I don’t talk much about my work, but I do love my job and the people I work with. However, I do feel overwhelmed and stressed fairly often, but I’m trying to work through that, and really it’s about better managing my time and projects while juggling single motherhood. I’ll get there!

I recently attended a 2-day team building session for which we needed to answer two questionnaires in advance. One of them was a Lumina Spark personality test. We got the results for that during our 2-day session. The funny thing was that before we received our results – a full on document – the facilitator asked us what is it that we want to take away from this session. I said that I would like to learn something new about myself.

YES… I guess I’m one of those weird people that believes that the only thing constant is change! 😀 I’m open to learning and personal growth, and it’s something I welcome and seek. I want to strive to be a better person, mother, daughter, friend, colleague, boss and maybe one day even someone’s romantic partner (BUT we’re not going to talk about that today, lol).

Well guess what?! I did learn something new about myself.

The Lumina Spark personality test provides you with a breakdown of your dominant colour archetype within 3 different situations! One looks at your Underlying Persona – this one is basically the person you are when you wake up; the person that you are at home. The Everyday Persona is usually who you bring to work, and finally the Overextended Persona is who you become during a stressful situation.

So what did I learn? I learned that my dominant Underlying Persona is the Commanding Arechetype. The colour associated with this one is red.

My dominant Everyday Persona is the Empowering Archetype – the green.

What everyone noticed including my boss was that I was resistant to that idea. For some reason I saw red as bad. I saw being “tough” as bad. Under this Persona my dominant qualities are Take Charge, Tough, Logical and Purposeful. Competitive also falls under that Persona, but that’s one thing I can tell you for sure that I’m not! What I found heartwarming is when my colleagues chimed in and said “but you do Take Charge and you are Tough. Look at your personal situation – a full time career woman and a full time single mom of two. Look at the last two years and what you’ve gone through.”

It was eye opening to keep hearing (throughout this 2-day session) from my colleagues that they do see that Take Charge and Toughness come through from me and not in a negative way. It’s funny, I always see myself as an emotional person, but when I really started looking at how I am at home and everything I need to organize and complete to juggle both my kids and my career, those character traits, those qualities do stick out. They have to stick out for me to survive and be the best person I can be both as a mom to my kids and for work purposes.

Under the Empowering Archetype, which is (at present) my everyday archetype that I bring to work, my dominant qualities are Intimate (not 100% sure what that means, lol), Collaborative, Empathetic and Adaptable. All of which are true.

So what is my conclusion. I’m still very much the Empowering Archetype – I see that in myself and the way I treat my colleagues and customers. I still fully embrace that because it’s authentic to me. However, I think I’m going to embrace the colour red. I’m going to embrace the Commanding Archetype. The colour red does not need to have a negative connotation. Being tough does not have to have a negative meaning attached to it. To me it will mean that I will be/do the following: Strong, Confident, Hold My Ground/My Convictions (but not for the sake of being right, but because I’ve done my due diligence and have data to support that), Emotional Resilient (sometimes that too is needed).  I think that my green Empowering Archetype can really complement/work well with the red Commanding Archetype. I think that I have a fairly calming affect on people and I don’t approach them in a combative stance. I can be personable yet tough. I can be direct yet not threatening. So maybe I can embrace the red in me and maybe it will help me become a better leader to my team, my colleagues, my customers and my suppliers. Clear, direct with no BS, but collaborative and empathetic.

Let me end though by giving you a full picture of the rest of the colours – I’ve shared with you my high Red and Green qualities. My high blue, which is Conscientious Archetype (very process driven) are: Evidence-Based, Observing, Practical and Reliable. My high yellow, which is Inspiring Archetype (very much about the people) are: Sociable, Conceptual, Imaginative and Spontaneous (oh yeah – very much so these past two years, lol).

Now… maybe just maybe I should also buy myself one of those Power Red Dresses?! LOL

I’m going to leave you with this quote that the facilitator put up on the screen by Viktor Frankl who wrote Man’s Search For Meaning: