When the Penny Drops…

Have you ever been there and physically seen the lightbulb come on in someone’s eyes? Seen all the pennies drop into place?

It’s an amazing feeling isn’t it, especially when it was because of something you said or did?

Well that’s how I feel each time I coach someone using Insights Discovery and they suddenly work out for themselves how to better connect with someone or how to create a better culture for their team. If you’ve not come across it before, Insights is a psychometric tool based on the thinking and philosophies of Carl Jung. You complete an evaluator which then produces an in-depth report analysing your behaviours and style, and gives you insights into how you typically might behave in certain situations and crucially what you need from others to be the best version of you that you can be. It groups the behaviours into 4 colours; Fiery Red, Sunshine Yellow, Earth Green and Cool Blue.

At Link Engagement, our introductory workshops bring this all to life through a series of fun, interactive games where you start to associate yourself with the different colours and start to become aware of who you are, how you show up and your personality type. You learn that everyone is a blend of each colour but in different orders and in different quantities which means some characteristics are more dominant than others. You also learn that people are different and that a great team celebrates those differences, the strengths and uses them to the best effect. But this is, in practice, much easier said than done.

Our workshops are bespoke and can delve into a number of different organisational challenges; transformational change, team effectiveness, stakeholder relationships, leadership authenticity & effectiveness and employee engagement to name just a few!

After the workshop, I often get asked for a 121 session to help someone better understand how to adapt their personal style to connect with someone in particular or how to bring the best out of someone who is quite different to them. Using the simple language of colour, Insights and the power of differences really opens up the conversation and allows them to come to their own conclusions and to develop a set of tangible actions.

My experience of using Insights as a self-awareness and then personal, team and leadership effectiveness tool has led to some powerful results:

• • An individual who didn’t know how to create personal impact with leaders but is now a positive name on the radar.
  • Someone who wanted to be perceived differently and is learning how to “dial up” some different behaviours which people are responding to.
  • A team which unlocked its own effectiveness by introducing process and agendas around team meetings with very positive results.
  • A team which changed the way it collaborated to ensure everyone was heard.

I have come across many similar tools in my career but I can honestly say, none quite as easy to work with and as powerful as this one. I’ve certainly had my eyes opened, have you?