How Colour Influences Your Communication

Avoid misunderstandings by knowing your team’s personalities

You may (or may not) be aware of the four personality types and their respective colours.  Here’s an introduction/reminder before we talk specifically about communication.

The four personality types are;

Driver (or Controller) Red – think Steve Jobs/Simon Cowell. These people are objective focused, practical, and determined, although they can also be impatient and unconcerned about detail.

Enthusiast – Yellow – Richard Branson/Graham Norton.  Enthusiasts have high energy, are ambitious and inspiring, however, they can also be disorganised and undisciplined.

Amiable – Green – Warren Buffett/Bear Grylls. These are people focused, they have high empathy and are loyal.  On the other hand they can be passive and dislike conflict.

Analytical – Blue – Isaac Newton/Stephen Hawking.  Analytical people are logical and rational, they love detail and can be very thoughtful and disciplined.  They can also be critical, slow to make decisions and want everything to be perfect.

It’s not often someone is wholly one personality type, often individuals will show traits from more than one colour – having said that everyone usually has a dominant personality type.

What’s this got to do with communication?  Well, as a manager you’re likely to have a mix of personality types in your team, if you’re not flexible in how you communicate then there is an increased chance that your message won’t get through or will be misunderstood.  Being able to communicate clearly is essential to successful management. 

Here are some tips for communicating with the different personality types.

Driver – Red – be as brief as possible and to the point, emails and texts probably work best.  If you speak in person they are not interested in chit chat.  Give clear information about what results are expected.  When they’ve done some work explain the impact the results have had – they like to know they’ve made a difference.  Don’t give them lots of detail, and if you can leave them to work out how to do the work.

Enthusiast – Yellow – communicate face to face if you can, they are social, so team meetings are something they enjoy.  They are interested in competition, if you can use this when communicating e.g. “this will help us be in the top ten”, then do.  You will probably need to give them a bit more direction than a Driver, they can become disinterested.  Praise them during communication if you can – but it must be sincere.  Make sure they understand what the final result should look like.

Amiable – Green – need more regular communication than other types.  Any kind of communication is ok, but like Enthusiasts they prefer face to face.  They will enjoy one-to-one meetings.  Team meetings also help them feel included.  They are steady, if you take time to go through something carefully once, they will be able to continue on their own.  They need direction and the best way to involve them is to ask for their opinion.  Trust is important but they don’t like too much responsibility, so give them some flexibility in how they do tasks but let them know they can always approach you with any concerns.

Analytical – Blue – you can’t give this type too much information, the more detail and evidence the better.  They respond well to knowing the ‘rules’ around communication.  Regular updates, email trails, formal meetings with agendas etc.  They are not so concerned about team meetings and are happy working on their own.  Be organised when you communicate and be prepared to answer further questions.

So let’s take a light hearted example of how you’d communicate the need to produce a knitted hat to the different personality types.

Driver – Send an email.  “Please can I have a woolly hat; I need it by 3pm next Thursday and it needs to be green.  Any questions? Last week’s scarf was highly rated by the customer.”

Enthusiast – See them face to face.  “Hi, how’s the golf going?  Have you improved your handicap?  Thanks for completing the scarf on time last week, much appreciated. I’ve got a challenge for you – interested?  I need a woolly hat for the area woolly hat competition next Thursday – the boss is going to be judging.  Can you arrange for one to be put together – as long as it’s green the rest is up to you.  I’m sure it will be great.  I’ll check in with you on Tuesday and see how it’s going.”

Amiable – Meet them face to face.  “Hello, how are you? Thanks for your contribution to the team’s producing the scarf last week, I told the boss and they were very impressed.  This week we need a woolly hat, let’s talk about colour.  I’ve got a pattern which we can go through if you’d like.  We need it by Thursday if this is an issue for you we can discuss it.”

Analytical – Send an email.  “Good morning.  Please find attached a pattern for a woolly hat, it clearly states the colour, ply of the wool and size of knitting needles to use, however if you think using other combinations would give a better result feel free to amend.  The deadline for getting the completed hat back to me is 3pm next Thursday – this is unfortunately a hard deadline.  It doesn’t matter if a couple of stiches get dropped as this won’t impact the hat’s ability to keep heads warm.”

Now, you are unlikely to have the capacity to prepare different communications on the same topic, however if you are aware of different needs you can make sure the message gets across by utilising different techniques. 

Also, communication is a two-way thing, people are likely to communicate with you in ways that suit them – but they might not be your ideal.  As a manager you should be aware so that you don’t brand someone rude or aggressive because they have a driver personality, or that an analytical person will probably give you more information than you think you need.

You will also be helping your team by making them aware of the different personalities and their communication preferences – this will help them communicate better with others and reduce the number of misunderstandings.

As for you – which colour is your dominant style?  Keep this in mind when communicating with someone who might not share your personality and communication preferences.