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golds overall

GOLDS REPRESENT 46 percent of the overall world population, by far the largest percentage of the four primary Color Q personalities. If you are not a Gold but want to learn how to identify or improve communications with one, go to “How to Recognize a Gold Colleague” at the end of this chapter.

Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice
of the Supreme Court of the United States

Perhaps one of the most “Gold” jobs in the United States is that of associate justice on the United States Supreme Court. And one of the women who fills this position exemplifies the Gold personality—Sonia Sotomayor. (This well-known Gold was tested by author Shoya Zichy in 1999.)

In her long journey from a South Bronx housing project to the bench of America’s highest court, Sotomayor’s step-by-step achievement style is characteristically Gold. Her father, a Puerto Rican tool and die maker, died when she was nine. Her mother was a strong and capable practical nurse who put Sonia and her brother through Catholic school.

In their housing development apartment, there was always a big pot of rice and beans on the stove or bacon-and-egg sandwiches prepared by her mother, Sotomayor recalls. It was their mother’s way of keeping their friends at home and away from drug-infested stairwells.

Here, Sotomayor came into contact with many of the urban disadvantaged. There were “the working poor, the despairing poor, or the addicted poor,” she recalls. “And you saw different kids making different choices.”

Sotomayor’s choice? To improve her English, she read all the Nancy Drew books, dreamed of becoming a detective, and devoured the TV show Perry Mason. On one episode she noticed that Perry Mason usually had to ask a judge for permission to do what was needed. “Suddenly, the lightbulb popped in my head,” she recalls with a grin. “I realized that the judge was the most important character in the show. Somehow I made the connection, and at the age of ten, I decided that would be my life path.”

Through mentoring and scholarships, she made it into Princeton University. The girl from the projects felt little in common with her fellow students, but it didn’t stop her. “First, I found that my vocabulary and writing skills were poor, and I didn’t know anything about the classics,” she recalls objectively. “So during college summers, I retaught myself basic grammar, learned ten new words a day, and set up a program reading all the books I had missed.” The step-by-step Gold effort turned her life around. She graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa1 from Princeton and made it into Yale Law School. There she served as editor of the Yale Law Journal. (Golds are naturally good editors.)

With these credentials, she joined the Manhattan district attorney’s office, and after five years as a prosecutor, went to the law firm of Pavia & Harcourt. Here, she immersed herself in real estate, employment, banking, contracts, agency law, and intellectual property.² In 1992, her childhood dream became a reality—she became a federal district judge. Six years later, the U.S. Senate confirmed her appointment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, making her the first Puerto Rican woman to reach the nation’s second highest court.

On August 8, 2009, Sonia Sotomayor became the Supreme Court’s 111th justice, its first Hispanic justice, and its third female justice.3

Her leadership strengths, Sotomayor claims, are due to being highly organized. “I find the most direct and quickest route to accomplish things,” this Gold says. “I just look at someone doing something and immediately think of how it could be done more efficiently.” Sotomayor readily admits to a typical Gold blind spot: “Sometimes I make decisions too quickly, or I may get caught up in the pure logic of the situation and forget to consider how others will react.”

Investor Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway

Another highly respected Gold personality (as regarded by the Myers-Briggs community) is investor Warren Buffett. His Gold reliance on past performance and established companies has lifted the value of his Omaha, Nebraska-based firm Berkshire Hathaway from $19.00 a share in 1955 to $116,914 a share in 2012. He sees himself as merely the steward of his $45 billion fortune.⁴

Ray Linder, chief executive officer of Goodstewardship.com, describes Buffett’s investment philosophy as one very typical of a Gold. “His great skill,” says Linder, “is not about predicting the value of the future better than others, but rather understanding the value of the past better than others.”

Buffett meticulously combs balance sheets of (typically blue chip) firms ten years and older for clues that the company is worth more than its current share price. His large investments in companies like IBM, Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad carried him through the recent recession with fewer losses than most.

Like most Golds (but on a grander scale), Buffett eschews debt and leverage, keeping up to $20 billion liquid⁵ and ready for good investment opportunities. Linder summarizes: “It is said he reflects a practical, down-to-earth attitude in investing and personal lifestyle.”

Golds 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 recognized for your follow-through, and can mobilize others to achieve well-defined goals. Golds shine when establishing policy; you aim for status, respect, and power. “Let’s do it right,” summarizes the Gold mentality.

As a Gold, you may be skeptical reading a book like this, preferring instead to deal with things more concrete and less abstract. To optimize this book’s value to you, study the “Negotiating Strategies” section of your particular personality chapter. Here you will find concrete tips for effectively dealing with even the most unfocused and disorganized coworkers. These strategies will help when all your best efforts have failed. Also study the “How to Recognize . . .” sections of Chapters 5, 10, and 15, which give an overall profile of the other Color Q personalities, and apply the suggestions to difficult coworkers. Then evaluate the results.

How to Recognize a Gold Colleague

External Environment Clues

Usually an administrator or manager

Maintains a clean desk

Favors no-frills decor

Has well-organized files

Personal Mannerisms—Personal Behavior

Always on time

Solid-seeming personality

Dresses conservatively with quality clothing

Devises and follows rules and procedures

Detail-oriented

Logistically skilled

Accountable

Responds to recognition and appreciation

Personal Mannerisms—Verbal

Thinks/speaks in concrete, linear fashion

Skeptical and cautious

How to Communicate with a Gold—“Style Shifting” Tips

Acknowledge this person’s title and achievements

Make your points sequentially or chronologically

Be factual and accurate

Be precise and down-to-earth

Avoid broad ideas and abstract theories

Be reliable and prompt; honor promises and commitments

Prepare for meetings; don’t “wing it” (presentations must run smoothly)

Follow procedures and respect the hierarchy

Prioritize conserving resources

Use concrete words and phrases like costs, return on investment, time line, proven, and “first, second, third.”