Look around. What do you see? A desk? Your sofa? The trainline? Whatever you can view, it’s in colour and not black and white. Through our eyes, everything we view is in thousands of different colours, depths, hues and layers. Just like us. None of us are two dimensional, with just one outlook and one agenda. We’re complicated and multifaceted; some days light-hearted and jovial, other moments dark and silent. Our skillsets are similarly complex; on the surface we tend to view people in basic terms, some as number-based or literary, others as leaders or team players. Yet none of us are that simple to define.
Introducing Clarity 4D
Personality profiling is not a new ‘thing’. In fact, it’s been around for some time: Greek doctor and philosopher Hippocrates identified four distinct behaviours in his patients, it was used by the U.S. Army to help determine which soldiers may suffer from shell shock and in 1917 Katherine Briggs began her research (which to a lesser degree is still used today) into personality, in an attempt to understand why her daughter was attracted to her fiancé; largely basing her work on Carl Jung’s studies.
Over the decades, personality testing has grown, not just in popularity but also in levels of research for a variety of uses. Perhaps most successfully in helping organisations find the right person to suit a particular role.
And there are A LOT of tests out there for organisations and individuals to choose. Researching the pool of choice is essential, as it is all too easy to waste time and money on underdeveloped or one-sided personality assessments.
At BGCN we are interested in personality testing to help our clients understand themselves, their teams and how to use the results to instil proactive action in developing teams to effectively work together. Looking at personality traits as neither positive or negative but better placed in different environments or sectors. This ensures overriding staff contentment and improved business growth as a result of utilising the right people in the right manner, to get the most from their many skills.
In our research Clarity 4D was the obvious choice. We like colour and we view people and businesses in a spectrum of poly-colour perspectives!
How Clarity 4D works
Linking the model on Carl Jung’s four psychological types and our preferred way of behaving, Clarity 4D splits certain personality types into four groups of colours:
- Blue [Introverted | Thinking] — reflective, observing, analytical, cautious, formal and exacting
- Red [Thinking | Extroverted] — focussed, decisive, direct, challenging, assertive and action-orientated
- Green [Introverted | Feeling] — empathetic, concerned, informal, supportive, patient and easy-going
- Yellow [Extroverted | Feeling] — talkative, expressive, light-hearted, sociable, flamboyant and enthusiastic
The individual being profiled is asked to quickly answer a series of questions with their immediate thoughts, rather than over-thinking their responses. Often our instant answers are the ones most accurate to our personalities.
The results are then analysed, and a thorough report is developed providing detailed feedback on the individual’s personality; including strengths and weaknesses.
Clarity 4D views us as a mixture of the four elements but with a personal leaning to certain colours, over others. The profiling model identifies which these preferences are, how we can adapt to use them effectively and how to employ the profiling results to match the requirements of different people and situations. It is describing rather defining.
Why Clarity 4D is so effective
The 4D is the important bit! Rather than attempting to pigeonhole and simplify people’s personas, Clarity 4D views the four dimensions of our development and how we can use these to benefit ourselves and our work environments:
- 1D: Discover [Self-awareness] — this is how we view ourselves and our current personal identity
- 2D: Discuss [Other’s perception of you] — the manner in which people view us is different to perhaps the way in which we think people consider our behaviours and thought processes. This is an important element of working within teams and companies
- 3D: Diversify [Your hidden potential] — In this third step the individual is invited to explore how much more we can become by revealing hidden potential. This helps discover strengths we may as yet been unable to consciously find
- 4D: Develop [Growing your full potential over time] The last step is designed to aid in establishing more useful behaviours to help mould ourselves into the person we choose to become as we progress through all areas of our lives; both at work and at home.
Once the profile has been analysed, an action plan is designed for the individual to complete and use for their future personal development.
Language
Utilising a colour model allows individuals and companies to adopt a new language to more easily communicate in potentially problematic areas, such as decision making, leadership or team roles.
As people are not simply one colour or one-dimensional, asking teams to increase or decrease a colour to help navigate working demands is a comprehensive and positive approach to achieving great results. For example, if a leader is looking to add energy into a team of highly blue-skilled workers — who are normally reflective and analytical — asking them to adapt their approach to a more yellow energy, easily helps explain the drive the leader is looking to achieve without causing offence.
The beauty of colour
Personality profiling at its best should be applicable for all people whether they’re entrepreneurs, in senior leadership roles or students looking to develop their first CV.
And that’s exactly why Clarity 4D is such a great tool!
It’s affordable, works with all ages, all stages of career and all moments of personal development. Clarity 4D is a tremendous model in helping companies and individuals genuinely flourish in all aspects of their lives.
At BGCN we have a number of Clarity 4D accredited trainers ready to work with businesses and people in workshops or 121 coaching sessions. If you would like to discover how BGCN and Clarity 4D can help you, please read more here or contact us directly for a chat.