The Cool Blue Manager

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Posted on 23rd January 2012 by Andy Britnell in Insights Discovery Colour Energies

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Insights Discovery Cool Blue Manager With personality there is no right or wrong, but with leadership there definitely is a right way! Understand this way, and how your personality colours your leadership style, then you begin to make a significant difference. It is one more reason why we start all our Leading & Developing High Performance training with the Insights Discovery model.

In previous blogs you have had a glimpse of the Fiery Red manager, the Sunshine Yellow manager and the Earth Green manager. Now here comes the Cool Blue manager.

What is Cool Blue energy?

This colour preference is characterised by the following adjectives:

• Cautious
• Precise
• Deliberate
• Questioning
• Formal

These managers are detached and can take a logical, objective look at data, analysing it to make sure everything is correct. Stability and order rule, and they have a detached single-minded ability to do what is right and ethical. They also prefer formal lines of reporting.

When dealing with this type of manager you need to know that they want to see evidence and will not take anything on hearsay. For something important, it is best to send an e-mail with all the information to give the manager time to analyse rather than expecting a hasty response. Their mantra is “Give me details!”.

It is best to get your expenses done, your appraisal forms completed and your paperwork in order as you will be measured on the quality of your systems, filing and ability to present things in a logical order, rather than for being a wonderful person!

In fact they will categorically fail to see just how wonderful you are, until these basic administrative things are in place.

What I appreciate about this energy

When you see this energy in action, it is so cool! The Cool Blue manager’s ability to stay detached and not get involved in the emotion of a situation can help defuse things and allow logic and truth to emerge. They are diligent and consistent. Interactions with you will be one-to-one and low key and, because their thinking goes on inside their head instead of being blurted out, they remain composed even in a crisis, quietly going about getting things done.

When Cool Blue energy gets in the way

These very strengths, if over used can be devoid of emotion. When there’s a lot of work to be done they would prefer to come into the office, go straight to their desk and get on, failing to see the need to walk round and say “good morning”, or even be nice. To the staff member this can seem stuffy, lacking any kind of warmth or humanity – you can literally feel ‘out in the cold’.

This manager under pressure seems more:

• Suspicious
• Reserved
• Rigid
• Indecisive
• Nit-picky

Cool Blue energy and L&DHP

With awareness this leader will be your rock and guide, explicitly stating what needs to be done and how. Their sound rationale and logic mean their assessments are thoughtful and correct, ensuring you stay on track towards the goal. They are more inclined towards support than challenge believing no-one can possibly do such a good job as them, which can keep them locked in the transactional stages of leadership, and poor at delegation.

The key thing to remember for the Cool Blue manager is that they need to consider their peoples’ emotional welfare, recognising that not everyone can take such a detached and clinical approach. It is important to recognise that everything cannot be fixed by a system and that sometimes people just need a hug! When they do this, Cool Blue managers shine as leaders.

Do you recognise the Cool Blue manager? We would love to hear your comments.

You may also be interested in reading about:

The Fiery Red Manager

The Sunshine Yellow Manager

The Earth Green Manager

The Earth Green Manager

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Posted on 29th December 2011 by Andy Britnell in Insights Discovery Colour Energies

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Earth Green manager - Insights personality typeTo continue our series of blogs about personality, and how your personality colours your leadership style, we present to you the Earth Green manager. This comes from the Insights Discovery model which is where we start all our Leading & Developing High Performance training. Todays post has been written by Ali Stewart who is the perfect person to educate us about the qualities of this supportive, friendly and helpful personality.

What is Earth Green energy?

This colour preference is characterised by the following adjectives:

• Caring
• Encouraging
• Relaxed
• Sharing
• Patient

The Earth Green manager is appreciative and respectful, builds harmony and group cohesion, believing that if you value people they will give of their best. They aim to create the ideal environment for those around them and above all want everyone to be happy. They want to achieve goals too, and can be very driven, but if the human cost is too high they will change the goal. Quieter by nature, they prefer low-key conversations, and will only act vociferously if values are at stake.

It is best to keep the Earth Green manager informed, they like to know what’s going on, but will give you free reign to go about things in your own way. In order for you shine when working for this type of manager, show how you support others and the team, rather than striving selfishly for your own gain.

What I appreciate about this energy

They understand you! When you see this energy in action, it is calm, quiet and supportive. The Earth Green manager has your best interests at heart, and will generally give you the benefit of the doubt. They gently control situations by deciding things by consensus, getting buy-in to projects, building harmony and loyalty, so that in times of strife, the team pull together well and successfully. Generally they are peacemakers, but when things go wrong, you can be taken aback by their strength of conviction.

When Earth Green energy gets in the way

These very gifts can be seen a lot less nicely when over used. The Earth Green leader, when trying to please everyone can end up pleasing no-one. This will cause them to retreat, almost like a tortoise into its shell. They will become uncommunicative, avoid making decisions and will shut themselves off until they have worked through the issues in their own mind. To others this energy can appear stubborn and sluggish. Best to leave them alone at first, then quietly ask if there is anything you can do to help.

Under pressure this manager can seem more:

• Docile
• Bland
• Plodding
• Reliant
• Stubbon

Earth Green energy and Leading and Developing High Performance

The Earth Green preference means there will be a focus on high support rather than high challenge. This could mean the team and members in it are not pushed to be the best they can be. The leader may take the blame for mistakes and correct inaccurate work that is handed in, when actually the team member should be held to account.

You may not always know what the manager is thinking and work may lack structure and process. They will excel in the coaching and mentoring aspects of the role, inspiring and developing the greatness in you for they can see it is already there.

What is your experience of being, or working for, an Earth Green manager? We would love to read about your stories.

You may also be interested in reading about:

The Fiery Red Manager

The Sunshine Yellow Manager

The Cool Blue Manager

The Sunshine Yellow Manager

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Posted on 14th December 2011 by Andy Britnell in Insights Discovery Colour Energies

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Sunshine Yellow Manager - InsightsFollowing on from our post on the Fiery Red manager I am delighted to present a post from Nicky Cowling on the Sunshine Yellow manager. Nicky has lots of sunshine yellow energy and has teamed up with another Insights practitioner, Judith Yates, to form a company called Good Day Yellow!

What is Sunshine Yellow energy?

This colour preference is characterised by the following adjectives:

• Sociable
• Dynamic
• Demonstrative
• Enthusiastic
• Persuasive

They are full of ideas and plans for the future and welcome change. They will be able to paint vibrant pictures of what the future will be like, possibly with words, equally likely with coloured pens on a poster that they will stick to the wall.

Their enthusiasm will be infectious and you’ll find yourself doing things without always needing to know why.

They are open and honest (perhaps sometimes too honest?) If their words don’t tell you and others what they’re thinking then their body language and facial expressions are likely to. You may want to remind them before attending negotiation meetings to try and keep a ‘straight face’ rather than disclosing your position too soon?

They will definitely know where they’re going, possibly how to get there but won’t always be sure where they and you are right now.

When dealing with this type of manager they would prefer you to involve them! ! Engage them in your plans early, whether it’s for a social event or a major project, to avoid a possible ‘hijack’ at a later stage because they believe they have a ‘better’ idea.

What I appreciate about this energy

They’ll understand how your work as a team fits into the bigger picture for your organization. If it looks like an obstacle is going to stop the team from achieving objectives (eg a budget constraint) they will have a creative solution or know someone somewhere to help you overcome it!

There will be few surprises in appraisals as they let you know if they’re happy with your work or not as you go along. When things are going well they’ll be a powerful advocate for you, singing your praises to the rest of the business.

When Sunshine Yellow energy gets in the way

Once we understand the gifts of a Sunshine Yellow manager we will appreciate that when these strengths become overused this energy can get in the way of high performance. Just like the sunshine used as a metaphor to describe their behaviour at their ‘brightest’ you may need to protect yourself from their full glare in order to avoid a headache! They are the ‘drama kings and queens’ of the management team.

They’ll remember the cake for birthday celebrations but forget the plates and the matches!

This manager under pressure will leak the following behaviours:

• Excitable
• Frantic
• Indiscreet
• Flamboyant
• Hasty

Sunshine Yellow energy and L&DHP

The Sunshine Yellow energy will bring high level of style flexibility to their leadership responsibilities. They are likely to be equally comfortable challenging and supporting but may rely too heavily on their own experiences to choose an appropriate style. They may fail to fully understand the detailed circumstances of the team member and the situation they are dealing with before jumping in with a solution. Their challenge will be with style effectiveness. The team as a result will feel confident that they will get time and a response but may be unsure of whether they will get the right response for them.

The challenge for the Sunshine Yellow energy is to adopt the right style at the right time. In particular making sure that they listen to their team member and gather the full facts before determining a solution.

What is your experience of a Sunshine Yellow manager? It would be great to get your perspective.

You may also be interested in reading about:

The Fiery Red Manager

The Earth Green Manager

The Cool Blue Manager

The Fiery Red Manager

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Posted on 20th October 2011 by Andy Britnell in Insights Discovery Colour Energies

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Appreciative leadership - light the fire withinTo kick off a Leading & Developing High Performance programme we always start with Insights Discovery to help people understand themselves, understand others and learn about how their personality preferences will affect their behaviour. So we thought we would take a look at the positive (good day) and not so positive (bad day) behaviours of managers based on their personality preference. This post gives an insight into the Fiery Red manager.

What is Fiery Red energy?

This colour preference is charactarised by the following adjectives:

  • Competitive
  • Demanding
  • Determined
  • Strong willed
  • Purposeful

They are active and move in a positive and forward direction. They have a strong determination that influences those they interact with and are single-minded in their focus on results. They approach others in a straightforward manner and will value competence, efficiency and effectiveness. When dealing with this type of manager they would prefer you to be brief, be bright and be gone!

What I appreciate about this energy

I’ve had a few managers like this and they can be extremely useful in that they will protect you from any nonsense coming down from the top. You are unlikely to be doing mindless stuff that gets you nowhere because your manager would have categorically said no. They will also defend you and the team to others if you do something wrong or make a mistake – then they will tell you off loudly!

When Fiery Red energy gets in the way

Once we understand the gifts of a Fiery Red manager we will appreciate that when these strengths become overused this energy can get in the way of high performance. On a bad day they will get in at 9 am and by 9.05 they have left a trail of destruction behind with the receptionist in tears and a puzzled look on their face as if to say “What did I do?”. This manager under pressure will leak the following behaviours:

  • Aggressive
  • Controlling
  • Driving
  • Overbearing
  • Intolerant

Fiery Red energy and L&DHP

The Fiery Red preference means that there will be a focus on high challenge rather than high support. This means that the team can be run ragged. If it were a horse it might be ridden until it keeled over. The challenge for the Fiery Red energy is to adopt a more supportive role, and take on board the softer skills that are required to develop a high performing team.

What is your experience of a Fiery Red manager? We would love to hear your thoughts.

You may also be interested in reading about:

The Sunshine Yellow Manager

The Earth Green Manager

The Cool Blue Manager

How to manage your manager

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Posted on 5th October 2011 by Andy Britnell in Managing your manager

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Cork Shot Out From a Bottle of Champagne - how to manage your managerHaving talked about the benefits of managing your manager we can now look at how you do it:

What do I need to do to manage my manager?

The first step is to understand your manager’s behaviour and work out how you can get on with them better by interacting with them more successfully. When you analyse and understand them you will also get a better idea about how to reward your manager when they behave positively towards you. In order to encourage them to behave in ways that are useful to you it is wise to support and reinforce good behaviour. The Insights personality types are a good indication of your manager’s preferences and a model that can help you understand their interactions with others, personal style and decision making process..

How do I begin to analyse my manager?

The following questions will help you to get clearer on your manager’s preferences:

What does my manager want?

  • What makes them feel good about themselves? I had a manager who loved to give good news to his managers or present a solution to a problem. I therefore would always update him with good news stories from my accounts and advise of problem issues and what we needed to do to resolve it. A win for him and a win for me.
  • What are some of the driving forces in their life? My manager always wanted an easy life and to have information at his fingertips so he wasn’t caught out by a senior manager asking for updates. I made it a priority to keep him informed about issues that were likely to blow up, actions being taken to bring about a solution or decisions that needed to be made by others to get a resolution. He could rely on me to keep him informed but not involved.
  • What is it that tends to get him/her annoyed or upset? Being caught off-guard and in the dark about what was going on in the accounts we looked after, long meetings, too much information, lack of proactivity, over promising and under delivering, being late with reports and going behind his back were all issues that upset my manager. They are likely to be an issue for your’s as well. Oh I almost forgot. West Ham loosing was always a warning to tread carefully. Make sure you know what your manager’s passions are.

What behaviour annoys my manager? People moaning about what prevents them from doing their job rather than taking responsibility and working out a solution. I always worked hard to take a solution rather than a problem to my manager or if I couldn’t I would ask him to make a decision.

What behaviour makes my manager feel positive? If people made things happen, gave him great ideas, implemented innovative solutions or got praise from clients you could be sure that my manager would be happy to see you and talk to you.

What rewards would my manager like? Praise, praise, praise and a team that was performing well so he got an easy ride. My manager was motivated by status and money so I made sure that what you did got him the rewards he was looking for.

This might seem like a lot of work and effort for little reward. However I can assure you that it helped fast-track my career and oiled the wheels when it came to promotion and negotiating pay rises. I was often rewarded with bottles of champagne for my achievements – a small but well received token of my department head’s appreciation for my hard work.

What was most surprising was the support and respect I got from my peers. Those people with aspirations to develop their career would often seek me out and ask my advice. For me that was often more important than the financial and other rewards I got.

What have you done to manage your manager which has helped your career?

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