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green/backup
gold extroverts

YOU’RE NOT ONLY a Green; you also have strong secondary characteristics of the Gold personality. And you have tested as a Color Q Extrovert, which means you recharge your batteries by being with others, rather than being alone. Green/Gold Extroverts are gifted communicators with an unusual ability to influence. A calming presence, you interact smoothly and easily deflect confrontation. Green/Golds thrive where inner values are affirmed and harmony prevails.

Top Motivators

As an Extrovert, you require supportive, inclusive interaction with others. You create win-win situations for coworkers and customers. Wise managers tap their Green/Gold Extroverts when damaged relations impede success.

Green/Golds like to help others succeed. You form 5 percent of the world’s population, but have disproportionate impact for good in the world.

You may be tempted to skip the sections about your own personality type and dive into material about understanding your coworkers. But consider this—by understanding your own strengths first, you’ll better understand others.

Corporate Culture—Finding the Optimal Fit

It is the responsibility of every personality to find or create their optimal work environment. Optimal cultures differ among Color Q personality types. Strengths in one company may be viewed as weaknesses elsewhere. The corporate culture itself may not be dysfunctional; for instance, Greens hate what Blues love. Conflict, sapped strength, resentment, and feelings of defeat are symptoms of poor cultural fit and can be avoided by understanding your preferences.

The Green/Gold Extrovert’s most preferred work environment emphasizes:

Working harmoniously with others

Minimal competitiveness

Rewards for loyalty

Expressing oneself

Giving positive, empathetic feedback

Keeping surroundings orderly and attractive

Balancing economic results with workers’ needs

If you think these points are obvious, it means you’ve tested correctly. (Compare with a Blue/Red Introvert’s ideal environment.)

The Green/Gold Extrovert’s least preferred environment is defined by:

Politics and competitiveness

Management that ignores, challenges, or patronizes worker needs

An indecisive corporate culture

Frequent criticism, confrontation, backstabbing, and bullying

Impersonal coworker relationships

Lots of detail work

Mandates to make tough, hurtful decisions

Leveraging Executive Presence
and Building Personal Brand

Groups run by Green/Gold Extroverts tend to be stable, structured, and harmonious. As a leader, you’re good at defining the corporate mission and employing the right people to implement it. You have strong ideals about how to treat workers. Instead of being authoritarian, you roll up your sleeves and assist the troops through tough times.

Build your personal brand on your unusual ability to influence through passion and positive expectations.

Green/Gold Extrovert leaders excel at helping others to achieve their potential. Intrigued by new big-picture possibilities, you are very results-oriented. You easily defuse tension (often with humor). Your values inspire colleagues to nip high-level conflict in the bud.

CASE STUDY 1: Successful Green/Gold Extroverts

Erik Detiger, Philanthropia, Inc.

Detiger is the founder and managing director of Philanthropia, Inc., in New York City. His clients are mostly prominent philanthropies (UNICEF, Women’s Refugee Commission, Columbia University Institute for the Study on Human Rights). Detiger develops strategic partnerships, joint programming, and funding strategies for these deserving entities. His website, FundsforNGOs.org, provides a million visitors a month with free tools, resources, and training in fund-raising.

Since achieving his doctorate in political science from the Free University of Amsterdam, his career has been focused on human well-being issues. He has worked in the areas of human rights abuse, international health care, refugee assistance, and international child labor abuse. Detiger’s Gold backup personality gives him the detail orientation needed to successfully raise funds and manage programs; his Extroverted talent for speaking and training has taken him to workshops in Asia, Africa, and the European Union.

“My long-term goal is not wealth or recognition,” says this classic Green/Gold. “It is the satisfaction I get from helping people. I can help many more by using this web platform. My motivation is not money, but to do good.”

Fiona Thompson, Urban Land Institute

Thompson shares similar values in her role as the director of human resources operations for the Urban Land Institute. She handles employee relations, professional development, retention, and morale building for the nonprofit research and education organization’s U.S., London, German, and Hong Kong offices. “I like feeling that my job matters; that I have, in a small way, made the lives of our employees better, so they are more productive in advancing our company’s mission.” She has the innate Green/Gold talent for creating employee buy-in: “I have the relationships that encourage people to do it,” she says.

Because handling conflict is part of the job, Fiona successfully tackles this Green/Gold weak spot frequently. “I have a hard time giving criticism. I dislike conflict, but I try to keep my patience—I alter my communication style to meet the personality of the other,” she says. “I remind myself not to take it personally.”

Participating In and Managing Productive Teams

Green/Gold Extroverts often are their team’s leader or spokesperson, articulating team values and expressing what others only dare think. You enjoy idea exchanges where everyone is heard, drawing out quieter members. One of your strengths is building unlikely bridges between opposing teammates. “I think most conflict is not worth the time and effort,” says Detiger. “I defuse by using humor, showing respect and humility.”

Naturally gifted at coordinating projects, processes, and resources, you rarely miss a deadline.

You work hard and make your own breaks. “I moved to New York without a job,” says Detiger. “I landed a position at the United Nations, without contacts, on the strength of my resume.”

Communications Style

Merely adjusting one’s vocabulary to align with another color’s style can elicit powerful positive responses. Empathetic vs. objective analysis, theoretical vs. practical, structured vs. adaptable—these clashes fuel most workplace conflicts. Being able to “style shift,” like Fiona Thompson does, is your unique advantage in negotiations, managing, and interviewing; it is second nature to you.

Green/Gold Extroverts are talented conversationalists, responsive to nonverbal cues. You are so quick with replies that your less articulate coworkers may find it difficult to keep pace. Your preferred vocabulary features abstract concepts, metaphors, and analogies, emphasizing words like values, relationship, feel, and friendly. Conversely, Reds prefer to use words such as “stimulate,” “enjoy,” and “now.” Blues prefer theoretical jargon, statistical data, and technical terms. Golds, with whom you share some personality traits, prefer “facts,” “tradition,” “respected,” and “proven.”

Green/Golds understand what other people want to hear. This capacity eases group tensions and facilitates business deals.

Blind Spots

These blind spots are prevalent in Green/Gold Extroverts overall (a few of them will apply to you):

Using metaphors and analogies instead of concrete, practical words. (You can increase cooperation dramatically with Golds and Reds by “talking real.”)

Being unaware of how warmth and enthusiasm may seem unprofessional to other personalities, especially Blues.

Being overcommitted.

Placing secondary priority on learning or verifying facts.

Idealizing others, then getting disappointed.

Being overly critical of yourself; hearing constructive criticism as condemnation.

Deflecting conflict prematurely without resolving core issues.

Thinking problems are your fault when they’re not.

Irritating others by being moralistic.

Stressors That Produce Fatigue and Strife

Certain workplace conditions stress and fatigue Green/Gold Extroverts, including:

Open-ended, nonstructured environments

Lack of control

Too much repetitive work

Frequent last-minute changes

Working alone for long periods

Criticism, especially when it’s mean-spirited

Green/Gold Extroverts under extreme stress often become bossy, obsessive, fault-finding, and snappy. You may (erroneously) think a disagreement means permanent relationship damage. Fatigued Green/Golds become cool, inflexible, and self-contained. In leisure hours there may be insomnia or avoidance of usually pleasurable activities.

Self-Coach Your Way to More
Productive Work Relationships

The primary focus of the Green/Gold Extrovert who wants to self-coach for career advancement should be on how to handle personal challenges from a core of strength and confidence.

Problem Solving and Decision Making

The Green/Gold Extrovert has these strengths:

Discerns other people’s values quickly; keeps process on track

Embraces ideas that have worked elsewhere

Recognizes patterns, forms hypotheses, goes with hunches

Has drive to decide quickly and tie up loose ends

Frames all decisions by how they impact relevant parties

 

 

Strategies to Improve Effectiveness When Challenged

Interpersonal challenges detract from productivity. Here are self-coaching strategies for your biggest challenges:

Working with noncollaborative teammates. Assess—through your pattern-recognition skills—their Color Q types and employ the suggestions for dealing with them (see the following “Political Savvy” section).

Coping with competitive, me-first attitudes. Be the role model for a more collaborative approach; don’t expect reciprocation, at least initially.

Handling debate that splinters harmony. Propose a win-win solution, or excuse yourself until the situation cools down.

Getting overly involved with others and distracted from work objectives. Create some distance—take a break or a vacation, or enforce a communications blackout—until objectivity can be reestablished.

Being easily offended by corrective feedback. Practice objectivity. Focus on content, not tone. Role-play bothersome scenarios with a friend in a nonthreatening environment (what has worked for them?). Learn from Golds or Blues, who would perceive identical feedback as neutral.

Responding to chronic conflict with obsessive worrying about secondary details. Sounds easy, but it’s not—distance yourself from chronic conflict before it becomes a health issue.

Criticizing and confronting team members you think are violating values and standards. Be sure to give criticism privately! State your concerns in a neutral tone; do not moralize or sidetrack into personal issues.

Pushing for closure too quickly. Remember: Deflecting conflict is not the same as resolving and moving forward.

Your best coping mechanisms are rest, self-care (momentary or longer term), reflection, delegation, playing games with friends, and seeking objective opinions.

CASE STUDY 2: When a Career Isn’t Working

It was graduation day for Jason’s son. Now, Jason would finally be able to quit his job as an emergency room nurse. Although as a Green he loved the nursing profession, the emergency room was literally making him ill.

After fifteen years in pediatrics, Jason had transferred to the ER four years ago for the higher salary needed to pay his son’s tuition. But he lacked a Red’s appetite for the ever-changing demands of the doctors and endless crises. Emergencies don’t respect rules, and Jason had become edgy, critical, and an obsessive worrier.

At the graduation party, Jason happened to sit with his niece Lisa. Intrigued by the Green aspects of her job as a public health educator, Jason was receptive to her stories about educating and helping others. With Lisa’s assistance, Jason made the transition into an identical position with his county’s health department. The collaborative environment (no emergencies!) made going to work a pleasure for Jason once again.

Political Savvy—Making Your Words Count

A valuable part of the Color Q system lies in learning how to harness the Red’s spontaneous crisis-handling ability, the Gold’s detailed concrete thinking and administrative talent, and the Blue’s strategic thinking to your advantage. Engage irritating coworkers as powerful political allies.

Reds. “I’ve rewritten this project’s mission statement six times!” Green/Gold Dirk complains that his Red colleague Andy keeps pointing out impracticalities that send Dirk back to the drawing board.

Your style can irritate a Red by emphasizing one preferred solution. The Red’s strength is to expect, even welcome, midcourse corrections; Reds like to see how things play out in the real world. Your big picture may not seem realistic enough to a Red, who will challenge you with on-the-ground scenarios. To the Green/Gold Extrovert, the Red’s style appears to be barely controlled chaos—flouting procedures frequently, respecting things over people. This is a setup for long-term conflict with a Green/Gold Extrovert. When these Red strengths become irritations but are ignored “for the sake of harmony,” resentments boil over into conflicts that exhaust you but appear to energize and amuse the Red.

Negotiating Strategies

Use these words with a Red and watch the response: “stimulate,” “enjoy,” “expedite,” and “now.”

Forget the big picture. Using concrete, factual words, talk specifically about what needs to be done now to accomplish desired ends.

Solicit their opinions. Reds can create contingency plans on the spot when needed.

Do not micromanage; let them handle delays and unforeseen changes.

Don’t “give in” for harmony’s sake. Stand your ground, preferably with some easy humor.

Envision challenging Red coworkers as equals who can handle a firm “no,” and practice holding firm until your own concerns are addressed.

Blues. “My (Blue) colleague Amanda is driving me crazy,” sighs Green/Gold Carol. “I’m supposed to monitor her project’s progress, but she just won’t share what’s happening until she’s ready. All she does is critique my work!”

The Blue is the least people-oriented of all the Color Q personality types. To a Green/Gold Extrovert, Blues appear to put all their formidable mental energy into creating strategies that ignore the impact on workers and customers. Your style can irritate a Blue by emphasizing the impact on people rather than overall strategy. The desire for harmony may strike a Blue as secondary to the task at hand, which in the Blue’s mind must be challenged. The Blue will then pepper you with criticism and questions. This onslaught pressures the Green/Gold’s ability to stand firm in the face of conflict. The Blue appears to judge the value of your concerns by your “inability” to fight and win. If overwhelmed with lots of questions by a Blue, do not take the challenge personally or as a threat. It’s actually a compliment—this is how Blues show they’re interested in your ideas.

Negotiating Strategies

Be verbally short and concise.

Use “if . . . then” sentences, which are very effective.

Rehearse firmer, more effective responses: “I hear you; now here’s my list of concerns.” “Strategically, the problems I see are. . . .” “If you see customer relations as secondary, then how do you propose to deal with account cancellations?”

Adjust your vocabulary and use theoretical jargon, statistical data, and technical terms. To prove a proposal’s worth, point out several long-term benefits. Use ingenuity, logic, and wit to make your case.

Don’t react personally. Blues are hardwired for impersonal critical thinking.

Display competence. Blues force you to be tough-minded and firm. They find your warmth and enthusiasm distracting; they need to see your competence on display.

Golds. “Why is it always about money with her!” Green/Gold John is complaining about his Gold coworker Patricia, who insists on including a detailed rather than general budget for their project, which will require all-nighters for the next two days.

You can deal with Gold/Greens. Gold/Blues are another matter. More authoritarian and less patient than you, they view your participative style as soft. Your style may irritate a Gold by being too abstract, without enough concrete evidence and linear thought to explain how to achieve desired ends. Greens listen to all sides; Golds see only right or wrong. Gold/Blues particularly value “doing” over “feeling” and may become irritatingly critical and bossy. Their communication style is much more challenging, impersonal, and verbally aggressive, which can erupt into confrontation. If a Gold/Blue challenges you, provide step-by-step plans. (Create these plans by envisioning how they’ll help the people who will implement.)

Negotiating Strategies

To ease tensions, pepper your sentences with words like “facts,” “tradition,” “respected,” and “proven.” Avoid metaphors and analogies.

Use concrete words and concepts to create a comfort zone, so you can “talk the talk” with Golds (and Reds). They need grounded, practical words and tasks.

Commit several low-pressure, self-directed minutes each day to understanding the vocabulary of investment, costs, time lines, and budgets.

Extrovert vs. Introvert

If the previous strategies are still missing the mark, you may be dealing with an Introvert. If so:

Tone down your enthusiasm; listen more. It will be difficult for you to understand why Introverts shun interaction and prefer working alone. Respect, don’t challenge, their need to recharge their batteries with privacy—it’s not personal.

Invite them to speak, but don’t force them to speak until they’ve thought things through.

Do not fill their pauses.

Recognize any of your coworkers in the preceding descriptions? Learn more about each personality type by reading each Color Q personality’s overall chapter, then read Chapter 25, “Adjusting to the Workplace Styles of Others.”

In summary, with your Green/Gold Extrovert energy, warmth, and charm, you are an influential, charismatic leader. Tenacious, responsible, and opinionated, you usually work your magic by tactful persuasion but will do battle with the mean-spirited. You honor your commitments and expect the same of others. Well-defined teamwork, open communication, and appreciation describe groups you lead; but you need to have other colors look after impersonal details. Focus on standing firm when conflict first arises. It is critical to honor your desires and draw your lines in the sand.