Yellow, red, green and blue. These are the colours which identify you.

“I haven’t been spying on you. It’s just that clever.” We’d been told to underline which statements were very accurate, and put question marks next to the sentences that we thought didn’t describe us. So far, I’d underlined practically every paragraph.

Me and my team were in a personality profile session at work. Previously, we’d answered a long survey of questions online (I love doing this, however long), and now we were reading our personal profiles which told us what our ‘colour dynamic’ is. The aim was to better understand what made each of us feel and work more productively in our workplace, so we could communicate with each other better.

I couldn’t believe how accurate my profile was. It was me to an absolute tee.

Charley prefers a harmonious environment, where each person can be appreciated for their contribution.

She finds her source of energy within.

She may worry too much.

Charley won’t get hurt by the same situation twice.

She can be passive yet stubborn simultaneously.

It was like reading a history of all my past misgivings, failures, learnings, friendships, affections and obsessions. And all of this related to how I interact at work. Some if it, I already knew, thanks to a few learning curves in previous jobs and relationships (plus the fact I’m a loyal, problem-solving Scorpio with a sixth-sense for fuckery.) The only thing my gut is any good at is instincts; the rest is a hot mess. Some of my strengths in this profile, however, were new to me. And it was fascinating to read this side of my personality I didn’t realise I had.

One of her strengths is an ability to let others work at their own pace coupled with an awareness of the unique contribution each person makes.

She alleviates the concerns of others and looks for harmony in every situation.

Charley cares deeply.

She provides quiet, behind the scene, support.

There are four colours in this particular personality theory – earth green, cool blue, sunshine yellow and fiery red. If you’re blue, you’re cautious and precise. You’re focused on the detail and question everything. If you’re red, you’re competitive and determined. Because you’re strong-willed you ensure everything is purposeful. If you’re green, you’re encouraging and patient. Your caring nature creates a relaxed environment. If you’re yellow, you’re sociable and enthusiastic. You have such a dynamic that you can be quite persuasive.

The point is that everyone is a blend of all four colours. No-one can simply be one colour and nothing else. It didn’t take any time at all for anyone in my team to identify the colour that least represented them. I knew straight away that red would be right at the bottom of my chart, and my colleagues could have predicted that too. It turns out I’m earth green, with a very high bit of cool blue right after. I’m what’s called a ‘coordinating supporter’. Then I’m sunshine yellow, and finally an itty bitty bit of fiery red. So I do have some balls, it seems.

We were all pleasantly surprised with our profiles and spent a while dissecting snippets of each other, either laughing in agreement or wittering in confusion around the wording. One colleague seemed baffled at how nice hers was (we weren’t, she’s lovely) and another creased as hers described ignoring the silver lining to concentrate on the cloud. Charming!

Once we understood the colours it all seemed so obvious. Of course they’re yellow, the office is 10 decibels louder when they appear! Yes they’re blue, I like how short their meetings are. They’re green? I didn’t even realise they worked here.

Every now and then I revisit that profile, saved as a PDF and shoved in a random online folder I often forget about. I wonder if I took the test again, would I still be a strong mix of casual, relaxed green and cool blue? Or would my fiery red have burnt a long way to the top? Surely not, it’s taken me two weeks to finish this blog post.

^{Featured image by Xavi Cabrera on Unsplash.}