October 2009 - What is your primary color?

October 2009 - What is Your Primary Color?

What is Your Primary Color

Case Study: How we used the Primary Color Assessment

Tips for using in the Primary Color Assessment for Team Building

Resources (links, books, articles, the lighter side)

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What is Your Primary Color? And How Will This Knowledge Impact Your Career?

by Rick Smith

Are you in a job that leverages your strengths and passions every day?

As your career continues on its current direction, are you getting closer to your ideal role, or farther away from it?

Are you willing to invest 15 minutes of your life to find out?

I am excited to debut the Primary Color Assessment online at www.primarycolorassessment.com. This tool was conceived from a single insight I had 8 years ago, and developed and tested since that time in partnership with a leading industrial psychologist. For a limited time, I am making it available to everyone for free.

First, Some Background

In early 2000, while conducting research for a white paper on leadership, I became increasingly frustrated with the amount of complexity associated with describing human ability (and the resulting absence of usefulness). In a cab leaving LaGuardia airport, I noticed a billboard with three overlapping circles representing the primary colors, and wondered, "Why is there not a similarly simplistic model with which we can understand and analyze our own abilities?"

In the cab, I scribbled down on a napkin this image:

I then completed the diagram with the logical extensions (leadership combined with execution is management, leadership with curiosity is creativity, etcetera).

Over the next several years, I continued to refine and test this model, eventually using this framework to develop a spectrum of ability. Working with psychologists and other experts, I was able to mathematically map distinct sets of behaviors onto specific sections of the spectrum …

Now, this assessment can help you identify your own unique Primary Color – that point on the spectrum that is unique to your greatest strengths and passions. It also allows you to identify the region of the spectrum that your current job occupies – and highlights how close or far your primary color is to that.

Close? Then you are more likely to be satisfied at work and developing rapidly.

Far away? Likely frustrated and potentially stalled.

Additional research will even allow for the mapping of specific career paths over time (in this case, a Business Consulting career), or to project what types of jobs others with your color find the most satisfying as their career progresses. The future applications of this tool are extremely exciting.

I am a Purple Heart. My wife is an Electric Lime, and my daughter is a Candy Apple Red.

What is your Primary Color? Take the test now and find out!

www.primarycolorassessment.com

How we used the Primary Colors Assessment

A group we work with were introduced to the primary colors assessment website recently and used it for a one-hour training / discussion. We found a great variety of colors and had great fun learning about the colors for people in the group as well.

The short exercise was a resounding success. The delightful color names alone made it worth while. The exercise reminded us what a great variety of talent we have in this group and yet how well we work together. We talked about what we could learn from this and how we can use the diversity to our advantage.

Tips for Using the Primary Colors as a team-building exercise:

Ask your work group to take the colors assessment at www.primarycolorassessment.com. There are 2 quizzes: one for the primary color and another for the career alignment. Takes about 10-15 minutes to answer the quizzes. In addition, each person is given a percentage of their Leadership, Curiosity and Execution.
Gather together and discuss what colors each person received for their primary color and career clusters. Share your percentages on the 3 categories also.
Think about what it tells you about your group and the diversity or similarity of people in the group.
Compare the results of this assessment to other team building or personality tests that you all might have taken.
Enjoy the process of learning and growing together, allowing it to put a bright sparkle in your day and see how a bit of fun can be very useful to team building.
As your group works with the colors and the descriptions, what can you learn about each person's strong interests and how they fit with their current position?
Take a look at adjusting jobs, assignments, duties and responsibilities to make the most of each person's strengths and natural abilities. When people are working from their strengths and talents, they flourish and the organization benefits immeasurably as well. We have included a number of resources to help identify people's strengths in addition to the Primary Colors Assessment.

Wishing our readers a delightful, colorful adventure this month. If you take the Primary Color Assessment, we'd like to hear from you about your experience, what your colors are and what you learned about yourself.

Footnote: Barbara Taylor's color is Royal Straight ("Intuitive Interaction") with the Career Cluster as Yellow ("Adaptability"). My Strengths are: Maximizer, Arranger, Relator, Individualization and Empathy. In our Personality Game, my role is Priest with Artisan and Scholar influences - more details.

Internet Resources

Primary Colors Assessment www.primarycolorassessment.com
Seven Personality Types www.7personalitytypes.com
The Personality Game www.itstime.com/game.htm - How to Play the Personality Game
Strengths Finder www.strengthsfinder.com
Marcus Buckingham - Why are using your strengths important? http://www.tmbc.com/site/why_strengths/video.php (video)
Colors and their meaning http://www.newsfinder.org/site/more/colors_and_their_meaning/

Books - Disclosure: We get a small commission for purchases made via links to Amazon.

The Leap: How 3 Simple Changes Can Propel Your Career from Good to Great by Rick Smith. Portfolio, 2009. ISBN-10: 1591842565 ISBN-13: 978-1591842569
Now, Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham and Donald Clifton. Free Press, 2001. ISBN: 0743201140
First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently, Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman Simon & Schuster, 1999. ISBN: 0684852861
7 Personality Types: Discover Your True Role in Achieving Success and Happiness. Elizabeth Puttick, PhD. Hay House, 2009. US version: ISBN-10: 1401924565 ISBN-13: 978-1401924560 www.7personalitytypes.com
The Personality Puzzle: Solving the Mystery of Who You Are. Jose Stevens, JP Van Hulle. Pivotal Resources; (December 1990) ASIN: 0942663063
Income Without a Job: Living Well Without a Paycheck. Michael Jay Anthony, Barbara J. Taylor. Lulu.com, 2008 ISBN-13: 978-0-557-00377-8. Website: www.income-without-a-job.com. Tap into your own creativity and use your full potential. Learn how to see opportunities that others miss.

Articles

The Lighter Side

Colors & Personality http://www.scribd.com/doc/16607419/Colors-Personality
Colors of Personality http://www.ofjc.org/downloads/ColorsPersonalityTest.pdf
What personality of Medieval Humor are you? (Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholic, Phlegmatic.)
Who Were You in a Past Life Quiz http://www.teennick.com/quizzes/quiz_main.php?id=3414&source=QZtout1
What color is your personality? http://www.squidoo.com/favorite-colors
How to Dress With a Sense of Humor http://www.ehow.com/how_2262781_dress-sense-humor.html
A variety of personality tests using color www.colorwize.com
Your Color Personality http://www.huddlenet.com/you/yourcolor.html
T-shirts, hats and other gifts with personality role colors / logos http://www.zazzle.com/cocteauboy/gifts and http://www.printfection.com/truthloveenergy/ROLES/_s_269400

About our resource links: We do not endorse or agree with all the beliefs in these links. We do keep an open mind about different viewpoints and respect the ability of our readers to decide for themselves what is useful.

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