A new study assigns four colors to employees’ work styles based on behavioral characteristics. What is your work style, and how does it affect your approach to collaboration?
While no two colleagues are ever completely alike, there are behavioral traits that certain personalities tend to share. Understanding these can help you work with your coworkers more effectively, according to the staffing firm OfficeTeam.
In a new study, Your Work Style in Color, OfficeTeam, the International Association of Administrative Professionals (IAAP), and Insights Learning and Development collaborate to identify four sets of work preferences, each of which is represented by a particular "color energy.” Each color is associated with a number of specific characteristics and has its own strengths and weaknesses.
Employee Personality "Colors”
Professionals who lead with the following color energies tend to exhibit subsequent behavioral traits:
- Cool Blue — Cautious, precise, deliberate, questioning, and formal
- Earth Green — Caring, encouraging, sharing, patient, and relaxed
- Sunshine Yellow — Sociable, dynamic, demonstrative, enthusiastic, and persuasive
- Fiery Red — Competitive, demanding, determined, strong-willed, and purposeful
Of course, not all personalities encountered in the workplace can be pigeonholed so neatly into just four personality types, which the report openly acknowledges.
"We all have a mix of traits from these areas, but dominant color energy emerges for each of us,” the research guide explains.
Yet, as with any generalization, there is truth behind it. And the report, which provides details about the work preferences by each color energy, does provide some helpful insight into distinguishing between personality types.
Our day-to-day interactions with colleagues might be easier if everyone had the same work style — but that doesn’t mean it would be better. Armed with an understanding of your behavioral differences and exerting a little effort to understand the other side, you can gain a more comprehensive picture your team, overcome conflicting work styles and improve your overall ability to collaborate.
"At work, employees who have differing perspectives and approaches bring fresh ideas to projects,” OfficeTeam executive director Robert Hosking said in an announcement of the findings. "You can improve team collaboration by taking advantage of complementary strengths and adapting your own work style to suit the situation.”
How to Work with Different Personality "Colors”
When working with someone who clearly leads with one of the color energies, consider the following dos and don’ts from the study:
Cool Blue
Do
- Be well prepared and thorough
- Put things in writing
- Let them consider all the details
Don’t
- Be overly emotional or casual with important issues
- Keep changing things without good reason
- Answer questions vaguely
Earth Green
Do
- Be patient and supportive
- Work at their pace
- Ask for their opinions and give them time to answer
Don’t
- Take advantage of their good nature
- Push them to make quick decisions
- Spring last-minute surprises on them
Sunshine Yellow
Do
- Be friendly and sociable
- Be entertaining and stimulating
- Be open and flexible
Don’t
- Tie them down with routine
- Ask them to work alone
- Bore them with details
Fiery Red
Do
- Be direct and to the point
- Focus on results and objectives
- Be confident and assertive
Don’t
- Be hesitant or wordy
- Focus on feelings
- Try to take over
Collaborating with Colleagues of Different Energy "Colors”
Successfully interacting with others requires a little give and take. However, according to OfficeTeam’s corresponding survey of 3,249 administrative professionals in the United States and Canada, support staff are doing more of the bending.
Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they make a strong effort to adapt to their manager’s work style, while the majority indicated that their supervisor only adjusts "somewhat” to their preferences. Approximately 14% said their managers don’t adjust to their style at all.