You might have heard the saying, “The best tools are the ones that get used.” This is how I feel about the Color Code. 

In my corporate career, I was exposed to the benefits of five different personality assessments. I loved each of them for their unique insights into my behaviors; however, after some time would go by, I would forget what I learned and fall back into autopilot mode. I would relate to others based upon my instincts and experience. This was the case for 30 years until I learned about the Color Code. 

I was first introduced to “The Character Code,” Dr. Taylor Hartman’s sequel to “The Color Code,” in my transformational coaching certification course. The Character Code is intended as a guide to cultivate a full and balanced character by leveraging the strengths of all four colors. As I and the class learned the foundation of the Color Code’s four driving core motives, one thing I noted right away was that Color Code was so easy to use. I immediately began quick coding (a way of detecting a person’s potential driving core motive) all my friends and family members to discern their primary driving core motives. I was able to see within days how I could change my communication styles to relate more effectively. To me, Color Code was great, life-changing stuff. I was so impressed, I decided to apply it as step one of the client engagements in my coaching practice. So, in 2017, I became certified as a Color Code Independent Trainer right after graduating with my transformational coaching certificate. 

Applying Color Code to my coaching practice

My coaching practice is unique in that I utilize metacognitive drawing to assist the client in gaining personal insights. My clients are provided paper, markers, watercolors, crayons, colored pencils and more, along with a process of inquiry, to begin sussing out thoughts, feelings, and emotions that are below the surface. This can be intensely vulnerable work, so I like to begin every coach-to-client partnership with basic creative exercises, utilizing the client’s Color Code personality assessment results. The Color Code’s four colors are a perfect way to creatively segue a client from being stuck in their thinking patterns into noticing and sensing. Plus, it is an effective way for me as the coach to “swim in the same water as my client” as I like to put it. This is my metaphor for releasing myself from my innate desire to problem solve for my client. By getting to know the client’s primary and secondary driving core motives (natural tendencies), I am better able to check my own natural tendencies at the door. 

You see, I am a Color Code White and secondary Yellow, which means I can get really excited about offering creative, inventive ideas for my client to consider. You might be thinking, “That is great!” Well … not so much. Coaching is not a practice of advice giving, it is about helping people navigate what is presently occurring internally and externally for them, assisting them to notice patterns, offering perspectives to look at, uncovering possible blind spots, and providing new tools for them to discover who they are and what’s right for them so that they can design the life they want. Life Coaches are simply guides. 

Imagine if I advised a client with a Red personality to take five days to list out, consider, and weigh all the facts before confronting a person or situation. This is the way me, a contemplative, peacekeeping White with strong Blue tendencies regarding detailed list-making would tackle the problem. How likely is that advice going to be used by a Red, whose tendencies are to avoid routine and boredom and who desires fresh, innovative, and immediate solutions? Not likely. Knowing a client’s driving core motive allows me to guide a client through a process of defining a tool that not only works for them but will continue to be used beyond our client-coach partnership, because it is a custom fit tool for them. 

The impact Color Code has on my coaching clients

Once I introduce the Color Code to my clients, they inevitably begin to verbalize eye-openers about challenges they have experienced with colleagues and family members. They often feel relieved and say something like, “Oh, it’s just how they are wired” or “No wonder me and that person butt heads.”

I witness the facial expressions of many clients transform from stress-ridden frustration from trying to cope with “difficult people situations” to ones of relaxed understanding of exactly how they will move forward with changing the way they interact with others. For example:

• A Color Code Blue Mom realizing grounding her Color Code White son to his room, after repeatedly staying out past curfew, was not an effective discipline method. Whites often find being alone in their room is a great place. 
• A Color Code Red business leader, frustrated that the work amongst the team seemed to be taking too long, began to realize the team is made up of predominantly Blue and Yellow personalities. Which meant they needed time to get to know one another through fun, connective conversations and team building exercises before jumping into logical problem-solving. 
• I have had a few clients who tear up with gratitude with the realization that they have been fighting their natural tendencies in a relationship or chosen career path/position. Relaying to me how they feel like they have newfound permission to let go of an unpleasant situation and to pursue changes that are right for them vs. trying so hard to bend against what is natural. 

Applying the Color Code into my coaching practice has given me and my clients a tremendous advantage. I have been able to apply perspectives of each color with nearly every new coaching tool I learn. This enables me to be more effective in relating to my clients and in guiding my clients to greater self-awareness, acceptance of self, others, and situations, and increase my and their capacity to recover quickly from difficulties. I am forever an advocate of the Color Code, because it is easy, and it works. 

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Kami Pollvogt is a Certified Color Code Trainer and Transformational Life Coach. She is the founder of Change by Design – a creative personal and professional development company that seeks to teach others how to design their life with a greater awareness of self, purpose, and intention. She frequently partners with coaches in the Phoenix metropolitan area to bring Color Code and Intentional Creativity® to personal and professional development workshops.