problem with how wonderful you are! It’s the limitations that drive them crazy.

If you leave the discussion about limitations out of the program, you cheapen it, and you cheat your audience out of the real opportunity to grow. Furthermore, limitations are not “weaknesses” and you will never hear us refer to them that way. They are simply, “limitations”, and IMHO, they are one of the best parts about the Color Code.

I view limitations as opportunities. Your strengths are great and everything, but if you are interested in growth in any way, you have to confront your limitations. They are holding you back. If you believe that, why wouldn’t you want to know what they are, have an opportunity to examine them, and then decide on a strategy to create positive change?

If you think about it that way, even though your limitations aren’t “glamorous” (people don’t tend to brag about them on Instagram, anyway), they are the real key to unlocking your fullest potential.

…and that’s worth knowing.

Building Collaborative Teams With The Color Code

Today’s businesses, faced with a changing workforce, globalization, technology and the need to stay in the forefront of their market, are finding the old organizational hierarchy is no longer working. Instead they are creating collaborative team environments as part of their performance management strategy.

By forming teams who own a project from inception to completion and by providing a reward system based on performance and not position, you increase employee satisfaction and engagement—thus a higher rate of commitment and performance.

Initially, when building teams, it made sense to for companies to choose teammates based on their hard skills—technical and business acumen.

But consider this:

Your company decided to put together a collaborative team to bring your new product to market. When deciding on whom you should include on the team, you naturally gravitated to the 5 most aggressive and driven employees. Now imagine 5 competitive teammates who are all natural leaders with no one to lead; delegators with no one to whom they can delegate. There is no one to work out details, and no one to breath excitement into the project. The project will soon become bogged down with conflict and inactivity.

It is imperative to put people together who have the diverse soft skills—personalities—necessary to create a truly collaborative environment. Team members must be able to communicate goals, expectations, and most importantly, to resolve conflict.

When building an emotionally diverse group, consider the following Color Code motive types in tandem with the hard skills each employee brings:

Reds are driven leaders, delegators, and producers. They are innovative and have an acute sense of what’s going on. They are content to view the big picture and leave the details to teammates. They are responsible and can be counted on to achieve their milestones with little supervision.

Blues enjoy building relationships with teammates. You can count on them to be diplomatic and thoughtful. They are dependable and detail oriented. Blues work deliberately for the satisfaction of a job well done. They will be loyal to the team and do whatever it takes to make sure the team is successful.

Yellows are idea people—creative and exciting—and are not intimidated by new ideas or challenges. They are excellent communicators and are great at morale building. Yellows can be very insightful, so pay attention.

Whites are logical thinkers and capable of resolving complex problems. They prefer to work alone, and can be depended on to complete the tasks laid out for them. They are motivated by peace and so will go out of their way to avoid conflict. Whites will listen to all sides and then come up with a logical and well thought out opinion. They are the voice of reason.

By considering the soft talents that your employees bring to the table, you will be sure to build a team with a combination of strong leaders, detail oriented teammates, creative, insightful, and thoughtful contributors—a winning combination. CC

Teresa Glenn has been working with the Color Code since 2006, where her main focus is product development and trainer support She has been in the publishing and product development field for over 20 years. Teresa is a core Red with a strong Yellow secondary.