You might choose to learn a new skill, change your career, or even start a business. Taking a C-me Colour Profile personality test will help you to identify your strengths and guide you on what could be next.

C-me Colour Profiles are a psychometric test based on behaviours rather than personality. Understanding your behaviours and your ‘preferred ways of doing things’ is a vital component towards better self-understanding. The profiles are quick to generate and highly accurate. They are also simple, visual, and focus on application, meaning they serve as a powerful ongoing coaching resource.

Starting a business at 50 or considering a career change can easily become about what you will do, instead of first understanding who you are, especially if you’ve been moving at a fast pace in your career for a long time. Slowing down to reflect could be the all-important step to making the right decision about what’s next.

Learning a New Skill

Skills are often categorised as ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ skills, with the former being things such as computer literacy, business analysis, UX design and technical skills and the latter being creativity, emotional intelligence, collaboration, conflict management, listening skills. Both are as important in life and in the workplace as each other.

Upskilling is when an employee learns additional skills to be better equipped to do their job. It is different to reskilling, where the focus is learning entirely new skills that do not always relate to a previous skill set.

Embracing upskilling requires capacity for mental growth and a hunger to continue professional development.

C-me Colour profiles support the upskilling process. The focus on behaviour enables a person to think about how their preferred way of doing things impacts how they approach their work and what impact (positive and less positive) this can have on others.

Each section of the report provides an opportunity to reflect on a series of statements (blue statements at the top of each page) and then relate these preferences to the behaviours of others (colourful diagram at the bottom of each page). This means personal skills can be reflected upon in the context of other people, as well as yourself.

In addition, the Blind Spots, Handling Setbacks and Role Agility sections of the High Performance profile are a great resource to help you think through opportunities to upskill. This will often involve developing a greater behavioural range, enabling you to flex into behaviours that are perhaps less familiar, but are necessary when working with other people.

A New Career Over 50

Finding meaningful and fulfilling work is important on so many levels. A typical person might work 90,000 hours in their life – equivalent to 13 years and two months. Career changes can play a vital role in helping keep people stimulated and contributing their very best. This can involve a small sideways move (perhaps taking on additional responsibility or a different role within the same organisation), or a more dramatic change to a different industry altogether.

The prospect of a large or small career change can feel pretty daunting, especially in today’s difficult economic climate. This can compound the struggles that many dissatisfied workers face of wanting to make a move but lacking the clarity or courage to take that first step.

Moving careers is far more common today than it was even a generation ago. The backdrop to this is the general trend in upward mobility and the increased opportunities that technology is presenting. Employees are also increasingly demanding fairer arrangements in terms of working conditions, flexibility, and benefits. A career change is no longer the ‘big thing’ that it once was.

Recruiters are increasingly using C-me’s profiling tool to help sift through final-stage candidates, helping advise employers on the person who is the best fit behaviourally to the specific work culture and role requirements.

That means you can use a C-me profile to reflect on your behavioural preferences. Job searchers will be able to present themselves more accurately and paint a fuller picture to a potential employer if they are more self-aware, and will be in a better position during interview to work out if the employer is right for them – not just the other way around.

The colours used in C-me’s profiling do not map neatly onto particular jobs, but certain patterns do emerge in particular industries. More technical production and engineering organisations tend to have a predominance of the Blue Colour Preference (logic, process, detail, rigour). Educational organisations tend to have a greater predominance of Green Colour Preference (relational, values-driven, supportive, collegiate). Start-ups tend to have more Yellow and Red Colour Preferences (determination, drive, innovation, risk-taking).

Knowing your colour preference can help you to understand your potential contribution to a particular organisation, and predict some of the inevitable frustrations you might face.

Starting a Business at 50

The skills you will need to start your business will largely depend on the type of company you want to launch, but creativity and a degree of risk-taking, for example, are behaviours common to most new business owners. But starting a new business doesn’t mean you have to possess all the skills needed yourself.

The beauty of teams is that each person brings a different contribution with the output being greater than the sum of its parts. Certain roles can also be outsourced, while other roles can be filled by paid positions as the business grows. Knowing oneself better is vital for identifying blind spots and any gaps that other people can fill.

C-me’s psychometric tests provide a profile that can be used as a mirror to encourage deeper self-reflection. Most users declare an 85% or greater resonance, meaning the generated statements are accurate and meaningful. Reading the profiles with a trusted friend provides an opportunity to really root out possible blind spots and help you make your decision about starting your business, or pursuing a new career.