Red: Do what I’ll say and we’ll get along just fine.

Blue: Tell me you appreciate me, and I’ll walk to the ends of the earth for you.

Welcome to the relationship of Reds and Blues. A relationship combination that you’ve probably heard us lovingly refer to in the past as “Blood, Sweat, and Tears.”  

Truthfully, we could talk about this complicated relationship combination for days, but this article will focus on the foundational difference in MOTIVE that perhaps causes the greatest struggle for these two strong personalities when trying to make a relationship work successfully (whether it

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 pos

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 workp

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 perso

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. Becaus

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 prot

  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 tha

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

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 h

A few weeks ago, a student of the Color Code asked me a great question. She said, "I'm loving learning about how to adapt to work more effectively with each of the four Color Code styles, but I'm finding it difficult constantly trying to act like a Red for one co-worker and then switch into Yellow mode for somebody else. Does it get easier to present as each of the colors over time???" While I applauded her commitment to applying what she'd been learning, I could tell she was seriously stressed over the idea of having to know everybody's Color Code all the time and constantly trying to switch her style conversation by conversation. As the r