Insights into Personal Effectiveness

Ever hear of this training class? It's one of those deals where people are categorized -- dependent upon how they answer a series of questions -- into four groups. All the categories are similar, even if the labels are different. There are DISC categories, Insights categories, and probably some other ones, too.

The groups are generally

• detail-oriented, analytical people (C or Blue)
• driver-director-accomplishment people (D or Red)
• steady-nurturing-coaching people, and (S or Green)
• influencer-inspirer (I or Yellow).

So, I personally describe these as, in order as above:

• The ones who love predictability and small squares. And making love to coaxial cable.
• My mom.
• The ones who love coaching and caring.
• The ones who are crazypants.

Um, one guess which color I am!

You might guess that there are natural points of resistance between those who operate themselves as say, a Director, and those who are Analytical. The Director wants it done now, and the Analytical wants it done right. With all the details. And the results from 17 tests. And footnotes.

Also, you just can't imagine how much fun it is trying to be a social, talkative, Yellow and work in an analytical job. (Let's just say that wasn't one of my better choices.) Though, I did get some great material out if it. For example, after a long meeting with The Detail People I once said, "He's blue to the third power."

Someone else said to me one day, "Pull the blue hat clear down over your ears, honey."

I don't know that I had an actual point for this one, but I do know that I'm super thankful for the new job. The one with a lot more yellow.