Speaking in Colour: Behavioural Intelligence in Consulting
Three practical ways to maximise your impact through personality insights
There are numerous behaviour and personality profiling tools available to businesses: MBTI, DISC, and Big Five to name a few. At Honeycomb Consulting Skills Training, Insights Discovery has become a key tool in our training sessions, particularly with senior professionals in leadership, management, and business development roles. By weaving behavioural insights into technical and skill development programmes, we’ve seen some fascinating results.
We share three practical lessons with you below. But first, a quick overview of the tool we are talking about: Insights Discovery.
What is Insights Discovery?
Insights Discovery is a psychometric tool that identifies behavioural preferences based on four colour energies: Cool Blue (analytical and task-focused), Fiery Red (driven and action-oriented), Earth Green (empathetic and relationship-focused), and Sunshine Yellow (enthusiastic and people-oriented).
The four colour energies can be mapped on a 2x2 grid with introversion—extroversion on the x-axis and relation-focused—task-focused on the y axis:
This is clearly an over-simplification of the complexity of human nature. In fact, only about 5% of the population have a single dominant colour energy. Most have two, or even three. There is also significant variation in the intensity of each colour energy for any individual. If you complete the full Insights Discovery assessment, the colour profile you are given will be one of 72 possibilities.
Despite this, one of the reasons we enjoy working with colours is its simplicity. People tend to grasp the concept quickly and understand the key differences between the types. Most will embrace the idea of being ‘Yellow-Red’ or ‘Blue’, for example, and are interested to explore what that means for them.
If you don’t know your own colour profile, perhaps these characteristic words will give you an indication of where you are likely to sit:
Understanding your behavioural preferences isn't just about self-awareness—it's a key to improving how you work, lead, and deliver value to clients.
So, how should you use this information?
1. Play to Your Natural Strengths
Your dominant colour energies can be powerful allies in your consulting work when channelled effectively. For example, those with strong Cool Blue tendencies often excel in analytical project management, bringing rigour and precision to complex engagements. Meanwhile, consultants with strong Sunshine Yellow energy might create their greatest impact through client interaction and motivating their team.
This understanding can reshape how you allocate your time as a project leader, flexing according to your natural strengths. The Gallup Clifton Strengths assessment is a decent option for those wanting to delve further into identifying their unique strengths. It provides detailed analysis of your top strengths, working on the premise that you have more to gain by maximising your strengths than focusing on your weaknesses.
When we're able to put most of our energy into developing our natural talents, extraordinary room for growth exists. So, a revision to the "You-can-be-anything-you-want-to-be" maxim might be more accurate: You cannot be anything you want to be—but you can be a lot more of who you already are.
(Tom Rath, Strengths Finder 2.0)
2. Value Your Opposite Energies
Some colours get on better together than others. People with the same colour energy as you ‘speak your language’ and you’ll tend to get on easily. Reds and Yellows are a natural combination, sharing the tendency to be outgoing and action-oriented. Blues and Greens are also a natural combination with their calm and considered approach to things. Blue and Red can complement each other, acting as a brake and accelerator with the shared focus on task. Green and Yellow are generally happy in each other’s company, a listener and talker. It’s the diagonal opposites which most often experience friction, and time spent with our diagonal opposite can cause us to become frustrated and dismissive.
Our MD, Colin, shares his perspective as a Blue:
I've certainly undervalued at times the work being done by Yellows who, in my view, over-index on time spent having friendly discussions with people rather than getting on with the work. Experience has taught me that relationship-building isn't peripheral to the work—it is the work.
Our Marketing Director, Jo, shares her perspective as a Yellow:
I’ve often found myself bored and frustrated by introspective, analytical types (Blues). I feel they spend too much time collecting data and navel gazing, rather than taking action and doing something impactful. Although, I’ve made enough rash decisions in life now to know there is value in taking more time to consider things.
It’s interesting to note how both feel the other type is ‘not getting on with the important work’. They perhaps just hold a different opinion of what is important.
Once we recognise these behavioural tendencies in ourselves, the value of our opposite becomes clear - they are our balancer. This should give you something to think about this when you are recruiting your team. Appointing in your likeness is common, but ill-advised.
3. Develop Your Range
While understanding and playing to our natural strengths is important, the most effective consultants develop the ability to adapt their style across all colour energies. This isn't about being inauthentic—it's about consciously accessing different aspects of your behavioural repertoire to maximise your impact.
This adaptability is particularly valuable in building trust with clients. By recognising and adapting to their preferred communication styles, you are making the effort to ‘speak their language’. And in doing so, you demonstrate low self-orientation—a crucial element in trust-building.
Here's what this might look like in practice:
Channel Cool Blue's meticulous preparation before crucial client meetings, ensuring all analysis is thorough and documentation is precise
Draw on Fiery Red's confidence and outcome-focus when driving team performance or needing to make quick decisions under pressure
Tap into Earth Green's sincerity and reflection when relationship-building is key, taking time to truly understand others' perspectives
Access Sunshine Yellow's warmth and energy when needing to inspire and motivate others or find new ways to think about something.
The key is to develop this range while remaining authentic to yourself. It's not about dramatically changing who you are, but rather about consciously accessing different aspects of your personality as situations demand. This ability to flex your style while maintaining authenticity is something that distinguishes truly exceptional consultants.
If you are interested in discussing how psychometric or personality profiling could advance your business, and the training we can offer to support it, please get in touch.
If you want an accessible and informative exploration of the four colour energies, this book is a great option:
Surrounded by Idiots: The Four Types of Human Behaviour (or, How to Understand Those Who Cannot Be Understood)
by Thomas Erikson
Do you ever think you're the only one making any sense?
Have you ever tried to reason with your partner with disastrous results?
Do long, rambling answers drive you crazy?
Does your colleague's abrasive manner get your back up?
You are not alone. After a disastrous meeting with a highly successful entrepreneur, who was convinced he was 'surrounded by idiots', communication expert and bestselling author, Thomas Erikson dedicated himself to understanding how people function and why we often struggle to connect with certain types of people.
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Connect with Deri Hughes (Founder & MD) on LinkedIn
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Book a 30-minute intro call with Deri Hughes
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