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CAREER MATCH

Connecting Who You Are with What You'll Love to Do

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By Shoya Zichy Ann Bidou

AMACOM

Copyright © 2007 Shoya Zichy
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8144-3018-7

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Chapter One

Don't Read the Whole Book ...

THIS IS NOT YOUR TYPICAL career book. The Color Q system doesn't change people, but it does change how they view themselves. You will not be told to be more organized, to assert yourself, imitate your boss, or emulate some celebrity CEO. You will not even have to change how you dress. Instead, every word will move you to operate from your deepest, most natural talents, fueling the passion that separates good workers from great achievers. You just need to recognize your strengths and use them on a daily basis.

Sound easy? It's not. Most of us come loaded down with guilt and parental/societal expectations that push us in unnatural directions. Did pressures like money, prestige, educational opportunity, or family desires force you into making more "practical" choices? If doing so hasn't made you happy, then what will?

You need to get back to your core and make it work in the workplace. Define this core by taking the Color Q Self-Assessment in Chapter 2 and being bluntly honest. For many of you, it will be career-altering, IF you answer as you really are. Please note that a preference is NOT "I generally work with piles, but I'd prefer if I kept my desk clean." What you actually do is what you prefer.

You do not need to read the whole book, unless you want to explore all sixteen Color Q personality types. Learning a little about other people's styles, however, will help you in:

* Job or promotion interviews.

* Team projects.

* Salary/contract negotiations.

* Sales.

* Boss/co-worker conflicts.

* Dates.

* Family relations.

The theory behind the Color Q system has been tested for decades on millions of people worldwide. It has changed lives and altered careers, including those of both authors of this book. If it changes your life, as we think it will, we'd like to know. Your story is as significant as the ones included in this book. Email me at Zichy@earthlink.net and check out my website at www.ColorQProfiles.com.

Chapter Two

The Color Q Personality Style Self-Assessment

Instructions: Part I

In the Color Q personality profiling system, you have a primary personality Color. This is who you are at your core. You also have a backup Color—a strong secondary influence. Finally, you have an Introvert or Extrovert tendency. Color Q describes people, for example, as Green/Red Introverts. This ten-minute either/or self-assessment will reveal all three aspects of your personality.

Select one of the two choices in each line according to your first impulse, which is usually correct; but choose as you are, not as you would like to be. Don't overanalyze your choice. There are no "right" or "wrong" answers. Think of this like your left or right hand. While you can use both, you have a preference for one over the other, and you use that hand with less effort and better results. If you are truly torn between the two choices, it may mean you either feel guilty about your honest answer, or feel pressured to function in a certain way.

First, fill out Section I, choosing what YOU (not your boss, mate, parents, or anyone else) prefer. Choose from Column A or B. Each A or B choice must be filled in, choosing the statement that describes you at least 51 percent of the time. You should wind up with nine checkmarks total in this section.

Count the number of checks in each column. Then move on to Section II or III depending on your results. Assess your primary Color now.

Instructions: Part II

Now read the short overview of you primary Color below. Does it ring true? If yes, continue to Part III. If not, skip down to Part V, "What to Do If This Doesn't Ring True for You."

Instructions: Part III

Now that you have determined your primary style, go back to the assessment and fill out the section you originally left out (Section II or III). This will provide you with your backup style. You should share about 40 to 50 percent of the characteristics of your backup style. The backup style refines your primary style.

If your primary is Gold or Red, your backup would be Blue or Green.

If your primary is Blue or Green, your backup would be Gold or Red.

Your Backup style is____________

INSTRUCTIONS: Part IV

From each pair of statements, choose one statement from the left or right column. You should wind up with seven checkmarks in this section.

More about the Extrovert and Introvert

Since the Extrovert/Introvert dimension is often misunderstood, it is worth explaining further. First of all, it appears to be biologically based and has nothing to do with liking people or being socially adept.

Extroverts (which Jung and the Myers-Briggs community spell as "extraverts") get their energy from being with people and doing group activities. If they have to spend too much time alone or doing tasks that require solitude, they quickly become tired, bored, and dispirited. Introverts get energized from their inner resources—that is, from spending time alone to recharge their internal batteries. Even if they like being with people, which most Introverts do, interacting too much can drain their energy.

The population divides fairly equally between Extroverts and Introverts, and many hide their natural preference well. An Introvert who needs to socialize for business can appear as an Extrovert to those who do not know him or her well. We all use both, but not at the same time. Also, as your score will indicate, you may be mild or pronounced in this dimension. Relationships between the two are often tense, until this dimension is understood and valued.

Next Step

If your Overview sounds right, read about your primary Color first: Greens in Chapter 5, Reds in Chapter 10, Blues in Chapter 15, and Golds in Chapter 20. Then read your individual chapter, which is one of the four immediately following your primary Color.

If you want to delve deeper, read about your backup Color. For skeptical Blues, reading Chapter 3, A Quick History of Personality Typing, might be your first stop so you don't feel you're wasting your time on an unproven methodology. Greens may want to skip straight to their individual chapter, and then into Chapter 4, A Tour of the Prism Company, to learn about all the other Colors. That's okay, too. Golds will prefer to follow the recommendations above, and reading one chapter a day will allow you to absorb and review this material. Reds, we know the self-assessment wasn't all that much fun, but your individual chapter will be! Go there now and skim it; you'll see it can be quite entertaining.

What to Do If This Doesn't Ring True for You: Part V

Your personality Color is simply who you really are WHEN NOT PRESSURED by family, friends, or work life. But if the majority of characteristics do not ring true, you may belong to another group.

Go back to the Self-Assessment and check the section where you had close scores. Did you answer the way others need you to be? Or as you feel you ought (instead of prefer) to be? That creates false results. Choose the opposite column and follow instructions to a new Color. If that fits better, go up to Section III and continue.

Or see if a family member or someone who knows you well agrees with your self-assessment. You might be very surprised, as one lawyer was when her friend of thirty years completely corrected her answers to most of the self-assessment! The lawyer didn't want to admit to her real preferences for a messy workplace and last-minute deadline rushes. Remember, we're not judging you here, or even suggesting you need to change. And what you categorize as a "weakness" actually might be a strength; for example, the ability to operate effectively in chaotic conditions.

People are multifaceted. Though everyone has a predominant type, people may be one of several shades of that style. A person may be a strong Gold with a Blue backup. Another might be a slight Gold and hence not as pronounced. Also, as you get older, you develop the nonpreferred parts of your personality and may appear less Gold than in younger years.

If you currently are going through catastrophic life changes, or have been dissatisfied with your life for some time, scores can reflect your survival skills and not your real preferences. You may have "forgotten" your real preferences, although unhappiness is a signal that they're being denied. Try answering as if, right now, you lived in the world of your choice. If your personality Color still seems wrong, wait until things have stabilized and retest yourself.

Chapter Three

A Quick History of Personality Typing

CATEGORIZING PERSONALITIES into types—an activity called "typology"—has been embraced by major civilizations since ancient times. For more than twenty centuries, scientists and scholars have recognized that, while individual people are unique, there are predictable patterns of human behavior. Around 400 B.C. the Greeks, most notably Aristotle, Hippocrates, and Galen, believed human behaviors fell into four groups, or "humors"—sanguine, melancholic, phlegmatic, and choleric.

In the 1920s the pioneering Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung, who had been a favorite student of Freud's, split away and developed his own typology. According to Jung, human beings' four ways of intersecting with reality were thinking, feeling, sensation, and intuition, which he outlined in his book Psychological Types, published in 1921. He called these the four "functions."

Jung spent most of his life studying how people are similar and different. He concluded that certain inborn or early-emerging preferences become the steadfast core of our likes and dislikes about other humans and the physical world. He further described each of these functions as being used in either the outer or inner world and hence in different ways, concluding that each person has one of eight mental processes as the most preferred or dominant.

Jung's theories were very abstract. Fortunately, in the 1940s, a mother and daughter team would begin to provide a practical key to unlocking his work. These two U.S. women, Isabel Myers and her mother Katharine Briggs, individually and together would spend the next forty years testing Jung's ideas by observing the people around them. They quantified their observations, then rigorously tested and validated them. They created the most extensively tested personality typing system ever developed, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® Inventory (MBTI® assessment), which to date has been administered to more than 50 million people worldwide.

In the 1950s, another typology enthusiast, David Keirsey, did work that overlaid the Greek humors onto the Jungian/Myers-Briggs types. In his book Please Understand Me, he outlined four temperament groups, which serve as the basis of the Color Q model in this book. Since then his work has been expanded by his longtime student Linda Berens, president of Interstrength™ Associates, who continues to provide a rich array of new insights.

Today, work on the MBTI is continued by the next generation, Peter and Katharine Myers, co-trustees of the MBTI Trust. Katharine D. Myers, whose work with the instrument began in 1942, became the first President of APT, the Association for Psychological Type, the leading membership organization of the "type" community. Twenty years later the Myers' strong sense of stewardship remains in evidence. They are mentors to those seeking new insights and applications. The aspirations of young people and their career satisfaction is an area of ongoing interest. Peter Myers is Chairman of the Myers-Briggs Foundation and continues to develop the work of his mother Isabel Myers by promoting new research and keeping the assessment on the cutting edge. He believes the most important contribution of the Myers-Briggs model is the insight that "successful human endeavor results from the development of effective perception and decision-making," emphasizing once again that understanding and working with one's own natural preferences, regardless of what they are, creates success.

"The Jungian model is an excellent nonthreatening tool for developing career goals," said Katharine Myers in a recent interview. "Extensive research shows that certain types more than others are drawn to each career. However, since every type is found in every field, no one should be told not to go into any specific career. If an individual is strongly drawn to a profession, he or she needs to be clear on the tasks inherent in the job and then evaluate what their skills will contribute." It is not uncommon for people to create special niches in areas dominated by other types.

Myers is a Green, as defined Chapter 5. And like many in her group she excels at fostering the growth of others. "My passion for what I do is so great that I'm still working at 80, which I never planned to do," she says.

Meanwhile, modern brain imaging technology has validated many of MBTI's theories by showing how chemicals and activity in different parts of the brain impact behavior. Most importantly, it has been demonstrated that Jung was indeed correct. While each person is unique, there is a part of them—a core, if you will—that is solid and steady. It is that core that the MBTI, and the Color Q system, define and apply to a multitude of life issues.

I developed Color Q as a quick introduction to the concepts of "personality typing" and the more complex Myers-Briggs model. When running team-building and leadership seminars for my corporate clients like ABN AMBO, Northern Trust, Merrill Lynch, The U.S. Treasury, and Prudential Insurance, I also began to ask participants to fill out an investment questionnaire. From this pool of knowledge emerged the Money Q profiles, which explain how different personality types approach money and compensation. Several results of this proprietary research are presented in Chapter 27, which sheds light on how different individuals approach the financial negotiation aspects of their job search.

Chapter Four

A Tour of the Prism Company

An Overview of the Four Color Groups

YOU'LL GET THE MOST OUT OF this book if you learn how to recognize people of other Color types. This tour of the (fictitious) Prism Company offers clues to help Color code your boss, co-workers, dates, mates, friends, and family.

The Gold Department

At the Gold department entrance, a motion-sensor-activated sign lights up when you approach, requesting your visitor's pass. A card swipe machine reads all your data—name, reason for visit, time of entry—and unlocks the door.

Inside is a reception area with elegant wood paneling, several classical oil paintings, and immaculate deep pile carpet. The tone is hushed. Behind a large, raised desk is a receptionist wearing a crisp business suit. Her desk has her name and title on a square wood and brass plate, next to a discreet bouquet of mixed flowers. She nods you into the department corridor for your tour. It has taken you less than a minute to start your visit.

On your right is a bulletin board with the slogan "Responsibility and Accountability Lead to Money and Security" displayed across the top. Although the sounds of work are all around you, everything seems hushed and well under control. All employees are wearing tailored suits, and most are at their desks doing paperwork. Computer screens flicker with spreadsheets or accounting software.

Down the corridor, each employee has an office, all of which are decorated in tasteful muted color schemes. No one seems to be absent, yet no desk has any clutter on it. Apart from family photos, nothing but the current moment's work is evident anywhere. Filing cabinets predominate, which reveal highly organized files with plenty of room to spare. Everyone's clock, you notice, is set to precisely the same time.

People greet you in a dignified, well-mannered way, but stay focused on their tasks. You notice functions like business analysis, accounting, budgets, customer service, production scheduling, and manufacturing project planning.

A conference room near the middle holds a large oval table of impeccably shined mahogany. A schedule of the week's meetings is posted in a frame next to the door. Someone of good and traditional taste has designed this room. Pens are in holders on the center of the table. The well-hidden wastebasket is empty. Windows behind the velvet curtains are crystal clean.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from CAREER MATCH by Shoya Zichy Ann Bidou Copyright © 2007 by Shoya Zichy. Excerpted by permission of AMACOM. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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