Working with people we don’t necessarily get along with is a normal part of life in an office. I once had a coworker tell me, “I don’t have to be everyone’s best friend, I am at work.” another individual at the same company was afraid to voice their opinions for fear of offending anyone.
These two real world examples show the drastic swings in personality types you can find in an office. I bet you have people like this in your office, too.
How do we all work together?
To work together, we must better understand each other and ourselves. The True Colors Method represents four colors to match the four dominant states of being- green, blue, orange and gold.
I encourage you to take the True Colors Test here, as knowing your dominant skill color will help you analyze your actions, what you need from others around you to be your best self and knowing others dominant tendencies will help you work with your co-workers.
Below, the True Colors outlines an in-depth description of each basic personality type.
The Analyzer – Green
The Analyzer often makes the right decision – because they look at the situation from all angles before deciding. The Analyzer likes lots of information and they are skilled at analyzing data. The Analyzer like rules to make sense and values competence in themselves and in others.
The Analyzer needs challenge, autonomy, truth, accuracy time, and opportunities to ask questions.
The Analyzer is frustrated by lack of control, lack of independence, incompetence, overly emotional displays, limited chances to use and show what they know, small talk, social functions with no higher purpose, subjective decisions that don’t make sense, illogical decisions, and lack of time to gather facts before completing a task.
In school like to learn about all kinds of things and come up with new ideas. If there’s a problem, they are the best person to solve it.
With friends close to people who have the same interests. Sometimes keep to yourself because they like their privacy.
At home spend a lot of time just thinking. Like learning things from TV shows about science and nature.
The Peacemaker- Blue
The Peacemaker tends to be very focused. They value harmony, compassion, and helping other people. The Peacemaker is skilled at offering sincere encouragement and support. They are uncomfortable with conflict and will work hard to prevent and/or avoid confrontations. They like to be appreciated for the warm human being you are!
The Peacemaker needs understanding, harmony, love, acceptance, honesty, inspiration, and empathy.
The Peacemaker is frustrated by broken promises, negative criticism, people talking about them behind their back, conflict and confrontation, lying and rejection, lack of social opportunities, a focus on systems rather than on people, conformity that doesn’t allow for individuality, lack of opportunities to talk over what’s happening, and insincerity.
In school they are easy to get along with. They like to share things with classmates, and like their teachers and try to please them.
With friends they really care about what happens to those who are close to them. They listen and are honest and genuine.
At home they try to keep everything in harmony. They are sensitive and like warm feelings and quiet talks.
The Activator – Orange
The Activator loves to get things done! They are good at making quick, intuitive decisions and if they’re feeling excited and challenged by a project, they can outlast everyone else. The Activator is a natural leader and can easily dominate a situation – not because they intend to exclude anyone’s ideas, but because they can’t wait to get started. They love adventure and fun and are energized by new challenges.
The Activator needs freedom, variety, recognition, action, activity, and opportunities to express their personality.
They’re frustrated by slow processes, being stuck in an office, redundancy, lack of freedom, low tolerance of risk-taking, reading manuals, lengthy instructions, criticism, and abstract discussions without real-life application.
In school they like to have fun. They enjoy sports, games and entertainment.
With friends they are a lot of fun. They can think of all kinds of things to do and enjoy being with other fun people.
At home they like freedom and a lot of space. They enjoy after school activities like sports and special events.
The Organizer- Gold
The “Golds” are responsible and organized. They show up on time and get annoyed by the time wasted when other people don’t. If a job is given to a Gold, you can count on them to do it, to do it right, and to get it done on time. They value fairness and consistency and like clear guidelines to follow.
The Gold needs clear rules and boundaries, structure, stability, an organized environment and schedule, consistency, opportunities to show responsibility and reliability, and time to complete a project well.
Golds are frustrated by tasks left unfinished, ambiguity, chaos and disorganization, too many things going on at the same time, people who don’t follow through, irresponsibility and waste, nonconformity, changing rules, the phrase “it depends”, and a haphazard attitude.
In school they’re organized and follow the rules. They enjoy being responsible and particularly like teachers who give special things to do.
With friends they’re really dependable. They like friends to be honest, especially about money and making plans to do things.
At home they love responsibilities and working hard for allowance. They also like a secure family life and enjoy holidays and celebrations.
Retrieved from https://www.americandancetrainingcamp.com/blog/true-colors-personality-test/
When we know what causes each other stress, we can be more compassionate and understanding because we ALL have things that cause us stress.
Leave a note to let me know your personality type or your next steps to work better with a clashing personality.
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Originally published at careerloveco.com