Why I Got Certified in Color Code (And What I Wish I Had Known as a Sales Manager)

When I was the Sales Manager at KKCO, I thought I had the team meeting thing figured out.

Clear agendas. Structured 1:1s. Preparation.

And honestly, a lot of it worked. The systems were right.

The expectations were clear.

I was doing everything I thought a good manager was supposed to do.

But there was one account executive I could never get through to.

Every week, same conversation.

He was supposed to be cold calling a specific number of people every day and sending me a list of those calls.

He was not doing either.

So every 1:1, we would sit down and I would ask why.

Why did the calls not happen?

Why was the list not sent?

And every week, he had an answer that made sense in the moment.

And then the next week, nothing had changed.

I tried being direct.

I tried being encouraging.

I tried explaining the business case.

I tried making the expectation even clearer.

I kept coming at it from a different angle, but I was still coming at it the same way.

My way.

What I did not understand at the time was that I was speaking to his behavior.

Not his motive.

I could tell him what he needed to do.

I could tell him why the company needed him to do it.

But I had no idea how to connect it to why it would matter to him.

And without that, nothing was going to stick.

WHY COLOR CODE

I actually came across Color Code years earlier through a leadership class at one of the local chambers.

I went in not expecting much. I had done personality assessments before. I knew my strengths. I did not think I was going to learn anything I did not already know about myself.

And I did learn something. I learned I was aYellow. Fun and connection. Enthusiasm and relationship energy.

But then I filed it away and moved on.

What I did not do was figure out how to use it.

So there I was, sitting across from that account executive every week, with a tool that could have helped me reach him, and no idea how to apply it.

That is the part that stuck with me when I went deeper into Color Code later. It is not enough to know your own color. The real shift happens when you understand the people across from you and start communicating in a way they can actually hear.

And then they introduced the concept of Driving Core Motive.

Not just how you act.

But why.

That distinction stopped me.

Most assessments tell you what you do. Color Code tells you why you do it. And it turns out that why is the thing that actually drives behavior, shapes communication, and determines what people need to hear before they can really move.

I am aYellow. My Driving Core Motive is fun and connection. I lead with enthusiasm and relationship energy. I move fast, I think out loud, and I bring people along through excitement.

And my account executive? Looking back, I am pretty sure he was a Blue or a White.

Blues need purpose. They need to understand the deeper meaning behind what they are being asked to do. They need to know it matters, not just to the company, but to something bigger. Whites need peace and autonomy. They shut down under pressure. They need space to process, not urgency pushing them forward.

I was bringing energy and accountability to every one of those 1:1s.

And he was probably shutting down before I finished my first sentence.

Not because he did not care.

Because I was not speaking a language he could hear.

I have thought about that account executive a lot since I got certified as a Color Code facilitator.

I think about all the managers and leaders who are having the same conversation every week with someone on their team and cannot figure out why nothing is changing.

I think about all the nonprofit executive directors trying to align a board and a staff that seem to be operating from completely different playbooks.

I think about all the teams doing meaningful work who are losing energy to miscommunication that nobody has the language to name yet.

That is why I got certified.

Not because I have it all figured out.

But because I wish I had this framework sitting across from that account executive, trying the same explanation for the fourth time.

If I had understood his motive, I think I could have reached him.

I think we both would have been less frustrated.

I think the outcome might have been different.

Color Code does not fix everything.

But it gives you language for something most teams are experiencing and nobody is talking about.

And sometimes, that language is exactly what changes everything.

If you are curious about your own Driving Core Motive, you can take the free Color Code assessment here:

Take the Free Assessment: https://www.colorcode.com/coupon/ELoveShare

And if you want to bring Color Code into your team or organization, that is exactly the kind of work I do. Reach out and let's talk about what that could look like.