I now understand my Dad!

How did you find out about our course in Building Self-Belief?

I found out about it from Sam from Spear – the way he described it made it sound really interesting and I thought it could benefit me in the future.

What for you was the most memorable bit?

Right at the end we were doing a team exercise and we had to work in a team to get across a minefield grid one step at a time. We all were allocated different roles in the team and at some points blindfolded (to make it more difficult) so it was interesting to see how different people approached the task.  Together we had to work out how to overcome the obstacle as a team.

Did it cause any arguments?

No arguments. We actually did pretty well and got over quickly.  It was fun sharing different ideas about how to get to the other side and feeling frustrated every time we failed and had to go back to square one.

Were there quite a lot of different personalities in the group?

There were a lot of introverts that made the group quite a bit quiet!! There were a couple of extroverts.

What differences did you see?

The extroverts would be ‘yep, lets go we can do this!’ The introverts would be quiet and to the side until someone told them to ‘go on, we’ve got to get this done’.

Had you thought about this before, how you process information differently to other people?

I had thought about it a bit before as I can tell that I was someone who liked to think things through quite a bit. Through the course I got to see the perspectives of others which was quite eye opening and helpful.

What colour order did you come out as?

Green Blue Yellow Red (Introverted feeling) so quite introverted as green and blue are the introverted colours.

And how has knowing that helped you in your life now since completing the course?

Yeah!  It’s helped quite a bit.  My dad is ‘RED’ so the complete opposite to me. Red is my lowest colour. It’s helped me understand him and him understand me better.  We get on a lot better now.  I shared the info with him the colour cards and he was able to identify that he was RED.

So, you feel its helped your relationship with him?

Yeah – definitely.  He understands me better and I understand him better.

Did you do anything on communication styles?

I found out that my body language is quite closed and I talk quietly.  It made me realise that there may be situations where I need to speak up to ensure my voice is heard.

 

Anything else that you think this course might help you with in the future?

It can definitely help when I get into work and manage different people. It will help me see how people will see things from different perspectives.  I now am able to recognise what ‘colour’ people are when I first meet them.  It helps me understand why someone behaves in a very different way to me – why they make decisions in a different way or communicate differently.

Would you recommend the course to other people?

Definitely!  It’s nice to work out what personality you have and perhaps what your weaknesses are so you can work on them to be the best version of yourself.

The Colour Model – The Colour Works Foundation (tcwfoundation.org.uk)

22 Emotional Intelligence Statistics To Make Your Day (2024) – Soocial

 

Case study – young person’s perspective of our Building self-belief programme

AJ:                       So, Katie, what was good about the course?

*Katie:                 Well, I liked all of it. There were obviously some activities we did that I personally didn’t really find enjoyable, but I can still see how they’re beneficial for this sort of thing. Like that stick one because it’s teamwork.

What I think I’ve gained the most from it is it’s made me less judgmental of other people because I’ve been able to understand my opposites point of view with the colours. That’s what I like about it – it’s opened my mind a lot more.

AJ:                       Is there anything else you think you learned about yourself?

Katie:                 Yeah, obviously like I knew there were days when I feel down and not good about myself, but I didn’t know how they might make other people feel, things that people might find annoying about me. I can see now how my emotional state has an effect on other people.  So, then I can just not do that for certain people.

AJ:                      Would you recommend the course to other people? And if you would, why?

Katie:                 I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. I think it really does open your mind a lot about other people and what you’re like. I think with the understanding of the colours it does make it easier for you to communicate with other people.

*Name has been changed to protect the identity of the young person

Impact of our sessions as part of the MyTime Young Carers employability programme

In this video Hardy explains his experience of the MyTime Young Carers employability programme. We love that he most enjoyed our ‘Building Self-Belief’ sessions where he was able to experience our colour model and learn how to apply it in practice.

We are proud to be partnering with MyTime Young Carers with the fantastic work they do with young carers to ensure they are ‘levelling the playing field’.  We deliver 2 workshops as part of their 7 session programme, introducing young people to our colour model, providing them with skills to enable better performance in interviews, build more productive relationships and improve their communication.    Orr attendance in a  third session  supports interview practice by helping the young people learn how to adapt their interview style dependent on the what they are able to establish about the behavioural type of their interviewer.  We have been delighted to see how this builds their confidence in the young people, preparing them to go into the world to follow their dreams.

My Experience as a Red personality

When I first took the TCWF personality quiz it was with a group of girls from my church youth group. As we went through their results it became increasingly clear that I was the ‘odd one out’ so to say. They had all come out as a combination of yellow green/ green yellow/ green blue. I, on the other hand, was across the colour wheel seated firmly in the red section, almost slap bang in the centre.

I think other colour personalities see us as the meanest colour. We are often the most abrupt, and the loudest. It is especially difficult to discuss when everyone else in your group has come out as the ‘happy-go-lucky’ yellows or the selfless green. Still, I am proud to be a red. Partly because I am so stereotypically red it is difficult to argue with.

I am making it sound like being a red personality is the worst thing in the entire world. This is not the case! Us red people are the leaders and the people who get the job done. We are passionate, enthusiastic, and confident. We tend to lean more towards role in leadership and often find we take on this role without even meaning to. Without the red people of the world, who would lead each operation, who would delegate, who would organise?

Difficulties and Benefits
The thing I am finding difficult about being a red personality is that I often want to get things done as quickly and efficiently as possible, whether that be cleaning up after a meal, a task I am doing at work or even just going to do some shopping. If it is a task, it needs to be done now. I have found this often leads to clashes with those of other colours.

Blue people for example, prefer to look at all possible solutions and outcomes and make a decision based on logic. I find this frustrating as, to me, this is a waste of time. We could have begun other tasks in the time it has taken to guarantee we are going about the task correctly. Yellow people tend to prefer a course of action that is more enjoyable for everyone, which often takes longer than necessary. Green people tend not to want to decide and would prefer someone else to make the decision. Even as I write this post, I am just writing and thinking as I go, and then I will go back and correct at the end. As I think that is the most efficient way to complete this task.

These are obviously just stereotypes about each colour person. I am very dominantly red. You may also come out as a red person, but a much less extreme version. Therefore, you might not agree/relate to the above paragraph as much. This is not to say you are not a red person, you may just be more between two other colours.

One thing I enjoy most about being a red person, is people always look to me for leadership roles. I like being seen as someone who will be able to lead a team, especially as people often put me forward before, I have expressed an interest. I like that people tend to see me as in control and a leader and therefore trust me to keep everyone in line and on task to have the best outcome. Again, not every red person feels this way, this is just my personal experience.

I hope this has given you an insight into a red personality. Whether you relate to me and therefore might be more red. Or completely disagree and therefore have crossed red off of your list of potential dominant colours. Either way, I hoped this has helped you in some way.

Building self-belief – my experience

Attendees at Colour Works Foundation Course

Wondering whether the TCWF Building self-belief course is for you? Here’s an interview with a young person describing his experience of our 8 session programme.

We’re currently in the process of setting up a volunteering programme so that young people can support our workshops.  If you have attended one of our programmes in the past and would be interested in volunteering with us we’d love to hear from you.  Please contact Liz via email at liz@tcwfoundation.org.uk