YOU’RE NOT ONLY A GOLD, you also have strong secondary characteristics of the Green personality. And you have tested as a Color Q Introvert, which means you recharge your batteries by being alone, rather than being with people. Your Color group has gentle and supportive people who value tradition and have strong follow-through skills. It’s helpful to know your strengths so you can maximize them and your weaknesses so you can delegate or ask for help with them. Suggestions follow for all of this.
Quiet and reflective, the focus of your energy is to ensure the welfare of those under your care. This core tendency surfaces early in your life. Very few people get to see your rich inner world because you always are more focused on the needs of others.
At work this translates to a highly developed work ethic where commitments and obligations are undertaken with seriousness and given top priority. A practical, detail-oriented, and thorough person, you can always see and address what needs to be done at each phase of a project.
Your warmth, sense of responsibility, and desire to create stability and harmony lead you to service careers and volunteer activities. But you don’t last long in hectic and ambiguous environments; stable organizations that provide ample private time to plan will better support your ambitions.
Authority, history, and tradition are things you respect. So is the conservation of any kind of resource, natural or man-made. You find change, abstract concepts, and untested theories irritating. When you start imagining things, it’s usually worst-case scenarios that fill you with doom, gloom, and self-doubt. Pulling yourself back to the real world makes you feel better, and you prefer staying here. Imagination is not your friend, and the vivid imaginations of Greens in particular make you uncomfortable.
If you have co-workers who are discourteous, unreliable, noisy, or unprepared, it drives you crazy. Conflicts are problematic for you and avoided wherever possible, allowing bad behaviors to continue unchecked.
At cocktail parties or business functions, you just enjoy blending in. Controlling the attention or taking a dominant role isn’t something you want or need. You leave the starring roles to others. One-on-one is the way you prefer to communicate, and you listen attentively. Putting others at ease is a talent you’ve acquired through your natural curiosity about people and your keen powers of observation.
case study one
Psychologist and Teacher
Eric Nichols, Ph.D., is a gentle personality who wants to retire to a cabin with enough land to raise chickens and sheep. He suspects that’s a pipe dream, but it keeps him going in his roles as a licensed psychologist and teacher of graduate counseling students. Eric sees patients 10 to 12 hours a week in therapy. The rest of the time he runs graduate courses at the University of Vermont’s College of Education and Social Services in diversity, family counseling, testing, counseling theory, and internship.
His Gold personality is well-suited to his administrative tasks—scheduling, interviewing prospective students, and serving on University committees. “As for the administrative stuff, I love organizing and attending to the details of the program,” he says, a typical Gold. “I like being helpful.”
His passions are sharing stories with his students and listening to people’s life stories. “They intrigue me,” Eric says. His Green side gives him a natural strength for the emotional aspects of his therapeutic work. It’s important for him to feel needed. “I worry about what it will be like for me when I retire next year from the University,” he says. He plans to continue his therapy practice.
In his top strengths he includes kindness, persistence, loyalty, attention to detail, and follow-through. “As I get older, I am more and more willing to take calculated risks,” he says. “I like that.”
Eric’s definition of success is being happy with what he does and having enough money to live comfortably, responsibly, and generously (his Gold side talking). If the cabin of his dreams doesn’t pan out at retirement, he wants to cook either professionally or for his own pleasure, and travel more, especially to Mexico (his Green side talking). “I started studying Spanish two years ago, and I want to get good at speaking that,” he says.
“Getting the right things to the right people, in the right amounts, to the right place, at the right time” is the crux of your talent. Outstanding logistical skills are the hallmark of Gold/Green Introverts in leadership roles. You supply clearly defined guidelines and instructions for your staff, and you often jump in and share the work.
You see your role as providing for the organization’s practical needs, to which you attend as if providing for a family. You welcome responsibility, feel keenly accountable, and prevent misuse of key resources. Everyone is kept informed, reaping goodwill and productivity.
When making important decisions, you go step-by-step, avoiding all foreseeable risks. As much factual information as possible is absorbed and assessed. You are uncomfortable “going with your gut.”
You rarely seek to lead but encourage others to express their ideas, provide positive feedback, and usually are modest about your own contributions. When a team needs a practical reality check, you’re the one to provide it. Dependable and reliable, you do thorough work, meet deadlines, respect rules and procedures, and don’t understand the motivations of others who behave differently.
If you speak up about the less productive actions of team members and they argue with you, you are apt to take it too personally.
Look at Figure 24–1 for a list of your natural work-related strengths. Now see how one Gold/Green Introvert uses these strengths in a different field.
Figure 24–1 Natural Work-Related Strengths
case study two
Small Business President
Mary Waite’s dream of a career in agriculture took some twists and turns. Growing up in a small rural town in Connecticut, Mary watched her parents run a feed, grain, and dairy business on their family farm. “The secretaries sat at our dining room table,” she says. “I learned a lot about the business by osmosis.”
In college, she majored in agricultural economics and got married. After graduation, she began work as an agricultural loan officer. “That involved two things I enjoyed,” she recalls. “Banking and agriculture.”
She had to quit as her husband’s corporate career took off, with moves to metropolitan areas up and down the East Coast. “Not where you find agricultural lending agencies!” Mary says. She worked as a straight loan officer, “which I still found enjoyable, because you get to see what works and what doesn’t financially for different businesses.” When her children were born, Mary left the business world to raise them.
She inherited her childhood farm when her parents passed away. She and her husband made one final move back to it. “It was extremely gratifying to move back here,” says Mary. “The kids seemed to appreciate their roots, the ones my parents worked so hard to put down here.” Golds value traditions and family history. One thing Mary especially values here is the ability to keep cows, sheep, goats, rabbits, and ducks and reclaim her desire for an agriculturally based life.
When her children were in high school, Mary and her husband acquired two niche businesses in the industrial safety garment industry. She became president of the smaller of the two, in Texas. “I do everything, minus the actual production,” she says, including bookkeeping, purchase orders, payroll, purchase checking, and customer relations. They have a dozen clients. “I said upfront to my husband, this is what I can do,” says Mary. “I didn’t want or need the challenges of trying to run or expand a business. But my strengths are detail work, the nitpicking, the follow-through. In our business, there’s a right way and a wrong way, it’s very clear cut, important that it’s done a certain way, and that you follow through.” Mary’s Gold side is ideally suited for these demands.
The most stressful aspect of the work for Mary is the highly technical customer contact, not unusual for an Introvert.
Mary’s Green side finds working with animals during off time on the farm most energizing and satisfying. She also enjoys making personal connections with people. “I like finding the strengths of others, figuring out what they might need, and connecting them with the right person, place, or thing.” Caring for others is typical of a Gold/Green Introvert.
Soon to retire, Mary looks forward to “doing more for my community. I’d love to develop some sustainable agriculture that utilizes all our land, and maybe get four or five llamas.”
You, like Eric Nichols, gravitate to stable, recognized entities with solid reputations in the community. When a job offer is made, leverage as much as you can from the list in Figure 24–2 on page 234.
The WORST type of work culture for an Introverted Gold/Green is highly competitive and rewards intuition over factual accuracy. Environments of constant change, like start-up or distressed companies, can stress you to the point of physical illness.
When Introverted Gold/Greens work in nonideal corporate cultures, productivity is stunted and career achievements become an uphill climb.
Figure 24–2 The Ideal Gold/Green Introvert Work Environment
Figure 24–3 The Gold/Green Introvert’s Ideal Boss
Even a great job can be frustrating under the wrong boss; a mediocre job under a wonderful boss is pretty hard to leave. Gold/Greens get along especially well with other Golds. But bosses of other Color types who possess the characteristics in Figure 24–3 also can be good mentors.
The company you’ll call home is one where you can work in a secure career path for many years under the guidance of clear rules, procedures, and expectations. As with Mary Waite, predictability and stability bring out your best work. You particularly need to be rewarded for your abilities to be accurate and get things done. Financially well-managed companies are what you instinctively prefer.
Please note that not all the following careers will appeal to you, but recognize that each, in some way, draws on the strengths of your style and appeals to a significant number of your Color group. This is not a comprehensive list, but it will show underlying patterns of preference. If unlisted careers offer similar patterns, your chances of success increase. Copy in parentheses highlights the Color style characteristics that create success.
In addition, two codes indicate those jobs that are currently predicted to have an above-average salary and growth potential. This information is based on the continuously revised data provided by the U.S. Department of Labor and Bureau of Labor Statistics available on the O*NET website, http://online.onetcenter.org/.
Bold indicates that the career is considered to be among the top 100 best-paying jobs based on the average or median salary paid to individuals with five years of experience. Excluded are jobs where salary statistics are not available, such as “business owner,” or not indicative, such as “actor.”
Italics identifies the jobs that are predicted to benefit from an above-average growth rate over the next several years.
Bold and italics indicates jobs that will benefit from both higher pay and high growth potential.
Note there are successful people of all Color styles in all occupations. In nonideal jobs you can still shine by creating your own niche.
bookkeeper ♦ convention planner ♦ customer service manager ♦ human resources specialist ♦ insurance underwriter/agent ♦ lobbyist ♦ marketing executive [radio, television] ♦ office manager ♦ private banker ♦ performing arts administrator ♦ public relations specialist ♦ real estate agent/manager ♦ salesperson [tangible products] ♦ service sales representatives ♦ small business owner (human interaction, organizational skills, straightforward and diplomatic communication, service career orientation).
antique dealer ♦ caterer ♦ cosmetologist ♦ court reporter ♦ desktop publisher ♦ fashion designer ♦ flight attendant ♦ hairdresser ♦ interior designer ♦ jeweler ♦ librarian ♦ landscape designer ♦ museum conservator ♦ paralegal ♦ personal trainer/exercise instructor ♦ proofreader ♦ travel agent (service career orientation, eye for detail, interaction with people, affirming of others, keen aesthetic sense).
school administrator ♦ guidance counselor ♦ teacher [preschool, elementary, home economics, special education, some postsecondary] (meaningful contribution to society, respect for rules, professional respect, service career orientation).
anesthesiologist ♦ biomedical technologist ♦ chiropractor ♦ dental hygienist/lab technician ♦ dentist ♦ dietitian ♦ exercise physiologist ♦ hospice nurse ♦ hospital administrator ♦ nurse/nursing instructor ♦ optometrist ♦ pediatrician ♦ pharmacist ♦ primary care/family physician/physician assistant ♦ public health educator ♦ speech pathologist ♦ radiologic technologist ♦ therapists of all types [occupational, physical, radiation, respiratory, speech], veterinarian/vet assistant (high levels of competence, professional respect, service career orientation, observant of details, curious about people, put people at ease, ensuring welfare of others).
advocacy leader ♦ childcare center director ♦ community welfare worker ♦ counselor [career, child welfare, employee assistance, family, substance abuse] ♦ fundraiser/institutional solicitor ♦ religious leader [clergy, rabbi, religious educator] ♦ social worker (service career orientation, human interaction, affirming of others, help stabilize others, professional respect, contribute meaningfully to society, respect for tradition)
innkeeper/motel manager ♦ lawyer [limited interest in but include children, consumer affairs, domestic and health care] ♦ retail owner/manager (service career orientation, interaction with people, diplomatic, observant of details, ensuring welfare of others)
case study three
When a Career Isn’t Working
Bertie Feldman learned a lot by doing his cousin Tom a favor. Tom decided to run for State Treasurer and asked Bertie to manage his campaign. Bertie was deeply flattered; his cousin complimented him on his superior abilities to tune in to people’s needs, handle details, and complete follow-through tasks. “Bertie,” his cousin said, “no one is better at these things than you!”
It probably helped that Bertie recently had been laid off from his middle management job with a big enough severance package to see him through the four-month campaign. But Bertie also knew it wouldn’t just be his cousin getting exposure. Introverted Bertie was determined to use the experience to get his resume around and meet people with whom he would never otherwise come in contact.
The cramped campaign quarters did not allow Bertie a private office. Over time, this would become a major fatigue factor, with volunteers dropping in to ask questions or talking too loudly on their phones. Gold/Green Bertie much preferred the stability and predictability of his old job; by contrast, the campaign was uncomfortably fluid, with candidate plans changing constantly. Concrete-thinking Bertie was at a loss during strategy sessions, when as campaign manager he should have been leading the discussion. But strategies and theories stymied Bertie’s factually oriented, Gold/Green character.
He was great, however, at managing the volunteer staff. No task ever lacked a competent person, and even the media noted how well his cousin’s campaign was organized. Tom won the election, and Bernie knew what he wanted to do and where.
Two weeks after the elections, Bertie was offered the job of his dreams—managing the volunteer staff at the National Historical Museum two towns away from his home. Half of his time would be spent doing research in a private (hallelujah!) office. The salary was identical to his old job, with superior benefits. Bertie’s family was especially happy when he came home revved up at the end of each day.
Gold/Green Introverts have a unique set of potential work-related blind spots. Some you have, others you don’t. No one has them all. Tone down a blind spot by focusing on it, then choose more productive actions and make them habits. (Suggestions for doing so are in parentheses below.) You:
♦ Don’t see the forest for the trees. (Details, rather than the big picture, are your preferred focus. Without an overview, your detail decisions may be flawed. Keep in mind the end result and the details become clearer.)
♦ Need approval and get dispirited if it’s not expressed. (Myth: If they don’t express it, they don’t feel it. Fact: More than one Color feels appreciation without expressing it. Sometimes, you just have to reward yourself.)
♦ Overreact to competition and infighting. (When you can’t avoid conflict, you become cold, snappy, and overly negative. Be proactive; nipping it in the bud will drain you less. You’ll beat competitors with your tireless follow-through; don’t be afraid of them. They have something to prove; you don’t.)
♦ May be overly cautious about new ways. (Focus on whether the new is practical; that’s your strength. Support pilot projects and trial periods before saying no.)
♦ Can be less assertive and direct than needed. (You prefer to blend in; but occasionally you have to step up and share your knowledge. This is what it takes sometimes to get the job done. Do it without reservation.)
Gold/Green Introverts have the advantage of being best one-on-one. With some interviewers, particularly Golds and Greens, you will feel a comfortable rapport. But with those of other Colors, you need to rehearse responses outside your comfort zone.
Your natural strengths easily allow you to:
♦ Assemble a close and supportive network.
♦ Construct an accurate and compelling resume.
♦ Create a clear action plan.
♦ Have measurable and well-defined short- and long-term goals.
♦ Research and collect facts on prospective employers.
♦ Proceed through the interview process in an orderly way.
♦ Come across as hard-working, warm, and prepared.
♦ Be patient with what needs to be done and job application rules.
♦ Follow through on all details of the search. Are decisive when the right opportunity turns up.
In order to tone down your blind spots, you need to:
♦ Not take delays and obstacles as rejections.
♦ Prevent stress by organizing time lines, status reports, and a job search budget to track how well you are meeting your goals.
♦ Stretch yourself socially to broaden your network.
♦ Drill down to bottom-line implications and be tough when focusing on that aspect of a job.
♦ Role-play uncomfortable salary negotiations (get a willing Blue or Red to assist).
♦ Refuse to give in to depression after being turned down.
With an interviewer whose Color is close to your own, you will feel immediate rapport. However, if your interviewer seems to have a significantly different style, use the suggestions in parentheses.
In following your natural style, you:
♦ Listen more than you speak. (This can look like disinterest. Make sure to speak more than you normally do, especially at first.)
♦ Prefer written communications before face-to-face meetings. (Read several back issues of pertinent trade journals if necessary. Gather facts from all sources—Internet, library, annual reports. Such preparation will boost your confidence.)
♦ Prefer to talk about specific details, schedules, and deadlines. (A Green interviewer relies on his or her emotional response to you as a big part of the decision-making process. If your interviewer asks you questions like “How did you get along with previous co-workers?” he or she may be Green. Prioritize building a personal rapport with such an interviewer. Role-play with a willing Green.)
♦ Focus on the present. (Especially if interviewing for a senior level position, you will need to prepare a position on future planning. Take a Blue or Green colleague to lunch and run a few ideas by him or her before an interview. At least read public statements about the company’s future direction prior to an interview.)
Okay, go do something valuable to your community now. Later, check out Chapter 15, Greens Overall, first, then carefully read Chapter 4, A Tour of the Prism Company, and Chapter 25, Adjusting to the Styles of Others, to learn about the strengths of other Colors. Like all Colors, you need the strengths of others. You can put them to work for you if you know where to look and how to ask. If you invest time learning how to recognize the Colors who can best assist you by reading Figure 3 in each of the “Overall” Color chapters, it will make everyone more effective and productive.
If you are actively engaging in a job search, jot notes in the Roadmap in Chapter 28. Recording your strengths and strategies is a concrete and results-oriented way to assess the progress of your job search.