BLUES REPRESENT 10 PERCENT of the overall world population. If you are not a Blue, but want to read about how to identify or improve communications with one, go to Figure 15–1.
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York is one of the most interesting women in the United States, and one of the best-known Blues (who are the rarest of the four Color types).
Growing up in Park Ridge, Illinois, Hillary was seen even as a child to be assertive, purposeful, and determined, all in-born Blue characteristics. A tireless worker and consistent overachiever, she was a National Merit Scholar in high school. Her teachers noted her exceptional ability to take in information, argue a point thoroughly, but change her mind when new input demanded it (core Blue abilities).
In her senior year, she was voted most likely to succeed. She went on to become a high achiever in both college (Wellesley student body president) and at Yale law school.
Her Blue abilities served her well early in her career. Assigned as part of the impeachment inquiry staff investigating Richard Nixon, she worked dawn to midnight seven days a week. Hillary is remembered as “determined and dutiful, grinding away in a mildewed office overlooking an alleyway.”8 This typifies the Blue ability to work relentlessly on a problem of interest, functioning without significant stress in solemn and tense environments.
Figure 15–1 How to Recognize a Blue
That summer she worked on Bill Clinton’s campaign for an Arkansas congressional seat, already emotionally involved with the young up-and-comer. Campaign manager Paul Fray struggled with the hard-nosed young woman over the strategies he deemed his turf, but later admitted, “She was an organizational genius.”9
During her time in the White House as First Lady, Hillary helped President Clinton draw and clarify battle lines. Her personal goals (healthcare reform, legal rights of children) were typical of a Blue – long-term, strategic, and abstract. Hillary was and is not concerned about stepping on toes while pursuing the ability to set her own agenda.10
When her two-decade marriage to Bill Clinton was tested by the Monica Lewinsky scandal in the glare of international media, it endured, and many wondered why. Put in Color Q terms, the answer was simple.
Hillary is a Blue/Gold. Bill is a Red/Green. (NOTE: Neither has reported taking the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator questionnaire or the derivative Color Q Self-Assessment, but these personalities have been extrapolated by Dr. David Keirsey, noted temperament specialist in the Myers-Briggs community,11 and author Shoya Zichy from a personal meeting with Hillary. These results are supported by extensive research, candid conversations with journalists, and Hillary’s personal friends.) He loves politics; she prefers making policy. He is a quick study; she, like most Blues, has depth and focus. He looks for ways to compromise; she, in typical Blue fashion, weighs alternative strategies. He forgives and forgets; she remembers and keeps score. He dives into a crowd with the abandon of an Red/Green Extrovert; Hillary reaches out but remains at the Blue/Gold’s cool distance. He works from the gut; she is guided by logical analysis—again, another Blue tendency. He thrives on risk; Blue Hillary circles it cautiously.12 It’s a case of opposites attracting … and complementing each other in deeply important (and binding) ways for the challenges they have faced together.
After her role as First Lady of the United States ended, Hillary did what comes naturally to all Blues: She took charge. She chose to run for a seat in the U. S. Senate and made it happen, tactically using her political contacts and name recognition. As of this writing she continues to place herself strategically in the spotlight on carefully chosen issues, fueling the possibility that she herself eventually will run for President of the United States.
Other famous Blues in politics are Madeleine Albright, Vice President Dick Cheney, Al Gore, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Condoleezza Rice, and Lady Margaret Thatcher. Microsoft founder Bill Gates and IBM’s Lou Gerstener represent Blues in the corporate world. Walt Disney illustrates the Blue style in entertainment, Citibank chairman John Reed and mega-investor George Soros in finance, and Albert Einstein in academia.
Use this chapter to determine if you’ve tested your primary and backup personality color correctly. It also will help identify Blues among people you know, as will Chapter 4, A Tour of the Prism Company/The Blue Department, and Chapter 25, Adjusting to the Styles of Others. We added Figure 15–1 for other Colors to have a list of ways to identify and communicate with Blues.
As a Blue, you are the rarest of the four Colors. You are the most strategic of all personality types, thriving when grappling with complex theoretical challenges. Your talent for new system designs brings you recognition and appreciation.
A Blue who grew rich on these natural talents is Charles R. (“Chuck”) Schwab, founder, chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Charles Schwab Corporation. The Corporation is a leading provider of financial services with more than 325 offices, 7.1 million client accounts and $1.2 trillion in client assets. When Schwab started his business in the 1970s, he was $100,000 in debt and going through a divorce. But he saw the baby-boomer demographics and their meaning—28 percent of the U.S. population would be in the pre-retirement age range of 45 to 64 by the year 2010.13 And he invested big in pre-Internet technology in the late 1970s—“a bet-the-company decision”—that gave Schwab a crucial headstart into Internet trading and investing. These two things together—demand and technology—grew into a trillion-dollar business … and made Chuck Schwab a billionaire twice over.
Described by Fortune Magazine in 2005 as “private and aloof,”14 Schwab’s demeanor is typical of Blues who focus on systems and their improvement. After retiring, Schwab reclaimed the CEO position of his firm when his designated successor was deemed as being “not really inclined toward the visionary, blue-sky stuff,”15 and the company floundered in the early 2000s. Blues are the visionaries of the world, just what the company needed at that time. He plans to remain at the helm until January 2007,16 keeping the company focused on its strengths and improving internal processes so it “skates to where the puck is going to be,”17 as he likes to say.
You as a Blue will critique every point made in a book like this, preferring instead to deal with things more intellectual and less emotional. However, if you are interested in learning how to work more effectively and efficiently with other personality types, this book will be the key that unlocks those secrets. Color Q shows you how to handle even the most emotional and disorganized people in your life. It describes what to do when all your best efforts have failed.
The most logical way to proceed with this book is to read about your own Color first, and then learn how you interact with others by reading their profiles as needed. You especially want to learn about Reds, with whom you are most likely to clash because they are relentlessly present-centered and view deadlines and commitments merely as loose guidelines in both personal and professional life. Reds, however, will help you achieve more than you could on your own. Harness their strengths to handle crises in troubled teams, departments, or companies. Turn to their present-moment thinking when strategic, future-oriented logic breaks down.
You’ll get along better with Greens and Golds. They, too, have strengths with which you should become familiar. Successful Blue entrepreneurs and leaders know how to engage the strengths of each Color and hire accordingly.
8Evan Thomas, “Bill and Hillary’s Long, Hot Summer,” Newsweek (October, 19, 1998), p. 38
9Ibid., p. 41.
10Lucinda Franks, “The Intimate Hillary,” Talk (September, 1999), p. 174.
11David Keirsey and Ray Choiniere, Presidential Temperament (Del Mar, CA: Prometheus Nemesis, 1999), appendix.
12James Bennett, “The Next Clinton,” New York Times (May 30, 1999), p. 26.
13Terence P. Pare, Fortune Magazine (June 1, 1992). Accessed February 20, 2006 from www.highbeam.com
14Betsy Morris, “Charles Schwab’s Big Challenge,” Fortune Magazine (May 2005). Accessed February 20, 2006, from www.highbeam.com
15Ibid.
16Ibid.
17Rebecca McReynolds, “Doing It the Schwab Way,” U.S. Banker (July 1, 1998). Accessed February 20, 2006 from www.highbeam.com