Colour for Business

Everyone wants to be taken seriously; what do you want people to hear about who you are and what you stand for? How do you lead the way in your business and set the standards? Can the same expectations be applied to the way you and your team present themselves? A powerful way to create a more interesting appearance and thus look more interesting is to introduce colour, appropriately. This week’s guest blogger, Jackie Perkins from House of Colour reflects on the use of colour in business

The House of Colour annual conference is a delight. Heads turn when we walk past and it always makes me smile. Over 70 people, mostly women, all looking professional, confident, happy, energised and well presented - we are In Focus, when people talk to us about what we do, it’s clear that we know what we’re talking about, we have credibility because we ‘walk the talk’; a perfect illustration of what is possible through using House of Colour services – creating empowered, authentic and visible people.

How is this achieved? There are some basic applications of colour you can apply but through our core Colour training and additional House of Colour in Business material, you learn how to use and adapt colours to create impact and authority to the level of your choosing.

Simon Sinek said “Communication is not about speaking what we think. Communication is about ensuring others hear what we mean.” For clarity and to enable you to use your colour analysis effectively, House of Colour use the tried and tested system of splitting the colour wheel into four quarters called seasons; Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Each season represents a quarter of all the colours in the universe, so to further aid everyone, we identified 36 colours which represent the various points and extremes on the continuum of each season.

Evaluating these 36 colours against your unique skin tone and colouring, enables us to identify more precisely which are your best, most complementary and flattering colours in the spectrum. Some colours clearly work best as foundations, others as a big block, some next to your face and others provide amazing accents to punctuate and define your outfit. This is your ‘colour rating’. What works best for us in our everyday lives doesn’t always serve us so powerfully in a business environment and vice versa. At our annual conference we ran a team session on Business Ratings as used in HOC in Business; en masse like this, certain trends emerge. Generally, although not exclusively, using your colours powerfully in business is about using your neutrals – those colours positioned in the centre of our colour wheel - more powerfully.

And of course, all those shades that live in the gaps on the continuum between these colours. Punctuating these with stunning colours is like accessorising and accenting anything. Done well, it enhances and empowers the image (you).

So, in order to use your colours in business to greatest effect combine your best neutrals with your impact or accent colours and balance them appropriately – do you turn heads? What would be available to you and your business if you did?

Jackie Perkins has been working with Colour and Style since 1994, empowering people through leadership and personal development since 1996, as an Image Consultant with House of Colour Ltd (est 1985) since 2002 and as a Director since 2008. HOC leads a network of over 150 Personal Brand and Image consultants, empowering through Colour and Style to create empowered, authentic and visible people.

W: www.houseofcolour.co.uk
LinkedIn: jackieperkins
Twitter: @JackieP