Getting the best out of our working relationships

Have you ever had the experience of instantly gelling with some of your work colleagues or clients? It’s a bit like wearing a pair of slippers-it feels comfortable. The conversation flows and you’re on the same wave length.

The success of any team is built on the performance of it’s people. Just think about how successful teams would be if all working relationships were  so easy. 

We all know that doesn’t happen-there is often someone who is a little more challenging to work with. 

We try our best but it’s the opposite of those comfy slippers-it can feel difficult and uncomfortable whatever we try. Conflict is inevitable when individuals work together; it’s a fact of life in any workplace. According to a CIPD report, 44% of employees think personality differences and individual competence or performance are the two biggest causes of conflict in the workplace. Unless handled well, this can lead to a drop in team performance. 

Insights Discovery is a personal development tool which really helps us to forge better working relationships (and prevents us from getting to the conflict stage). The model uses a language of colour which is simple to understand and remember. Each person has all four colour energies (which are simply behaviours) within them; it’s the combination of these energies which creates each unique personality. 
Have a look at the graphic below. 

Which colours best describe you? Put them in colour order from most like you to least like you. It doesn’t matter about the colour order as there’s no wrong or right. Once you’ve done this do the same for those colleagues/clients who you get on really well with. What does the colour line up look like for those people who are your challenging person? 

The philosophy of Insights Discovery is that if we understand ourselves more, we are more likely to understand others and be able to modify our approach especially with people who are very different to us.

Many years ago I was involved in a conversation where one of the team members was very passionate about the subject and was able to voice their opinions in what they thought was an assertive and positive way. They viewed themselves as being passionate. It was only some weeks later when we were all involved in a team exercise that it came to light that one of the other team members had viewed the exchange as very aggressive and domineering. They were able to discuss these different perspectives from a colour perspective and the penny dropped. It soon transpired that they were what we call opposite types.

Having a common language is one of the many benefits of Insights Discovery which allows teams to communicate more effectively leading to higher levels of motivation and morale and ultimately to be more effective. 

The starting point is completing an online evaluator which takes 15-20 minutes. We then produce your personal profile which can be used in a workshop setting or in 121 coaching. During our workshops we explore the colour model in a fun and engaging way and importantly consider the “so what?”

We’ll support you afterwards to ensure that you keep the language alive so it becomes part of your everyday working life. 

Contact us to find out more about how we can support you using Insights Discovery-frances.ball@kingdom-academy.co.uk