I was recently invited by a client to participate in a company initiative using the Insights Discovery tool. If you are reading my blog, then you know that I consider myself an HR expert of sorts, as such I am also under the impression that I know a thing or two about personality testing. Admittedly, it has been a few years since I took my last test, and this was the first time I have participated in this particular one...but as my results ended up showing, sometimes I allow my enthusiasm and belief in myself and other people to ....well...to avoid annoying things like reality. Without going into too much of the methodology or analysis, the basic concept is we have colour energies. The four colours are Blue, Red, Green and Yellow. Blues are precise and deliberate, greens are caring and sharing, yellows are sociable and dynamic and reds are competitive and strong willed. Obviously this is an extremely high level summary, but I think you get the point.
Our facilitator took us through several exercises before giving us our profiles, the profiles were based on questions we had answered a couple of weeks before. I like to be right, and I like to win and I just wanted to get to my profile...and I had it in my head that I MUST be green because I am, see above, an "HR expert". Please note that greens do not really care about winning, they are patient, etc etc. I suspect you can see where I am going with this. The first exercise clearly indicated that I was not really feeling the green, but I was certainly feeling the red. I chose to ignore this because I love people, people love me, I am really so friendly and kind...I must be green. Next exercise involved your team deciding what they thought you were...imagine my surprise when not ONE, not one single person had put a checkmark in my green area. Oddly, there were a lot of check marks in yellow and red. I decided at this point I should not share my results with my client as I was beginning to get acutely uncomfortable with the thought that no one thought I was kind and caring, and maybe he would fire me if he found out.
Finally we got our profiles, and in what by now should have come as no surprise whatsoever, I was not green, I was clearly a yellow/red kinda gal. By this point, I had spent the better part of this session sulking and undermining this process because, you see, I knew better...I had it in my head that I was green energy all the way. Now, get ready to laugh, those of you who have met me...greens are calm people, soothing, patient (!). It seems when you actually read the profiles and not jump to conclusions about what you think the profiles mean, they make sense. For example, the first few lines in my profile say "Carolyn is sympathetic, empathic and affable. Her mental processes operate best when she is in contact with other people" She is accomplished at working with individuals and groups..." For a good giggle, let's look at some of the weaknesses: "May exaggerate the significance of an event (see above for an example...this session resulting in my client firing my yellow/red butt), "Takes losing as a personal failure" (even "losing" at the "I already know my profile" game)
The profile was a bit creepy and I think I am justified in thinking sweeping generalizations about "going off the deep end when provoked to the extreme" are better left unsaid, however, it was a great exercise that may not have unearthed anything earthshattering but it certainly made me think about my weaknesses. More importantly, it shows how to better interact with people who have different colour energies. This is so important in working with others.
One last thing, apparently I need a lot of reassurance and need to be appreciated...just saying...reposting, liking, commenting and otherwise acknowledging my very brave blog will make me a happier person.
Our facilitator took us through several exercises before giving us our profiles, the profiles were based on questions we had answered a couple of weeks before. I like to be right, and I like to win and I just wanted to get to my profile...and I had it in my head that I MUST be green because I am, see above, an "HR expert". Please note that greens do not really care about winning, they are patient, etc etc. I suspect you can see where I am going with this. The first exercise clearly indicated that I was not really feeling the green, but I was certainly feeling the red. I chose to ignore this because I love people, people love me, I am really so friendly and kind...I must be green. Next exercise involved your team deciding what they thought you were...imagine my surprise when not ONE, not one single person had put a checkmark in my green area. Oddly, there were a lot of check marks in yellow and red. I decided at this point I should not share my results with my client as I was beginning to get acutely uncomfortable with the thought that no one thought I was kind and caring, and maybe he would fire me if he found out.
Finally we got our profiles, and in what by now should have come as no surprise whatsoever, I was not green, I was clearly a yellow/red kinda gal. By this point, I had spent the better part of this session sulking and undermining this process because, you see, I knew better...I had it in my head that I was green energy all the way. Now, get ready to laugh, those of you who have met me...greens are calm people, soothing, patient (!). It seems when you actually read the profiles and not jump to conclusions about what you think the profiles mean, they make sense. For example, the first few lines in my profile say "Carolyn is sympathetic, empathic and affable. Her mental processes operate best when she is in contact with other people" She is accomplished at working with individuals and groups..." For a good giggle, let's look at some of the weaknesses: "May exaggerate the significance of an event (see above for an example...this session resulting in my client firing my yellow/red butt), "Takes losing as a personal failure" (even "losing" at the "I already know my profile" game)
The profile was a bit creepy and I think I am justified in thinking sweeping generalizations about "going off the deep end when provoked to the extreme" are better left unsaid, however, it was a great exercise that may not have unearthed anything earthshattering but it certainly made me think about my weaknesses. More importantly, it shows how to better interact with people who have different colour energies. This is so important in working with others.
One last thing, apparently I need a lot of reassurance and need to be appreciated...just saying...reposting, liking, commenting and otherwise acknowledging my very brave blog will make me a happier person.
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