Colour Energies

Check out this blog post by Aleksandra Kwiecien, our Corporate Coaching Programmes Co-ordinator:

I once witnessed an amusing situation between a married couple. In the course of conversation, they realised that each of them had a different understanding of the simple word “few”. For the wife, it simply meant ‘2’; if there were more than two (of whatever the subject of the conversation was), she would use a specific number. For the husband, a “few” meant anything between 2 and 7. I wondered what would happen if he suggested having "a few friends” for dinner. She cooks for four guests; he has invited seven!?

Not everything we say or hear can be taken at its face value. Have you come across those funny charts that translate what a British person says to what they really mean? ‘That’s very brave...' means ‘You’re insane!’; “Sorry I didn’t communicate that clearly’ means ‘How can you not get it?’?

"Especially within a work context, effective communication is key to building a great and efficient team."

It's easy to take for granted that if people speak the same language (by which I mean vocabulary and grammar), they will understand each other well. This isn’t always the case. Many teams struggle due to lack of a truly shared language – those nuances and underlying meanings that lead to efficient communication.?

It’s often underestimated how much different personalities have different communication styles, which can affect how they come across, and in turn if they are (mis)understood. A combination of research and creative technical solutions have produced a number of tools to help mitigate this problem; a favourite within my team is the Colour Profiling tool. We have seen this transform not only our own team, but many a team we’ve worked with.???

Colour profiling does not box or label people within specific categories, but helps to raise awareness of the communication preferences of ourselves and others. Understanding what ‘colours’ (communication preferences) we tend to lean into, and the same for our colleagues, helps us to work out the best way to share information, give and receive feedback, and in turn work efficiently together. It’s a great relief that with intentionality and a bit of training, everyone can stretch their communication muscles to flex to other colour energies – leading to tremendous benefits for co-operation and effective communication.???

If you would like to hear more about colour profiles and training sessions on how to best use them to improve communication within your team, feel free to get in touch with us at [email protected].?