In the latest episode of the Evolve to Succeed podcast, Andy Edwards—motivational speaker, business coach and author of ‘Why Can’t People Be More Like Me?’—takes a fascinating look at personality types and how they affect our lives and working environment. There are four main types—categorised into Red, Yellow, Green and Blue—and each have unique qualities and thought processes.
Here are some highlights from the podcast.
How do you get a typical business leader—who tends to be a Red personality—to stop and reflect and see the other personality types around them?
With great difficulty! But just to condition some of the things you’re talking about, yeah, there tends to be authority invested in Red’s style—that ability to drive things forward, get things done, sort things out at a pace—largely because that style of personality is less risk-averse than many others, so they will take a risk and thus, if it works, they will find themselves in charge. So it’s not that you have to have that style of personality in order to be a leader, it just seems to be a little but skewed towards that personality by virtue of the preference of taking risks.
Surely different industries must demand different style of leadership and therefore different personality types?
Yes, and the question I’m often asked is, “Do you become that personality type because you’re an accountant, or are you an accountant because you’re that personality type?” and I would say it’s a little bit of both. The main thing is that somebody who is logical, precise and therefore cautious will be attracted to professions that allow them to have those strengths…
…Yellows tend to be more gregarious and outgoing, which is good in one way and negative in another because if they’re trying to sell to somebody who’s not that type, somebody with a lot of yellow energy will come across as disingenuous, flibbertigibbet, reckless even, takes liberties. So we’ve got to be a little bit careful about making sure we converse and create relationships with people in the way they prefer.
Do you think information about these different types and the way each sees and interacts with people and the world is something that should be taught to, say, teenagers? It might help them start to navigate life a little better from the start.
I think there’s a lot of benefit to give kids from a relatively early age, as soon as they’re able to conceptualise things, the ability to understand the different styles of personality that are out there and thus, by definition, available to them. They may still be trying things out, trying to be a little bit cool and popular, especially around the teenage years when a Yellow personality will prevail, whereas the Blue is almost certainly the geek, so it’s usually very harshly put across. You’ll get somebody with a lot of Green who’s the nice one …
… I think as they come out of their teenage years, this kind of stuff becomes extremely useful because they start to realise that it’s not just about them. So I think it’s a great idea to have this sort of thing taught at schools, but unfortunately it’s not.
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