Becoming a Licensed Practitioner
I started my journey with Insights Discovery back in 2009. I was already an HR and NLP Practitioner, accredited coach and TAP certified trainer and was fortunate enough to be sponsored by my employer to become an accredited Insights Discovery Practitioner.
The Insights accreditation workshop which must be completed in order for an individual to be licensed to facilitate and coach others was delivered over 4 days.
As part of the accreditation, you were required to complete the online evaluator which resulted in a highly personalised 40-page profile.
Insights – the best psychometric test on the market
As someone with a good previous knowledge of psychometric tests and having been trained to facilitate using alternative personality tools, I thought I had a high level of personal awareness in this area already. I was therefore, expecting a similar level of report which have only ever contained generic statements, bullet pointed lists and a few visual illustrations.
What surprised me about my Insights Discovery profile was the high level of accuracy and how poignant the statements were to me. When reading the overview pages which detail personal style, interacting with others and decision making I was struck by the depth and detail of the findings and how easily I could relate these to my known observable behaviours.
My Colour Energy results
It came as no surprise to me that I have a strong preference for Sunshine Yellow energy followed by Fiery Red, Earth Green and Cool Blue. This combination of colour energies results in my preference type being a Motivating Inspirer.
The graph below illustrates how I preference the 4 colour energies with those being most easily accessible appearing above the midpoint 3 line.
What this means
I liken accessing the 4 colour energies to retrieving buckets of water from 4 different coloured energy wells. The higher the water line, the easier it is for me to access. I would barely need to move the handle to wind the bucket to retrieve Sunshine Yellow energy. It would be effortless and would take no time at all. However, the well containing Cool Blue energy would be a slightly different experience. The handle to wind down the bucket would need to be extended fully to the bottom of the well and then wound back up. This would take more time and expend much more of my energy.
The message we take from this analogy, is that although we may have a preference for one or more colour energies, we do and will need to access all 4 colour energies depending on the situation and the people we are with. I also discovered that I’m similar in both my conscious and less conscious personas. I am simply myself in both but with the volume turned up slightly.
An incredibly valuable tool for communications
One ‘aha!’ moment I had shortly after I received my profile was an increased awareness that my then Line Manager was the polar opposite to my colour energy preferences. Having experienced tension and differences of opinion in how we worked, which was very demotivating and disengaging for me, I was able to view these challenges with a fresh and more proactive perspective.
It wasn’t until I returned to work and my Line Manager received an Insights profile that we were able to have an open conversation about how we were interacting. We openly shared our strengths, potential weaknesses and differences in work styles. With us both having profiles we were able to understand and appreciate our differences and develop new ways in which to play to strengths and create a more positive working environment.
In my experience in utilising these types of personal development profiles, Insights is the best in providing the firm foundations from which to have both individual and team development conversations and effectiveness workshops.
