Identifying Personality at Formal Events
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Editor’s note: Stu Schlackman is a frequent contributor to this blog.
All it takes to identify a customer’s personality style is practice. It is possible to identify the personality color of an individual on first meeting them. Consider the annual dinner engagement.
You Can often Hear a lot Just by Listening
How an office is organized and time is managed provides the first clues. For a real-time determination at a first meeting, the best way to identify someone’s personality color is to listen carefully to ‘how they communicate’ and ‘what they talk about’. Does the conversation primarily focus on business issues or people issues? Is the conversation more objective or subjective? Is it about tasks or about relationships? Ask exploratory questions to see what resonates with them? “Every day for us it’s another school issue or activity; do you have kids?” “What is your main problem with the way this contract is being delivered?” Questions like this help discover what matters to that person and what matters to them is a strong clue to their personality color.
But even if you cannot engage with questions, careful listening can get you the clues you need. My wife and I attended a formal dinner with speeches and dancing. This is a typical situation where it is important to size up the speakers, so that you can engage productively with them afterwards. After the meal, we sat at our table and listened to the two speakers. This dinner was about a transition in leadership, one board was departing and another was taking over.
Blue First up was the colorfully dressed, departing president of the organization. Table gossip said that she had picked out the evening’s band; the one she used at her wedding. She thanked the sitting board of directors for their support during a great year for the organization. She introduced each member by describing something unique that person contributed to the team and the organization during the past twelve months. Each situation she talked about included personal touches that characterized the board member. This was about touching people and building relationships. This is an example of a true “Blue” personality!
Green Next, the incoming president spoke and the presentation, while just as interesting, was totally different. He wore a simple, functional suit and got straight to business. First he thanked the outgoing board and the organization for the opportunity to serve. Then he jumped into his plans for the coming year. He described in detail each of the yearly activities and how each event could function to promote the growth of the organization. His talk was about being practical. It avoided emotion and personal relationships. He objectively described the business issues before the organization and step-by-step tasks needed to reach its goals. His was the epitome of the Green personality!
Stu's Four People You Should Know
- the detail of their descriptions (Green will give more detail) and
- how structured and formal they are with the flow and the timing ( Gold will emphasize this)
When you are hearing more about relationships, emotions, striving for achievement, comparisons, risks and fun; you are more likely listening to a “Right” brain person. So they must be either Blue or Orange. Blues will focus more on significant and personal contributions about people and how they helped others. Orange personalities will highlight events, activities; how everyone looked good the past year and how great they all were. Blues will talk in more detail than Oranges. The Orange personality will focus on the outcome, not the process.
See Four People You Should Know for more