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Greetings!
Videos are too cool to neglect. My readers click on those more than any other links. If you click on the Archives Button (to the left), you'll see that I've pasted in YouTube links in each newsletter over the last several months. I've chosen famous people who represent their temperament - their Color. They are icons - very good examples - of the Color discussed.
In this week's second article, Condoleezza Rice is deliciously Gold in every way on YouTube. (My mom had a nearly identical temperament, so I cringe through each phrase Rice uses.)
If you want to find out the Color spectrum of someone in your life, invite them to take the Four Windows Personality Survey at www.JackDermody.com/4wps. J |
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Gold is the Color of the Week: Why You Are LUCKY to Have a GOLD Boss!
This is the second article in a series of four about the great fortune of having a boss of each of the four Colors. To read the first one on Green bosses, click on the archives link to the left.
This week is Gold - the Guardian, The Logistician. Gold Guardians care most about being responsible - doing the right thing, always.
The odds are that most supervisors, managers, and even CEOs tend to be Gold. Twenty-three U.S. Presidents have been first-color Gold.
You are LUCKY to have a Gold boss for so many reasons. What follows are nine reasons to be glad you get to work for the Gold boss above you.
1. Gold folks hold things together and stabilize an organization. They organize and keep things organized. When you need rules and schedules, the Golds will create them and stay on top of them.
2. Golds follow through. More than any other Color, Gold Guardians will naturally do what they say they will do. And they expect you to follow through, too.
3. Golds follow orders. It's part of Gold DNA to be obedient, to follow protocols and prescribed ways to do things. You can count on them. If a Gold is your boss, orders from above your boss will usually be religiously followed. Suggestions for change are best received from higher up in the hierarchy rather than from below. However, if there are protocols for making suggestions from your end as an employee, it's a good idea to find out what they are, then to use them carefully and intelligently - speaking to Gold values and needs.
4. The building blocks of past history are sacrosanct to Gold folks. They love tradition and want to preserve it. They like a sense of permanence and they want everyone in the organization to feel that the foundation is solid and deep. Your freethinking ideas for change often scare the heck out of them. But remember that Gold people are the keel of the ship. They will not throw the baby out with the bathwater when changes are indeed necessary.
5. Your Gold boss works overtime to provide the members of the organization with a sense of belonging - that everyone has an important role to play.
6. Golds run orderly meetings and make sure that action steps from previous meetings are taken.
7. Gold bosses tend to be loyal to a fault - and this includes loyalty to the people who report to them. Although they can appear to be strict supervisors, they will support you vigorously when challenges come up from outside the organization or even from folks higher up in the organization.
8. When the other Colors are loose or even sloppy with details, Gold people will care about details and their importance for the responsible management of the organization.
9. With healthy and smart Golds, deadlines are met, waste is avoided, efficiency rules, controls are in place, and the right people make important decisions.
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Gold Condoleezza Rice on YouTube: Specifics vs. Generalities
Abstractions, generalities, and "fuzzy" accusations will not sit well with savvy Gold people to begin with. Watch what happens to Lawrence O'Donnell of MSNBC when he attempts to put the Gold-Green Condoleezza Rice on the defensive with generalities.
Gold-Green people have a supervisor's or inspector's temperament. They tend to be true believers in the systems they are part of. They have mastered the ideology and the rules of the game. To challenge them is very risky if you do not approach them with extremely careful data, preparation, and respect for cautious dialogue.
Like your most severe manager at work, Rice scolds O'Donnell several times for breaching what she sees as a proper interviewing style. She answers questions with not a single generalization, but with lists of events or facts.
Consider some of O'Donnell's generalizations, e.g., "Mistakes were made, huge mistakes." "Iraq was no threat whatsoever." "We didn't assemble the coalition that we would have liked to assemble."
Television journalists at the top of their game would be approached Rice much more carefully. Pay attention to Bob Schieffer of Face the Nation or David Gregory of Meet the Press the next time you watch. You will see precision and cutting specificity in most of their questions.
I urge you not to look at this debate for the partisan issues each side clearly has, but for the communication style of each individual.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCOMX5OCFwQ
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What's YOUR Story? |
You know your Colors, so what info would you love to share about that? Or about your relationships? Submit a story to dermody@cox.net. If we like it, we'll publish it in a future JackDermody.com Newsletter. The next article is this week's story. |
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Pam Lewinger's Story: My Orange Manager Is Disgusting | |
Jack,
I am Gold-Green, a supervisor of 15 sales reps for a national textbook company. My people set sales records every quarter. But I hate showing up at national sales meetings when my Orange boss, TW, gives out the awards and pretty much takes over the team, ignoring me.
TW is one of these completely shameless people who make Lady Gaga look like a nun. He plays favorites, fills speeches with sexual innuendo, defends lavish expense accounts, and gets drunk beyond all propriety every night.
What's worse is that top management loves him. All his divisions perform beyond expectations.
But I am ashamed and disgusted. I might want to work somewhere else. Help me out, Jack.
Pam Lewinger
Hello Pam,
Before you run off to job-hunt in this difficult economy, hear me out. Yes, you do not have to perform in a workplace where your most fundamental values are disrespected and, worse, where you might become overly stressed and burned out to the point of being nonproductive.
However, if you have not reached the point of no return, then please take a closer look at your Orange manager. First, Oranges flock to sales management positions. They thrive there because the job calls for tactical thinking, fast decisions, fast action, tough competition, a desire to move around and travel, near-total independence, personal freedom and - especially - a chance to show off winning results
The types of behavior that are bothering you come with Orange territory. It's not unusual for Oranges to want to play only with the "cool people" - those whom they determine to be cool. Of all the Colors, they are the least bashful with sexual freedom, they spend money to impress and celebrate victories, and the use of alcohol is just one way of many to enjoy life and have fun - and having fun is Orange DNA.
Why do the top execs put up with it? Oranges are the most competitive. They like to win. They do win. They are fun to have around. If the CEO and top management play sports, the Orange sales managers are right there with the top dogs sailing, hunting, playing golf and tennis, buying tickets to the Super Bowl.
Pam, if you were not performing as well as you are, he would replace you in a New York minute. You do a dependably wonderful job every single quarter. As a Gold person, however, you probably would like some sort of responsible recognition, as well as inclusion in meetings and celebrations that are acceptable according to your own personal values. Don't count on it. Within the circle that you do control, you probably already plan, recognize people, and celebrate in ways that you feel are appropriate and complete. Meanwhile, do not take your Orange manager's behavior personally. You are justifiably proud and centered and balanced because of the great work that you know you do.
What I'm talking about here is the entire essence of the reason for studying Colors - for studying temperament: We may or may not like each other, but we can change the entire way the world operates by understanding our very, very differing temperaments. It requires doing end runs around or own value systems from time to time, but it results in much more peace of mind and happiness.
Jack Dermody
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Once you understand the power of Colors, most of your relationships with others make sense. And you begin to breathe easy.
Sincerely,
Jack Dermody
Jack Dermody
JackDermody dot com |
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