YOU’RE NOT ONLY a Blue; you also have strong secondary characteristics of the Red personality. And you have tested as a Color Q Introvert, which means you recharge your batteries by being alone rather than with people. Blue/Red Introverts are natural skeptics who may think this chapter is all about “feelings.” It isn’t; it’s about being effective. The Color Q system is based on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. which has been researched worldwide for over seventy years. (Please read Chapter 4, “The Color Q Personality System: Its Foundation and History,” if you require in-depth background.)
Here’s the cost-benefit analysis of reading this material:
Cost. Twenty to thirty minutes of your time to read (ten to fifteen minutes to skim).
Benefit. Gain mastery over the outcomes of your interactions with all coworkers. Develop stronger core competencies for interacting with people who irritate or drain you; transform them into helpful allies.
Let’s test the system. Are these your strongest motivators?
Intellectual freedom
Ideas and abstract thinking (the more unique the better)
Thinking “outside the cube”
Rigorous intellectual application
Solving the seemingly unsolvable
If that’s on track, read on.
As an Introvert, you’re less productive in open office settings. It’s critical that your complex mental modeling not be uninterrupted. Blue/Red Introverts form only 2 percent of the world’s population, but without your ability to envision new solutions, we’d likely remain in the Stone Age.
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 Introvert’s most preferred work environment emphasizes:
Focus on intricate problems and unique solutions
Start-up, not maintenance, of projects/systems (strong administrative support available)
Minimal meetings, procedures, deadlines, and noise
Working alone or with small groups of coworkers who are intellectual, independent, motivated, and informal
Tolerance for open time frames, physical disorganization, and blunt critiques
Rewards for creating/improving ideas, competence, and risk-taking
If these points seem obvious, it means you’ve tested correctly. (Compare with a Green/Gold Extrovert’s ideal environment.)
The Blue/Red Introvert’s least preferred environment is characterized by:
Having to handle lots of details, routines, and/or people’s feelings
Tight deadlines and strict schedules
Mandated tidiness
Rewards for following procedure and being risk-averse
Too much focus on past protocols
Overly sensitive coworkers and office politics
One of the critical tasks of a Blue/Red Introvert manager is to build one’s personal executive reputation or “brand.” As one of the most talented strategists of all the Color Q personalities, you’ll ace this task. Your brand enables you to set organizational direction and market yourself externally when necessary. Here is an executive summary of the Blue/Red Introvert leadership brand:
A master strategist, you are the first to identify new or unusual ideas, strategic advantage, and added-value.
People count on you to develop innovative solutions, looking beyond the expected. Although you’d rather work on your own, you’re often invited into upper management. Your long-term thinking and radar for cutting-edge ideas makes you obvious executive material (and the financial rewards are tempting). You make quick decisions under pressure and instinctively know how to delegate. However, you make a better visionary than administrator.
James G. Squyres, Buyside Research
Squyres owns a Darien, Connecticut, firm that applies technology to conduct investment analysis studies for Wall Street firms. Because the company develops unique computer programs for each client’s requirements, “We walk on beaches where there’re no footprints,” he says.
Although not a household name, Squyres’s innovative work has quietly revolutionized Wall Street. In the 1960s he was one of the first people to apply computer programming to investment research. Writing programs for war games while in the army developed the skills he needed in the emerging global banking field. “At that time, I was unique on Wall Street,” he recalls. Also at Citibank, his team worked with the Federal Reserve to eliminate paper certificates for Treasury bonds. He was involved as the New York Stock Exchange embraced technology for high-volume order processing. Squyres designed the technology to close the NYSE on triple-witching days.
Squyres has been successful because he understands the necessity of gaining support. “Change cannot be dictated,” he says. “We cannot expect an enthusiastic workplace response to change without explaining, without educating. . . . By her example, my wife, Amy, has been showing me how to get something done, how to identify and appreciate people’s values, how to deal with decision-making systems.”
His Red side views strategy as dependent on necessity. “If something wasn’t working and I thought it could be fixed,” he says, “I asked to work on it.”
Blue/Red Introverts work best independently. You are most valuable during the initial design/strategy phase when you enjoy debating options.
Here’s what you bring to the table: logic; sharp analysis of complex problems; ability to challenge conventional wisdom; high standards; a calming influence when emotions flare. Your in-depth knowledge provides visionary perception of marketplace trends.
Adjusting one’s vocabulary to align with another Color Q personality’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” creates strategic advantage in negotiations, managing, and interviewing.
Blue/Red Introverts are businesslike and reserved. In your areas of interest, you communicate with speed, enthusiasm, and banter. You prefer written materials before meetings and are comfortable with theoretical jargon, statistical data, and technical terms. Reds, with whom you share some personality traits, prefer concrete words and action verbs like “move,” “stimulate,” and “expedite.” Golds respond to “facts,” “tradition,” “respected,” and “proven.” Greens focus on abstract concepts and metaphors, emphasizing words like “values,” “relationship,” “feel,” and “friendly.” (The “Political Savvy” section includes tips for style shifting.)
Blue/Red Introverts are basically skeptical and do not require the agreement, understanding, or support of others for their visions (until the implementation phase). Conflict is handled with frankness and logic. At work, you are more likely to express concerns than appreciation.
These blind spots are prevalent in Blue/Red Introverts; only some will apply to you:
Relying on logic; exploring objective alternatives rather than feelings
Initiating too many projects, then missing deadlines and commitments
Setting complex goals and experiencing “analysis paralysis”
Being overly critical, blunt, impatient, and competitive
Intimidating those less quick-witted than you
Being uncertain of how to achieve buy-in from others
Here are the workplace conditions that particularly stress and fatigue Blue/Red Introverts:
Being constrained by details, procedures, and deadlines (limited options)
Lack of autonomy
Mandated group interaction
Coworkers who cannot grasp the ideas you present
Emotional outbursts of others or illogical arbitrariness
Success that’s measured by actual implementation
Blue/Red Introverts under extreme stress are prone to defensive outbursts. You can be cynical, resistant, resentful, or withdrawn. When you lose clarity, you’ll obsess over minor inconsistencies until you get your footing. You may shut out all emotions as “irrelevant.” Stubbornness and sarcasm are used to mask challenges to your competence and self-confidence.
The primary focus of the Blue/Red Introvert who wants to self-coach for career advancement should be on how to improve practical and emotional components of your strategies.
The Blue/Red Introvert has these strengths:
Constantly scans for the new, then critiques and redesigns
Evaluates possibilities by objective standards; generates many options
Reviews both traditions and new systems using critical logic
Uses debate and skepticism when creating models or theories
Focuses on errors in logic, improvements, and long-term consequences
Although Blue/Red Introverts bring tremendous strategy and vision to today’s workplace, interpersonal challenges may distract focus. Here are self-coaching strategies for your biggest challenges:
Resistance to structure, rules, and bureaucracy. You believe, rightly, in the value of applying strategic, logical solutions to long-range problems, and you become impatient with bureaucratic obstacles. Work within the system; develop upper-echelon allies.
Having to work in large teams or open offices. Ask to work primarily on smaller subcommittees. Negotiate a private work space because you’ll never feel comfortable without one.
Defeating buy-in to your solutions by ignoring the impact on people. It’s difficult for you to understand why humans irrationally resist your logical strategies. Hurt feelings develop for unknowable reasons. Find a Green mentor to help you master “emotional intelligence.” Analyze what wins people over; use “if . . . then” equations.
Difficulty with details and practicalities. Details are the strength of Golds, practicalities of the Reds. If you are not yet in a position to delegate to them, you soon will be. Meanwhile, form alliances through mutual respect of abilities. When realities conflict with theories, let others lead.
Obsessive searches for truth. If your sense of competence is challenged, you’ll work until it’s regained. You may ignore your physical needs for so long that you become ill. Competence requires stamina, supported by nutritious food, adequate sleep, and exercise.
Lack of competence in others. How quick are you to dismiss nonintellectual competencies? Can you rescue a stalled negotiation like your Green colleague? Handle practical implementation like a Red? Keep an organization running as smoothly as a Gold? When you sense a lack of competence in yourself, you withdraw (which is self-defeating). Keep yourself in the game and garner needed support from the other Color Q types through mutual respect.
When dealing with challenges, try physical activity that disengages your overstimulated mind. Doing nothing may be your best battery recharger, or try activities like card games, chess, travel, lectures, and reading. Values clarification exercises are useful, giving you thought-processing time to make sense of things and reconnect with your sense of competence. Prioritize your real need for privacy.
Hired as an electronic technician, within six months Alan Case proposed a strategic system redesign for Barnett & Cole Tooling that saved the company more than $2 million in the first year. He was promoted to manage this new system’s unit at double his entry salary. He was twenty-three years old.
Initially, Alan hired three staff members. His Blue/Red eye for competence helped; he gave his team much autonomy. Blue/Reds enjoy analyzing problems, taking risks, and exceeding targets. Alan’s staff had great respect for their young, capable boss. They formed an insular group at the local pub after work, often making fun of “incompetent,” “flighty,” or “rule-bound” coworkers.
One of those rule-bound coworkers, Howard, overheard the group laughing at the pub and decided to teach them a lesson by slowing down delivery of needed system parts. After several months, Alan’s analysis uncovered the resentful administrative employee. He gave Howard a public tongue-lashing, then complained to his supervisor.
“You need to learn how to work with Howard,” the supervisor said. “I’m not firing my best employee of twenty years.”
Alan consulted Grace, the human resources director. She walked Alan through some style shifting behaviors, including how to apologize with sincerity. Although Alan will never be entirely comfortable with the “touchy-feely stuff,” he now recognizes personality-based interaction skills are important to his success.
A valuable part of the Color Q system lies in learning how to harness the Green’s marketing and people skills, the Gold’s administrative talent, and the Red’s practical implementation to your advantage. Engage irritating coworkers as powerful political allies.
Greens. The Green is the most people-oriented of the four primary Color Q personalities. Their understanding of people and emotions seems soft and secondary, but it’s a vital balance to your logical, strategic orientation. Your style can irritate Greens; you don’t need their agreement or support and treat social pleasantries as optional. Greens are often intimidated by your attitude, and they sense your low opinion of them. You prefer to solve problems in relationships; Greens need to feel emotionally honest. They avoid your debate and challenges because they dislike conflict. But challenge their values and you’ll be handed your head! You see displays of emotion at work as unprofessional, dismissing those that challenge mental models; to Greens, this reaction seems cold. They won’t confront you, but they’ll become distant and unsupportive. Explain that you find it difficult to discuss possibly overwhelming emotions, and a Green will instantly support you.
Find common ground through your mutual ability to identify future trends.
Ask them how your behaviors affect others. Their feedback will be gentle and tactful.
Show respect and appreciation, even if it’s irritating, for their people skills and marketing abilities. This gesture increases their buy-in for your strategies and ideas, and they will bring in others, too.
To ensure their political support, factor in their values when formulating strategies and making decisions.
Explain that debating and critiquing is just your process and should not be taken personally. They’ll have a hard time understanding this about your personality, so reiterate often.
Golds. Golds are the rule makers and procedure setters of the world. Their administrative talents relieve you of pesky details. They may irk you by refusing to consider new ideas, but in order to be effective, Golds need structure and stability. Appreciate Golds when they provide critical administrative support. To make Golds your allies, work with them about the details of how your ideas and strategies will work, and keep at it until they’re in agreement. When formulating business plans, invite their input; they’re brilliant with procedural details.
To ease tensions, use words like “facts,” “tradition,” “respected,” and “proven.”
Bond with Gold/Blues through your mutual preference for logical thinking.
Explain that your critiques and debates are not personal, just ways to find “the truth.” They will resist when you try to “improve” their structures, so pick your battles carefully.
Acknowledge and flatter their superior detail management, especially when they perform these tasks for you.
Make a consistent effort to include them during strategic planning or product innovation. They’ll point out implementation issues that might otherwise sideline a project.
Reds. Your style can irritate a concrete-thinking Red with its abstractions, complex explanations, and overanalysis of problems. The Red’s strength is to address implementation issues that can derail “the strategy.” You also need Reds to create needed rapport with others. You want to point out logical flaws; Reds (who operate completely in the here-and-now) reply, “Does the ‘flaw’ matter at this moment? Let’s get on with it.”
Find common ground in your mutual ability to get around problems and limitations and make quick decisions.
Use these words and ideas with a Red—move, expedite, stimulate, “let’s get some real work done”—and evaluate the response.
Forget about talking strategically or theoretically. Simplify. Using concrete words, discuss specifically what needs to be done now to accomplish desired ends. Do a three-point “elevator pitch,” then wait for questions.
Solicit their opinions during initial strategy sessions. They’ll simplify your intellectual complexities and point out practicalities that can make or break a venture. Step aside from making revisions and refinements; let your Red colleague “get on with it.” Do not micromanage.
Let a Red mentor demonstrate the difference between abstract “solutions” and real-world problem solving.
If the aforementioned strategies are still missing the mark, the colleague may be an Extrovert. If so:
Respect, don’t challenge, their need to recharge their batteries by interacting with others—they need this the way you need private time. It will, however, be difficult for you to understand why they must constantly be around people and how they can prefer noisy environments.
Engage in thoughtful debate; ask neutral questions.
Interject verbally often, to keep them on point.
Volunteer to handle tasks for them that require working alone. Benefit from their gratitude—and the solitude.
Recognize any coworkers in the preceding descriptions? Go in-depth by reading each Color Q personality’s overall chapter and then Chapter 25, “Adjusting to the Workplace Styles of Others.”
In summary, Blue/Red Introverts are intellectual, analytical, and reflective. You value ideas and intellect above anything else. You seek to explain the universe, not control it! Lifelong learning is of highest importance, and you tend to acquire degrees and certifications more than most, particularly in abstract or theoretical subjects.
Whatever field you choose, you become the visionary, scientist, or architect; but you usually prefer to make your contributions from relative solitude. The mundane details of life may be neglected, as you frequently become lost in your intellectual pursuits. Often appearing aloof to others, you may have to give extra attention to your personal relationships. Overall, you are capable of outstanding creative achievements.