June 2013 – blog.colorcode.com

Building Character—The Thirteen Virtues of Benjamin Franklin

In honor of Independence Day, we decided to focus on one of the most famous, and colorful signers of the Declaration of Independence—Benjamin Franklin.

Franklin was born in 1706 and signed the Declaration of Independence when he was 70 years old. So, what of his life before that great event?

Because of his prodigious writing, much is known about this great man. We know that in addition to being a forefather of a great nation, he was also a printer, a scientist, an inventor, a writer, a diplomat, and much more.

We also know that he was a satirist, had many, many friends, and was a social butterfly.

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If anyone knew how to enjoy life, it was Ben Franklin. He was fascinated with everything, and he was driven to share that fascination with others. One of the reasons we know so much about Franklin today is because he wrote about what he thought and how he lived. And he wrote volumes! He penned letters, journals, essays, books, newspaper articles, ballads, almanacs, and a celebrated autobiography.

http://www.pbs.org/benfranklin/l2_wit.html

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As a youth, Franklin didn’t always behave responsibly. When he was only sixteen, and apprenticed to his brother’s print shop, Franklin wrote articles under the persona of Silence Dogood, a middle-aged widow. The Dogood essays poked fun at colonial America and were a hit with the public. When his brother found out that Franklin had been the contributor, it caused a rift between the brothers that never healed.

At the age of 20, he decided to change the direction of his life by creating a system to develop his character. To accomplish this, Franklin came up these thirteen virtues:

Temperance: Eat not to dullness and drink not to elevation.
Silence: Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself. Avoid trifling conversation.
Order: Let all your things have their places. Let each part of your business have its time.
Resolution: Resolve to perform what you ought. Perform without fail what you resolve.
Frugality: Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself: i.e. Waste nothing.
Industry: Lose no time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut of all unnecessary actions.
Sincerity: Use no hurtful deceit. Think innocently and justly; and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
Justice: Wrong none. By doing injuries or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
Moderation: Avoid extremes. Forebear resenting injuries as much as you think they deserve.
Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanness in body, clothes or habitation.
Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring; never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
Humility: Imitate Jesus or Socrates.

Because Franklin was so charactered, it’s difficult to determine his driving core motive, although more than one account leads us to believe he was more than a little Yellow.

This Independence Day, we could all learn a lesson from this great man and forefather of our country. By becoming charactered, Franklin learned discipline, self-sacrifice, kindness, and peace. His natural intellect, and curiosity along with his character allowed him to achieve all the greatness for which he will always be remembered. CC

18 Ways to Develop a Positive Relationship with Reds

Reds are so easy if you understand how they see life. They are “Power” based people. Reds are productive, they are driven, and they hide their insecurities. They are very easy to build relationships with once you understand them. Here are some helpful suggestions.

1. Present issues logically. Do not whine and cry and complain. They want to know the facts. They are not only unmoved by emotion, they see it as weakness.

2. Demand their attention and respect. Reds know they can run you down if you let them, and they don’t respect you if you do. You must learn how to speak up, present the facts, and challenge them when necessary.

3. Be direct, brief, and specific in conversation. Reds hate lectures. A Blue’s tendency to lecture and talk about the goodness they are going to bring is a waste of time to a Red.

4. Be productive and efficient. They admire that in people. They only value people that are strong, productive and efficient…like themselves.

5. Offer them leadership opportunities. If you work with a Red, give them a chance to grow. Don’t force your opinion on them. Allow them to voice their own.

6. Support their decisive nature. Tell them you are proud of them for telling you what they’re going to do, and how they’re going to do it.

7. Promote their intelligent reasoning. If they come up with a idea or solution, let them know that you were impressed with how they were thinking.

8. Be prepared with facts and figures. Respect their need to make their own decisions in their own way. Do not try to make them think your way.

9. Do not embarrass them in front of people. This is huge. Reds do not appreciate it, and they do not find it humorous.

10. Do not argue from an emotional perspective. That is insignificant to a Red. Mr. Spock and Reds have one thing in common, and that is that their thought process is one of logic.

11. Always use a firm approach with a Red. It’s very easy to deal with a Red if you will just work with them very directly and using a firm approach.

12. Don’t use physical punishment. Reds do not like to be touched physically in a negative way.

13. Don’t be slow and indecisive. They cannot understand why your mind doesn’t tick like their’s does. If you need time to think about something, don’t sit there in front of them and take the time. Just say, “I’ll get back to you on that.” When you get back to them, come with the facts and information, and they will respect you.

14. Don’t expect a personal and intimate relationship. Reds struggle with intimacy. They are very uncomfortable with their emotions and your feelings. Don’t expect them to expose themselves all the time to you. Let Reds do it when they’re ready. They will do it, but they have to· feel terribly safe to do so.

15. Don’t attack them personally. Reds are typically uncomfortable with emotions. Therefore, if you attack them on that area, you are in trouble because you’re making them uncomfortable. They’re cornered, and they tend to fight back.

16. Don’t take their arguments personally. It’s important that Reds do not feel that you are going to take things so seriously that they can’t enjoy a good debate.

17. Don’t wait for them to solicit your opinion. Reds will not to ask for your opinion. If you want to give it, you need to speak up and give it.

18. Don’t demand social interaction. Allow them to have alone time. Reds don’t like to always be caught up in interaction with other people. Reds need time to kind of think about where they’re headed and how they’re headed, and why they are doing what they are doing.

So when you go out there in life and you see people that are Red, look for those gifts that they bring. Remember, that their very gifts will often be exposed as weaknesses as well.

Appreciate what’s right about people and understand their gifts and accept their limitations.

Ask the Expert

Hi, Jeremy.

I’m just wondering… I have an employee who took the assessment and came out nearly 25% in each of the Colors. Is that even possible, and what does it mean?

Thanks!

Danny

Dear Danny,

Thanks for the question. It’s a good one, and I’m happy to provide you with some insight here.

The good news is that you have probably not hired somebody with multiple personality disorder. :)In fact, an almost even split on a Color Code Personality Assessment is actually not terribly uncommon.

The truth is, there is only one Color capable of scoring almost equally across the board (unless somebody is just trying to cheat the system, of course). We call them the chameleons of the Color Code, and if you haven’t guessed which Color that describes by this point, I’ll help you out.

They are the Whites.

Whites are typically very adaptable, go-with-the-flow kinds of people. We call them the chameleons of the Color Code, because they have a way of just blending in with the wallpaper wherever they go. They have little ego, the attention doesn’t always have to be on them (in fact, most Whites would prefer it not to be), and their logical, self-regulated nature allows them to step into certain roles when necessary, step back out again, and then transition into something new.They can score almost equally in all four Colors, because when they are thinking back to the way they were as children, they can see themselves ebbing and flowing – much like a mountain stream – around different situations, obstacles, and environments.

It is important to remember with Whites, however, that whatever role they step into, whether that is the role of a 1st responder who needs to take control in the wake of a major disaster, or a professional basketball player called upon to nail two clutch free throws to win a big game, or even that of a charge nurse in the O.R., when they find themselves “off the clock” again, they typically come back to their natural oftentimes introverted behavior.

To further clarify what we mean by an “almost even” split, what we generally observe is that on the Color Code Assessment, if the difference between a person’s highest score and their lowest score is 6 percentage points or less, that person is usually a White, motivated by Peace.

And while that’s pretty normal for them, it sure does keep the rest of us guessing, unless you know what you’re looking for.

Thanks for the question, Danny. I hope that helps. Let us know if we can do anything else for you.Very best of living,

Jeremy Daniel
Training Director
Color Code International

Jeremy Daniel (Core Color: Yellow) has been working with the Color Code since 1998 in various capacities from training in the field personally with Dr. Taylor Hartman to designing customized corporate solutions and new training programs for various industries. To ask about Jeremy’s training or speaking services, please email and inquiry to jeremy@colorcodetraining.com.