Two Types of Team Members – The Blue and The Green

In the first post we discovered how color can be a contributor on how a team functions. The proper mix of colors will make the difference between a functional and non-functional tam. There are many theories around personality types and a derth of information around daily interactions that create a highly functional team.

In this post we will take two of the colors we discussed in the first post and go into some depth on their personality types and add the best way to communicate and work with these individuals. These first two colors are at opposite ends of the spectrum. The Greens are Self-Contained and Indirect while the Blues are Open and Direct. The differences between the two are astounding. Each of these types can add great value to any project team as long as they are managed correctly.

Open and Direct (Blue) On the surface: Love’s FUN Usual Job: Sales, Entertainment Type: Promoter, Enthusiasm, Convincing, Creative, High Energy Dress: Stylish, Flamboyant, Colorful Weaknesses: Talk too much, Poor saver, Poor follow up, Unorganized, Exaggerates Dislikes: Not having fun, Facts and figures, Being alone Keywords: FUN, excitement

Self-Contained and Indirect (Green) On the surface: Let’s get the facts and figures Usual Job: Engineer, Accountant Type: Organized, Planner, Accurate, Persistent, Follow-Through Voice: Soft and Polite Dress: Casual and Conservative Weaknesses: Over Analytical, Hard to Please, Depressed, Lonely Dislikes: Pushy People, No Facts, Being Late Keywords: WHY, Graphs, Charts, Research, Exactly, Possibility

First let’s talk about Greens. Most of us run the other way when it comes to the Green personality just because they are so focused on facts and figures. When you understand that Greens make up 35% of the population, you will be avoiding a lot of people, besides in the high tech industry that is almost everyone!

Greens want to know everything going into a project almost to a fault. They are excellent at digging into the details simply because they are totally left-brained, logical and analytical. It often takes a Green a long time to make a decision and it will often feel that they are never going to get there or do anything.

Greens will map out the route for the project and they will be very precise at doing so, they never sway from their conviction for the project. They like to do anything that involves logic and reasoning. They are the most organized people on the planet. They are great planners and having a Green on the team will be a great plus when you are paving the way as they are also excellent problem solvers as well.

Greens also are task-persistent and they have amazing follow-through on top of being extremely accurate and they can drive you crazy with the detail. They will over-analyze everything and will tend to be on the pessimistic side. They are always looking for ways something will not work not why it will work.

The best way to work with a Green is to get them to open up and share their feelings about projects or the people around them. The Greens are not “feelings” oriented but once you get them to talk about their feelings, they will work even harder to make a project work.

Greens need some direction and then because of being self-contained, will run with that information and dig right in. Greens can lead projects without too much effort as long as the others on the team are willing to get into great details. If you know this ahead of time, they can lead a group of Greens with ease.

There are many other ways you can work with a Green. Just by knowing how they tick, should give you enough insight to look at those around you and see if they fall into the Green category. Now on the Blues.

Blues are at the opposite end of the spectrum when it comes to personality types. Blues make up 15% of the population. So between Greens and Blues, you have 50% of the population. You will find blues everywhere, they sell you cars, they sell you the products your company produces, they will sell you anything! Blues operate from the right brain so they are very creative and they are big on relationships.

As far as traits go, you can recognize them as they have loud voices and speak very quickly. They are always excited! Blues will want to take your processes and make improvements. An excellent trait for a project team. A Blue will not only make improvements at the start, they will continuously looking to improve it.

The biggest issue is to keep a Blue focused on one thing at a time. Blues are notorious for spreading themselves too thin and going from project to project and their follow-up ability is next to zero. To manage a Blue you need to help them focus and be organized. They are a real asset as the energy and effort they put into anything will make any project successful.

Blues will dress with style; they are flamboyant and have a lot of facial expressions including hand and body movements. They have a very firm and fast. They are high on having fun with anything they do. To hold a Blue’s interest in a project, there needs to be a fun element!

So now you have an idea on how to deal with Green and Blue personalities. In the next post will be introducing Red and Yellow to complete all of the personality types.