Greetings!

 
Every year business journals play up companies that are the best to work for. This week we begin a series on the best places to work for each of the four Colors.

Telecommuting. So what do truly enticing perks look like for Greens? Telecommuting has to be Number One. Allowing the Green to work from home - at least part of the time - demonstrates to the employee that they are respected and trusted enough to complete projects without micromanaging. Just as importantly, Greens would like to have the freedom to balance work performance with personal challenges like study, fitness, constructive and balanced leisure, quality care for one's family, etc.

Flexible Hours. Next, Green people have little patience with clock-watching and would rather be judged by the quality of performance - so all efforts to offer flexible hours and reasonable timelines are prized. Not a few Green employees give uncompensated extra time to projects just because...just because!

Professional Development. Being overly frugal with training, tuition-reimbursed education, - and especially with regional and national conferences - risks killing the life force in Green people. Grateful Green employees fuel up on the ideas and synergy that come from mingling with the best minds in their field - the best minds who are their heroes and, hopefully, their own future professional colleagues. And the biggest beneficiary of these education monies is the company granting the benefit - improving enormously the chances of producing the latest and greatest ideas, products, and services.

Resources. It pays to pay attention to Green requests for the best tools and resources for doing their jobs. First of all, Green folk will not ask for them unless they have studied pros and cons, compared costs, and asked around. Green employees cherish good tools because they make them smarter and they usually help them be more efficient in terms of both money and time. And of course the resources of excellent health insurance, the 401k program, etc. should be the best bang for the buck - Green folks will hold a company's feet to the fire on these, for sure.

An Open, Democratic Environment. Green people thrive on ideas and resent barriers to expressing their ideas. Every officer in a company should ask if the tables are round, if hierarchy is not getting in the way of idea expressions, if action is taken when good ideas are presented, and if everyone in the organization feels that what they have to say matters. Smart companies have interesting committees to belong to, like innovation think-tanks, focus groups, etc. It's very smart to make sure Green folks are invited to those groups.

A Healthy Atmosphere - For Both Mind and Body. Because the mind does not work on the clock, and because the mind requires refreshment and a strong body that supports it, companies that offer freedom of movement, physical workout rooms, social corners, game rooms, corners to nap in, etc. benefit from continually refreshed minds and the ingenious fruits of those minds.

In sum, Green employees are possibly the most difficult employees to please, but the payoff for understanding their values and needs has to be geometrically superior to only paying lip service to those real values and real needs. 

BEST COMPANIES TO WORK FOR

Yes, it's over two months since New Year's Eve, but lets' continue to explore ways to leverage our natural temperaments to keep your own promises for this year of 2012.

Was "spending more time with family" one of your resolutions?? Time Magazine listed it as #6 in its "Top 10 Commonly Broken New Year's Resolutions."

The two Colors (temperaments) most likely to keep the promise of spending more time with family are Golds and Blues. If you interview Gold people, they will often insist that nothing is more important - ever - than family. Golds will sacrifice their personal goals and even their careers to preserve the integrity of the family. When they fail on family commitments, they usually feel that they are compromising their most fundamental values and joys in life. Factors that threaten the promise might include severe illness or the desperate need to work to bring home more money.

Blue folks, too, hold most dear their family members, friends - and even work colleagues. Harmony with other people, helping people, bringing peace to everyone - these concepts give life to Blue people. It's not unusual to find the Blue spouse to be the stay-at-home mom or dad while a non-Blue partner brings home the bacon. When Blues get pulled away from family obligations, the reasons are often like the pressures on Gold people. More in the cards, Blues can be drawn into causes and pathways that seem more important, e.g., a political movement. Know that Blues will stay home more where there is material and ideological support.

Oranges and Greens face bigger challenges for spending a lot of time with family. Both of these temperaments are naturally distracted with their own personal freedom, their need for independence, and the sheer joy of taking on new challenges. Family life can seem too confining, too touchy-feely, and too routine.

Orange people like to move - literally go from one place to another to keep things interesting. They build things, play sports, take dance lessons - you name it. Those who are "lucky" enough to be in families that also enjoy leaving the house, these Orange folks are better at keeping the promise to spend more time with family. Families that want to help their Orange loved one spend more time of them should probably engineer their lives so the Orange person is attracted to family events, e.g., to celebratory parties, cool vacations, building projects, reunions, games, and other get-out-of-the-house activities. Frankly, it's an Orange world and the rest of us just get to live in it.

The biggest challenge for the rational Green people is that they are home but "they are not really at home." The party place for Greens is in their head - a never-ending swirl of logic, information, and endless curiosity. Like the Oranges, their biggest fear is ever-lurking boredom. The downside to "spending so much time with family" is that "trivial" matters like small talk and long conversations of dinner take away from the far more interesting tasks back in the Green Cave where the computers and current projects await the Green's return. Families that want their Greenie to enjoy spending time with them can take a number of clever tactics like making an effort to be interesting themselves, bringing to the table compelling topics and the knowledge to back up points of view. Loved ones can take the simple step of listening more readily to what a Green brother or sister has to say, sometimes piggy-backing with relevant new information or thoughtful questions. When it's time to go out or put on a party, it's a good idea to make sure interesting people are invited. Finally, choosing mentally stimulating outside activities are beneficial to everyone in the family, not only to the Green person.