Personality Testing

“Hi, I’m James and I’m an accountant. And blue.”
Another leadership team personality test.
Another solitary appearance in the blue corner.

Over the course of my career, I must have taken the 4-Color Personality Test a dozen times. Different companies. Different teams. Different providers (most often DISC). Same result.

Blue. And the only one at that, lost in a sea of reds and a few yellows.

This personality model, which is often associated with the work of Carl Jung and popularised by books like Thomas Erikson’s Surrounded by Idiots, uses colours to represent different behavioural and communication styles.

In a nutshell:

Red (Director): Action-oriented, decisive, direct, assertive, challenging, and focused on results.

Yellow (Visionary): Sociable, enthusiastic, expressive, creative, optimistic, and talkative.

Green (Connector): Empathetic, supportive, patient, caring, easy-going, and relationship focused.

Blue (Auditor): Analytical, cautious, precise, logical, methodical, and detail oriented.

I sometimes fantasise that my sporting heroes were as blue as I was, just to allow me some momentary comfort in companionship. And studying Dame Ellen MacArthur and Kílian Jornet, I wouldn’t put it past this round-the-world yachtswoman and superhuman ultra-athlete if indeed they are likewise true blues.

Back in the room with the tests, the purpose was of course to understand each other to improve communication, enhance collaboration and reduce conflict.

But I always felt that the magic happened in the process, and not in the output.

Because the team building wasn’t just in the result, or just in understanding each other. The real team building was the test itself, a group of diverse and wonderful humans in a room, learning, growing, occasionally teasing.

That is where the magic happened. That is where the teams were built. That is where potential was discovered.

Any blues out there? You’re not alone. You never were.