GOLDS REPRESENT 46 PERCENT of the overall world population. If you are not a Gold, but want to learn how to identify or improve communications with one, go to Figure 20–1.
This chapter will help you determine if you’ve tested your primary or backup personality Color correctly. It also will help you identify other Golds among people you know, as will Chapter 4, A Tour of the Prism Company/The Gold Department.
Kay Bailey Hutchison is Texas’s first woman Senator and a rising star in the Republican Party. This accomplishment is all the more impressive for the fact that, fresh out of law school in the mid-1960s, Hutchison couldn’t even land a job.
One of five women in her law school class of 500, the Texas law establishment simply didn’t hire women in the early days of the movement for women’s equality. But Kay showed the typical Gold’s tenacity in the face of adversity. “Not being able to get a job was my first big failure. I was devastated,” Kay recalls. “I had to reach deep into myself and find a new way.”
She took a job as a television news reporter. Being a TV personality gave her the visibility to go into politics. It was then that she met Anne Armstrong, co-chair of the Republican National Committee. Kay began as Armstrong’s press secretary, and then ran for office herself. At age 29 Kay became the first Republican woman elected to the Texas House of Representatives.
Figure 20–1 How to Recognize a Gold
In 1976, President Gerald R. Ford appointed Kay vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. Her political career was on the ascent until 1982, when she lost her race for Congress. Thinking she would never be in politics again, for the next ten years she turned to business, ultimately becoming the owner of a candy manufacturing company.
Then she was asked to run for State Treasurer. “This was an absolute turning point,” she says. “I was qualified for the Treasury post because of my banking and business experience, and it gave me the statewide exposure needed ultimately to run for the U.S. Senate.” Her business experience, seemingly a career sidetrack at the time, “helps me deal with economic issues, making me a more effective Senator.”
Hutchison considers her greatest strengths to be perseverance, tenacity, going the extra mile, and never taking no for an answer (all core Gold characteristics). Running for the governorship of Texas or President of the United States are possibilities under consideration.
She is able to identify key issues and bring others on board to solve them. These are all hallmarks of the Gold personality. Golds pay attention to details and hold themselves accountable for results. They typically are no-frills types who are loyal, responsible, and logistically oriented. While demanding top productivity from others, they expect no less from themselves.
Golds comprise 46 percent of the world’s population, are the largest of the four Color groups, and the most grounded. You are the backbones of corporate and public institutions. Society’s administrators, you are naturally talented at protecting others and directing the logistics of people, goods, schedules, and services. You value detail and procedures, are known for your follow-through ability, and can mobilize others to achieve well-defined goals. As leaders like Kay, Golds shine when establishing policy and aim for status, respect, and power. “Let’s do it right” is typical of the Gold mentality.
You are the most solid of all personality types, thriving on having many responsibilities for which you are recognized and appreciated. You will be skeptical reading a book like this, preferring instead to deal with things more concrete and less abstract. However, if you are interested in learning how to work more effectively and efficiently with other personality types, this book will be a key that unlocks the secret to motivating even the most unfocused and disorganized people in your life. It will show you what to do when all your best efforts have failed.
Focus and organization were never issues for Joan Shapiro Green. For ten years, she was President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of BT Brokerage, a subsidiary of Bankers Trust, trading stocks and bonds for institutional clients. During that decade revenues increased sevenfold. Apart from leading the staff to achieve the company’s objectives, what Joan enjoyed most was acquiring new clients and meeting with them to solve their problems.
Today she uses her well-developed Gold managerial abilities to support the Financial Women’s Association, The American Red Cross in Greater New York, and The UJA Women’s Executive Circle. While colleagues frequently poke fun at her calendar—a sweep of multicolored sticky notes that regulate a complicated life, none dispute her passion or the Gold drive to consistently deliver superior performance. Joan describes her top strength as motivating and inspiring teams to accomplish their goals. Serving on boards enables her to apply her energy and enthusiasm for important and valuable organizations.
Are these your top strengths, too? The best way to proceed with this book is to read about your own primary and secondary Colors first, then learn how you interact with others by reading their profiles as needed.
Famous Golds in politics are President George Bush, Sr. and his wife Barbara, Queen Elizabeth, President Harry Truman, President George Washington, and Queen Victoria. Former chairman of IBM Thomas Watson Jr., Sam Walton, and J.C. Penney represent Golds in the corporate world. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar illustrates the Gold style in sports, Colin Powell in the military, Warren Buffett in finance, Jimmy Stewart and Martha Stewart in entertainment, and Barbara Walters in the field of journalism.
This chapter should help you determine if you’ve tested your primary and backup personality Color correctly. You now have tools for identifying Golds among the people you know. Chapter 4, A Tour of the Prism Company, and Chapter 25, Adjusting to the Styles of Others, give additional tips for Color-coding others.