Jack Dermody's Blog

You Get Fired Because They Don’t Like You

admin — Thu, 03 May 2012 16:23:41 +0000

“You get hired because they like you, and fired because they don’t.” Have you heard that before? You can read all the books about personnel practices till the cows come home, but the truth is that likeable people probably trump difficult folks most of the time.
Think about it. Between two average employees, all things being equal, the annoying person will get fired first.
And it’s not hard to end up being labeled as “an annoying person.” For example, an overly spontaneous, lighthearted Orange accountant can be driving the fastidious Gold folk nuts. The Gold accountants can be so focused on keeping their Excel sheets perfect that they see Orange flippancy and breeziness as a threat to order in the office – never mind that the Orange work output itself may be measurably perfect.
So what to do? Long before we would face something as drastic as a layoff, we all might want to monitor how we are being perceived by others. Being an appealing person pays off in raises, opportunities, and even the best parties, wouldn’t you say? To get back to the example above of the overly-lighthearted Orange accountant, he can probably learn to separate office behavior from off-the-clock behavior. He needs to be himself, of course, but also find out what behaviors get the best results for himself and for the team. Ironically Golds and Oranges speak similar “concrete” languages, but Golds definitely want to hear the language that best adheres to social norms. Sometimes a “behavior adjustment” is only a matter of small adjustments and can be more comfortable than expected. Besides, every Orange person soon knows who his allies are in the workplace and who he can let his hair down with – both on and off the clock, right?
So the lesson here is that just a little behavior monitoring every day can pretty much guarantee you a warm spot in the hearts of hirers and firers when times get tough.

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The best of my newsletter will soon appear here

admin — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 00:38:51 +0000

Key articles from my popular newsletter PERSONALITY MATTERS will start appearing here. For a taste, go to the bottom of the home page of JackDermody.com and click on “Click for Newsletter Archive.” Enjoy. Get on the mailing list! No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin. No related posts. Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Green and Blue Personality Types on YouTube

admin — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 14:57:11 +0000

Three Greens and One Blue on YouTube

How You Can Figure Out Colors Without a Survey

Greens and Blues have one thing in common. They live in their heads. Processing ideas is THEM. The Greens, however, are the “Thinkers” while the Blues are the “Feelers” – in Myers-Briggs terminology.

How to tell them apart can be found in their body language and speech.

Click on the YouTube link below and watch our current Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, the only Blue, speaking on Meet the Press at the same table as three Greens: Newt Gingrich, Al Sharpton, and the moderator David Gregory.

Here is a summary of what to look for:

GREENS: Newt Gingrich, Al Sharpton, and Meet the Press Moderator David Gregory

· Drawing starkly clear pictures with hands – pointing, chopping, framing

· Matter-of-fact delivery

· Well referenced big-picture orientations

· Referencing knowledgeable sources, leaders

· Breaking answers into categories and examples

BLUE: Secretary of Education Arne Duncan

· Soft, open-handed ( imploring) gestures with hands, very little jerking or chopping

· Pleasant, smiling, soft delivery

· Idealistic big picture

· Referencing universal people and their interactions

· Speaking in sweeping rather than finely-drawn scenarios

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yANobP-60yo

Questions or comments? Send Jack an e-mail. Dermody@cox.net

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Your Personality Discovered Right Now – The Survey Went Public TODAY

admin — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 00:01:58 +0000

Today, January 25, 2011, marks the birth of the Four Windows Personality Survey (4WPS) as a self-assessing tool. Just go to my website and take it yourself. Your results are delivered immediately on line. When you go to your email account, the results are accompanied by the most beautiful attachment: a 136-page book describe the four personality types.

Why take the survey? Find out how others probably see you. Stop approaching people in annoying ways, especially when you don’t realize you irritate folks from places you deem to be “good.” Share the results with people you care about — and especially with people you are in danger of losing.

Why is 4WPS better to take than many other such surveys? To begin with, 4WPS is the result of 2000 years of trial and error in human relations. Better yet, the knowledge and skills to be applied are easily understood immediately by just about everyone. Scientists and bricklayers are equally comfortable with the awesome insights from the four personality types, each identified by a Color: Green, Orange, Blue, or Gold.

Check it out, folks. Go to www.JackDermody.com/4wps

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SHERIFF JOE (WHERE IS MAMA, DO YOU KNOW?) – The Lyrics

admin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 19:14:41 +0000

WHERE IS MAMA, SHERIFF JOE?

CHORUS

Sheriff Joe, Sheriff Joe

Where is Mama – do you know?

She went to work, you picked her up.

Where is Mama – do you know?

Breakfast today was bacon and eggs,

Dad proclaimed them the best he’d had –

He added all Mama did was grand – and

Mama bragged her boss was just as glad.

REPEAT CHORUS

Checked my schoolwork and packed a lunch ;

Then ran to the bus after kissing me sweet,

Mama texted “Te quiero” like she always did,

Then wrote “Arrestada” on a Twitter Tweet.

REPEAT CHORUS

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Compatibility should be found in your first two Colors

admin — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 06:00:45 +0000

I’ve met a lot of couples — happy and unhappy. I feel pretty safe in stating that the happier pairings are people who share at least one Color of their first two Colors in the Four Windows Color Spectrum. For example, a Gold-Blue married to an Orange-Blue share the harmony-seeking of their idealistic Blueness and, in fact, share even more because the “apparently opposite” Gold and Orange are not opposite when it comes speaking concretely to each other. Healthy and creative synergy should happen naturally for this couple.

However, compatibility can be harder to achieve when neither party shares a Color in the first two Colors of the spectrum. A Green-Gold paired with an Orange-Blue may find it exceedingly difficult to communicate easily. In this case, the serious task-oriented Green-Gold must try to interface every single day with the impetuous, constantly fun-loving Orange-Blue. The obvious “plus” for this relationship is a penchant for winning and for getting things done efficiently. Such a pair might run a small family business like a well-oiled machine, it would seem. If this relationship is on fire and is worked on carefully every day, the couple can surely brag that each partner “completes” the other — and how wonderful that must be.

Do you share a Color with your mate? How is that working out? Do you not share a Color? Tell me about your interaction.

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Rational Thinking versus Hormones in the Movie Shall We Kiss

admin — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 07:10:10 +0000

For Green Rationals, there is a movie for you called Shall We Kiss – a French film that came out at the end of 2009. The three main characters display Rational temperaments – the husband is a pharmacist; the wife, a chemist; the wife’s lover, a math teacher.

The physical environment these folks provide for themselves is almost hysterically stereotypical. What could me more Green than shelves filled with books and walls decorated with famous Rationals? The film’s background music is nearly exclusively classical, even for the love making. Decor is minimalist at best. The principal activity besides reading books – even in bed – is problem-solving dialogue.

The plot begins when the wife’s best guy friend asks her for some intimacy because he is lonely and needing affection. She obliges, not expecting that the kisses would lead to a passionate affair that has the lovers conclude that they should have been together from the beginning. What ensues is a highly structured but compassionate method of separating themselves from, respectively, a husband and a live-in girlfriend.

I don’t want to spoil the story, especially the side stories that accompany the main one. However, you the viewer get to see Rationals attempting to be, well, “rational” about an affair, about inevitable trouble that results, and the recognition that, yes, Greens have feelings too.

Sometimes I get the idea that many Rationals would rather not have to be in love – perhaps being more interested in a partnership for a more complete life rather than a hormonally activated and rather emotional relationship like that of gooey passionate couples of fiction and movies.

Keirsey temperament expert Stephen Montgomery has yet to complete and publish volume four of The Pygmalion Project – the last being a literary look at Rational temperament types in love and marriage. If the reason is a lack of literary sources, Mr. Montgomery, then perhaps you have found it in Shall We Kiss?

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How To Guess Your Prospect’s Personality Type

admin — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:18:08 +0000

At lunch today my friend Dave said, “You know, you temperament gurus never tell us how to quickly assess the personality of our prospects.”

Well, I’m not one of those “other guys,” so I am revealing some hints to you below. As a disclaimer, however, I need to tell you that you might want to call me for some training so that you will have the competence to be an accurate and competent assessor of personality styles.

1. IDEALIST BLUES (15% of prospects)

a. Usually very approachable

b. Easy to talk to

c. Soft in their body language, relaxed

d. Friendly

e. Easy eye contact

f. Not usually wanting to get to bottom line

g. Welcoming small talk and social banter

2. GUARDIAN GOLDS (45% of prospects)

a. Usually very serious

b. Will want to process a single idea at length – longer than other Colors

c. Will ask many questions beginning with the word “but…”

d. Don’t like vagueness of any kind

e. Expect very concrete and clear answers

f. Very patient with details and will take as long as is required to get through them, and will demand that you be the same way

g. Don’t like a lot of surprises or too many alternatives fired at them at the same time

3. ARTISAN ORANGES (30% of prospects)

a. Usually don’t want to sit

b. Like to move around

c. Want bottom line immediately

d. May tell you exactly what they want from the outset

e. May tell you they want to decide quickly

f. Fierce negotiators, will fight for what they want

4. RATIONAL GREENS (10% of prospects)

a. Cool and calm, often emotionless

b. Will ask, “Who are you, what do you want, and how long will this take?”

c. Quickly want to see the research

d. Will turn off if you don’t have well researched answers

e. Can know more about the product than you do

f. Will turn off to emotional or subjective pitches.

Now the above lists are a down-and-dirty bird’s-eye view of assessing Colors. Here’s another secret: you will still find yourself in the right ballpark if you feel comfortable that you have guessed at least two dominant Colors. Speak to both Colors and watch your prospects’ interest rise in front of your eyes.

Also, sometimes you have zero time to make any assessments, so what to do? The answers is simple: Speak and write in all four colors. That is, cover the whole water front. Smarter yet, show up at the client’s venue with a team of folks representing the various Colors, then pass the ball to “personality type” who can best answer the questions coming at you. Pretty smart, huh?

I can promise. I can guarantee that once you get your ducks in a row with your Color-designed pitches, you will have fun, additional successful closes, and increased raving fans.

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Sales Professionals – Strengths and Weaknesses

admin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:37:20 +0000

Just finished a brief workshop with Arizona Sales Professionals at their monthly meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona.

One of my handouts contained the folllowing brief overview of strengths and weaknesses of sales pros, based on temperament, i.e., on the Colors of Four Windows.

Idealist Blue sales strengths include the personal touch, easy appropachability, and they are great listeners and customer-support people. Weaknesses are they can be less competitive, have trouble saying no, and may not demand a signature when the customer has already agreed to buy.

Guardian Gold sales strengths include being well prepared, willing to do all homework necessary, and are patient with lengthy processing that many customers demand. Weaknesses include too much detail-orientation, over-seriousness, and may wear a customer down with too much information and processing.

Rational Green sales strengths encompass knowing the science behind the product, a willingness to do research for the customer, and the ability to satisfy the most discriminating customers. Weaknesses appear as apparent impatience, a disregard for small talk to the point of seeming cold and distant, and some Greens tend to talk over the customer’s head.

Artisan Orange sales strengths show high marks for negotiation and closing skills, quick tactical thinking, and a drive to compete and win. Weaknesses are Oranges can seem too intensely hard-sell, manipulative, as well as not serious enough or knowledgeable enough.

In the upper righthand corner of this blogsite, you can order and own a complete primer on Four Windows temperament styles. Click on “Buy the Four Colors E-Book”. This life-changing resource book can be saved and read on the computer or printed out for pennies. You will figure people out like never before and communicate with them masterfully. Even better, you will understand yourself more and help others to understand you as well.

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What’s a better focus — peace or harmony?

admin — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 07:17:08 +0000

I got some good comments about blog entry “You Are World Peace.” The point was that we have the opportunity to create peace in all of one’s personal interactions in each moment of each day.

But, if you think about it, peace is the result. Creating harmony is the process. Peace happens. Harmony requires work.

The word harmony is a musical term, and music is probably a best example of the work involved with making harmony. When two musicians improvise together, every note played is the result of a decision every single second to sound harmonic with each other. The result is something wonderful to listen to. If there is no effort harmonize, the result would be far less than wonderful.

I get to play music with lots of people. Sometimes it feels like a lot of work to make a piece sound good; other times, it’s just plain fun. And most of the time the audience members say they are entertained or otherwise moved.

So how different is the real world from making music? It must be a lot different because traps of negative interaction are really easy to fall into. Some people love conflict. A few people claim to love a good fight — and lots of good fights sometimes.

My own Idealist (Blue) personality style loathes conflict of most varieties. When it exists, I choose to either help resolve it or I may opt to run away from it. And even though I understand Blue people are the biggest harmony seekers of all four Colors, I don’t understand why all Colors should not be equally committed to working at creating harmony when life delivers each opportunity to be harmonic.

Harmony-seeking Gold people will achieve peaceful organization all around themselves. Greens will have the resources to peacefully fill their arsenals with knowledge and creativity. Oranges will be peacefully released from society’s vice-principals to be more energetic and free. We Blues will bissfully follow more paths and more readily affect harmonic change everywhere.

A culture of seeking harmony cannot possibly train people to crash jets into skyscrapers. A nation’s Congress would not become selfish and ineffective by wallowing in immovable partisanship. Bosses and parents would not micromanage the people who must obey them. Couples would look for strengths behind annoyances. We would all learn to choose our words actions better.

Harmony is the work, the process. Peace is the result.

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