YOU’RE NOT ONLY a Blue; you also have strong secondary characteristics of the Red personality. And you have tested as a Color Q Extrovert, which means you recharge your batteries by being with people, rather than being alone. Your personality comprises 3 percent of the world population; you’re a rare breed. Blue/Red Extroverts are driven by desire for competence and recognition in their chosen field. Your eye is trained on the big picture, spotting competitive and strategic advantages.
As an Extrovert, however, working alone for long periods is draining and is always difficult; you need a populated environment. Exploration and competition are necessary; without competent, dedicated, and independent coworkers, your effectiveness is curtailed.
During hiring or review, negotiate for these Blue/Red Extrovert motivators:
Entrepreneurial freedom; collaboration with expert coworkers
Ability to originate new products/solutions through nonstructured exploration
Opportunity to unearth competitive and strategic advantages
Diversity of projects
Ongoing development of expertise
Encouragement of on-the-job fun and excitement
It’s 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 unneeded elsewhere. The corporate culture itself may not be dysfunctional; for instance, Blues hate what Greens love. Conflict, sapped strength, resentment, and feelings of defeat are symptoms of poor cultural fit and can be avoided by understanding your preferences.
The Blue/Red Extrovert’s most preferred work environment emphasizes:
Work on intriguingly complex problems
Fun, challenging competition
Opportunities to increase mastery, influence, and respect
Working for a high-status company that provides interaction with powerful, influential people
Freedom, spontaneity, and improvisation
Minimal hierarchy, rules, and procedures
If these points seem obvious, it means you’ve tested correctly. (Compare with a Green/Gold Introvert’s ideal environment.)
The Blue/Red Extrovert’s least preferred environment has:
Emphasis on details and practicalities
Unclear goals; little emphasis on long-range planning and innovation
Entrenched bureaucracy
Coworkers who are emotional, myopic, or lack initiative
Micromanagement
Limited collaboration (i.e., people working alone for long stretches)
One of the critical tasks of a Blue/Red Extrovert manager is to build one’s executive reputation or “brand.” Use your intrinsic strategic abilities to leverage power internally and market yourself externally when necessary.
The Blue/Red Extrovert’s leadership brand should be built around your high intellectual energy and creativity, insightfulness, and contagious enthusiasm. Inquisitive and clever, you are alert to new opportunities and persuade through the power of ideas.
Autonomy is allowed, provided your staff has demonstrated high levels of competence. Taking risks is encouraged as long as the cost-benefit analysis works. Staff is pushed to exceed targets with accurate, supportive, tough yet fair feedback.
You theorize systems, then act as a catalyst for their adoption. You already will have analyzed patterns and relationships behind key issues. Those who object are usually outclassed by your superior grasp of the big picture.
Matthew B. Alsted, Calvert Investments
Alsted “likes to balance creativity and pragmatic business solutions.” That’s good, because his work as vice president, channel marketing and brand strategy for Calvert Investments in Washington, D.C., is complex. “My primary responsibility is for setting marketing strategy within our core distribution channels . . . the other is championing brand development and leadership initiatives including market research, positioning, and execution work [putting strategy into action].”
Alsted has accomplished much in his sixteen years in the financial industry. He started as a product analyst at BayBank in Boston, where he was responsible for competitive analysis and financial reporting and moved up to product manager. Next, he joined T. Rowe Price as assistant vice president in product marketing and customer development. In 2002 he moved on to Riggs Bank in Washington, D.C., where, as vice president, he led marketing communications and e-business strategies and contributed to the restructuring and repositioning of numerous business lines.
A typical Blue/Red Extrovert, Alsted lists his top strengths as an ability to keep focus, tap the ideas and approaches of others, and network (which he does several nights a week). When asked what’s stressful about working with him, he says, “I’m a little impatient [and] take on too many things. I am more interested to start projects.”
Even as a boy, Alsted thought strategically. “A lightbulb went off that I was at risk of not doing well financially. I went home and said I wanted to go to boarding school, get into a good college. The family was making a big investment, so I knew I had to work hard; it was a great confidence booster.” It paid off. Today he collaborates closely with Calvert’s distribution company president, key account managers, and fifteen field wholesale managers, and supervises a team of five channel marketing managers.
Cream rises, and you are often nominated to lead your team. Collaboration with a broad range of people increases your productivity. On a team, you take initiative, energize others, provide objective analysis of issues, and generate unique solutions. Your can-do attitude is best applied during a project’s initial phase; you’ll need other personalities to handle implementation details.
Reducing tensions with humor, you are versatile, ingenious, and great at multitasking. Remember that outcomes are just as important as processes and systems.
Adjusting vocabulary to align with the style of another Color Q personality elicits powerful positive responses. Empathetic vs. objective analysis, theoretical vs. practical, structured vs. adaptable—these clashes fuel most workplace conflicts. Being able to “style shift” brings superior strategic advantages in negotiations, managing, and interviewing.
In business dealings, you are confident, assertive, and articulate; you summarize complexities and persuade others with enthusiasm. Quick on your feet socially, your wit, wordplay, and banter both delight and intimidate. Your preferred vocabulary is theoretical jargon, statistical data, and technical terms. Reds, with whom you share some personality traits, use active words—“move,” “stimulate,” and “expedite.” Golds respond more to words like “facts,” “tradition,” “respected,” and “proven.” You are uncomfortable with Greens, who emphasize feelings and prefer words like “values,” “relationship,” “feel,” and “friendly.”
Blue/Red Extroverts want to be businesslike first and favor talking rather than writing. You approach conflict with frankness and logic. Style shifting for you means accommodating the emotions, practical considerations, and rules of others (finding the loopholes doesn’t count!). Strategize your way through practical demands; understand that logic-clouding emotions can provide unusual but effective problem-solving insights. Analyze the anxieties of those who impose rules; address them with win-win solutions.
These blind spots are prevalent in Blue/Red Extroverts; some of them will apply to you:
Initiating many projects, then abandoning some
Too quickly dismissing “incompetents” and remaining unaware of their strengths
Becoming too focused on “the model”
Unintentionally offending those who prioritize harmony
Seeing deadlines and commitments as secondary to formulating strategies and systems
Setting high expectations and engaging in self-criticism, leading to burnout
Here are the workplace conditions that stress and fatigue Blue/Red Extroverts:
Incompetence in others; fear of incompetence in self; being unfairly questioned
Pressures to provide detailed plans
Little freedom; mandatory rules/procedures; micromanagement
Dealing with small talk, emotional reactions, or office politics
Closed-minded coworkers who cling to the past
Seeing a solution you cannot implement
If you are under extreme stress, you’ll likely become stubborn, rebellious, and critical. Detail obsession, tunnel vision, and excessive eating, drinking, sleeping, or exercising are attempts to regain control. If these pursuits fail, energy and criticisms escalate. At worst, you’ll shut down all emotions and avoid situations where you feel incompetent; this breeds uncontrolled outbursts. For coping mechanisms, see “Strategies to Improve Effectiveness When Challenged.”)
The primary focus of the Blue/Red Extrovert who wants to self-coach for career advancement should be on how to handle others’ emotional issues, rules, and practical demands.
The Blue/Red Extrovert has these strengths:
Constantly scans the universe for new or unusual opportunities, ideas, solutions, and processes
Brainstorms multiple options and tolerates ambiguity
Can analyze copious data and discover connections others miss
Learns from similar situations
Analyzes added-value well
Interpersonal challenges detract from productivity. Here are self-coaching activities to cope with your biggest challenges:
Fear of your own incompetence. This fear is very strong in you. You’ll avoid situations where you feel like a newbie. Avoidance, however, breeds incompetence. Identify Red colleagues and ask how they handle new challenges; learn the difference between amateur and incompetence. Carefully select projects to maximize successful completion.
Having to work alone. Delegate these tasks to Introverts (who’ll thank you for the alone time!) or else negotiate working with others.
Diminishing cooperation from others. Do you make glib comments or hog the limelight? These tendencies can offend important colleagues. On a low-risk situation, step back and let other people do it their way. Express appreciation for their skills. Analyze their reactions and results.
Emotional reactions that cloud reality and logic. It is important to acknowledge different types of intelligences. Feelings can be valuable, make-or-break inputs. Find a Green to mentor you about emotional logic. Handle emotions as “if . . . then” equations (e.g., “if he feels this, then he’ll likely do that”).
Being disorganized. You live in a theoretical world; practicalities are secondary. (Blow too many deadlines and commitments, however, and you’ll be theorizing a new resume.) At 9:00 a.m., take ten minutes to prioritize your day. It will greatly improve your follow-through.
When facing challenges, rely on your cool-headedness and ability to innovate. Avoid jobs dealing primarily with routine. Blue/Red Extroverts are tough-minded and strategically brilliant, but become unsettled in the face of strong emotion and need a Green ally.
Blue/Red Extrovert Martin Cormun was proud of his job as director of the Museum of Science and Technology in his city. He had contact with some of the biggest names in the field, and he really enjoyed the many evening networking events to which the museum played host annually.
But during the day, working alone in his thickly carpeted office made him feel restless and irritable. All thirteen of his assistants had quit because he had micromanaged them out of sheer boredom.
His frustration peaked after a board meeting where members waxed poetic about protocols of the past. Blue/Red Extroverts chafe when asked to continue doing things as they have always been done.
At a networking event, Martin met young, entrepreneurial Suzanne Pielski. She was brimming with ideas for a start-up that would apply existing industrial technologies in new ways. Martin had solid connections for both venture capital and technologies. Suzanne begged him to come on board; in typical Blue/Red fashion, Martin evaluated and seized the exciting opportunity.
Today he serves as the new consultancy’s strategic director. He took a temporary cut in pay, but sees a big future for the company. His twelve-hour days are energizing, and his assistant shows no sign of quitting.
A valuable part of the Color Q system lies in learning how to harness the Green’s marketing and people skills, the Gold’s detail thinking and administrative talent, and the Red’s crisis management capabilities to your advantage. Utilize irritating coworkers as powerful political allies.
Greens. “I’m not going to lay off Harry. I’m going to cut the budget and take a voluntary pay cut instead,” announced Theresa (a Green). Alfonso (a Blue), her boss, is astonished and asks, “Why retain dead wood whose productivity has gone steadily downhill?” Theresa answers: “Because his wife has just been diagnosed with breast cancer.”
The Green is the most people-oriented of the four primary Color Q personalities. Their understanding of people may seem a puzzling, secondary focus, but it’s a vital balance to your logical, strategic orientation. Your style can irritate a Green. You critique too quickly, criticize bluntly, and play devil’s advocate. In turn, Greens irritate you by needing emotional hand-holding. Harmony with others is not that important to you; you don’t understand why Greens care. Why explore values when you could be exploring alternatives? You find the ensuing conflict a waste of time. However, you both share the ability to surprise, delight, charm, and have fun. Grit your teeth and give some positive feedback. Explain that discussing emotions is difficult for you because they are deep and overwhelming, and a Green will instantly support you.
Find common ground with Greens and their long-term thinking, spontaneous delight, and sense of fun. Use their people skills to increase buy-in for your ideas.
Ask them how you’re perceived. Their feedback will be gentle and tactful.
Show respect and appreciation for their people skills and marketing abilities.
To ensure their political buy-in, factor in their values when formulating strategies and making decisions.
Explain that your love of exploring objective alternatives and critiquing is just your process and should not be taken personally. They’ll have a hard time understanding, so reiterate often.
Golds. “We see some promising opportunities for our robotics division if we pursue surgical applications, so we’re going to shut down and reassign the manufacturing group,” explained (Blue) Stuart, the start-up’s owner. “No, we can’t support such a radical directional shift,” replied Aston (a Gold), the company’s venture capital supplier.
Golds are the rule makers and procedure setters of the world. Their administrative talents relieve you of pesky details. They may irk you by resisting new ways, but in order to be effective, Golds need structure. You irritate Golds by testing limits and bending rules. Find common ground with Gold/Blues, who also prefer logic and linear thought. To make Gold coworkers allies, focus on less risky solutions that allow them to slowly become comfortable with your more unusual ideas. When formulating business plans, express appreciation for their grasp of facts and accuracy. You may ignore even positive parts of the past; they’ll incorporate these details in ways that can make or break your plans.
To ease tensions, use words like “facts,” “tradition,” “respected,” and “proven.”
Explain that your critiques and rule-bending are not intended to be personal; they are just ways to find the “right” answer.
Acknowledge and flatter their superior detail management.
Make a consistent effort to include them when you are formulating strategic plans or proposing product innovations. They can point out and prevent implementation issues.
Reds. “Chris, what are we going to do about replacing packaging machine A? It’s failed three times in the past two weeks,” asks Millie (a Red). “I’m thinking about upgrading the entire line over the next three years with new machines from Apex,” replies Chris (a Blue). Millie, in turn, demands: “But what about machine A now? Next time it fails, it could be decommissioned. Then what?”
Your style can irritate a Red by being picky about semantics and abstract ideas. Reds live in a here-and-now world of practicalities. They want to do, not strategize. You need them to quantify how much implementation your ideas require; you also need their ability to contribute concrete steps for business plans. Luckily, you both like to find fun in work, bend a few rules, refine plans along the way, and discover opportunity even in the face of disaster.
Use action words and phrases with a Red—move, stimulate, expedite, “let’s get some real work done”—and evaluate the response.
Forget about talking strategically. Using concrete words, discuss specifically what needs to be done now to accomplish desired ends.
Curb tendencies to argue semantics and abstract points.
Solicit their opinions during strategy sessions. Reds formulate real-world implementation plans that avert future problems. They’ll also simplify your intellectual complexities.
Find common ground through your mutual tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty.
If the previously described strategies are still missing the mark, your coworker may be an Introvert. If so:
Respect, don’t challenge, their need to recharge their batteries with privacy—it’s not personal. Just accept that it will be difficult for you to understand why they shun interaction and prefer working alone.
Tone down your enthusiasm; listen more.
Invite them to speak, but don’t force them until they’ve thought things through.
Do not fill their pauses.
Recognize any coworkers in the preceding descriptions? Find more negotiating strategies in each Color Q personality’s overall chapter and in Chapter 25, “Adjusting to the Workplace Styles of Others.”
In summary, Blue/Red Extroverts live in their imagination and, when absorbed in their latest project, think of little else. Your tireless energy is sometimes exhausting to others.
Your commitment and self-confidence is infectious. You may find yourself a guru to others who lack your talents, perseverance, and personal drive. In your search for new experiences, you continually discover that a goal loses its fascination when it’s accomplished or becomes routine.
Well suited to be a leader, you instinctively motivate others and appreciate their unique qualities. This acceptance wins you many friends.
Diversity is the key to your happiness. You collect an amazing variety of interests, challenges, and admirers. To be truly successful and leave a lasting impact, however, you need to attend to details and complete mundane commitments.