INsight/ To See Red

Photo by Will Porada on Unsplash

Manila, 9 October 2019 — If you think that Seeing Red is bad, it’s time to take a second look.

Are you giving Red a bad rap? Then you’re not alone. From the seven communication styles that I help leaders with, Red usually calls up the most rejection. It’s the most powerfully individual of all seven leadership styles, where you expect others to adjust to you.

Think about it. Your blood is red. It’s a color that calls up images of individualism, power, vitality, and also of intense happiness, and of luck. When you choose a Red leadership style, you show that people can follow you.

Of course, warlords, gang leaders, bullfighters, and firemen have gone before you in using a Red leadership style. Highly visible, quick, and standing out, this style is both high-risk and potentially high-reward.

In many parts of the world, it’s considered unacceptable to display Red emotions in the form of anger and rage. In fact, it’s the blood accumulating in someone’s face that has brought up the phrase ‘seeing red.’

In today’s world, rejection of a Red communication style now runs deep in many organizations—and that allergy is itself inflicting a high cost of Red avoidance. Like the other six leadership styles, Red has positive and negative aspects and healthy and unhealthy ways of using it. We need to understand the difference and learn how to use Red for positive change.

In Grow3Leaders, our community of leaders, we are sharing experiences on how to use the Red leadership style effectively to bring benefits to yourself and others. In particular, we found three specific characteristics of the Red style that every leader should embrace and build on.

If you want to learn the communication skills that leaders need to connect with the people around them at work, including the Red style, then you’re welcome to consider joining us in Grow3Leaders!

When you join the community, you commit to influencing a change in your workplace (business, organization, or project) together with three colleagues you invite to join you. We call this the Grow3Leaders challenge.

You will form a small team that we call a Collab, because you will work together (Col as in collaborate) and experiment (Lab as in laboratory) with modern ways of influencing positive change in support of a bigger purpose, like sustainability.

When you join, what you will have in common with the other members of the community is a commitment to influence change in your workplace, and to share your on-the-job experiences, challenges, and inspirations as you make the change happen.

If that touches a chord with you, then visit Grow3Leaders to request your invitation to join us, free of charge, and not free of commitment. Our community’s theme for October is how leaders can connect with their audience. Sometimes, the Red leadership style can be the best one for the situation.

Summing up, if you still harbor a rejection against the Red leadership style, do stop and take a second look!