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1 Million Lives, One Mission: Andy Dowling on Human-Centred Leadership
15 Plays2 days ago
Join us on a high-energy journey with Andy Dowling, CEO of The Colour Works - from closing car deals in Yorkshire to selling Swiss watches on Regent Street and eventually landing in the world of learning and development.
In this lively episode, Andy shares how personality profiling through colour (via Insights Discovery) became the golden thread in unlocking high performance at work. Now a leadership coach and high-performance specialist, Andy and his team are known for being parachuted in to solve business-critical challenges.
With a bold mission to help one million people thrive (he’s already 30% there), Andy unpacks how to adapt, connect and lead with real emotional intelligence. His unique coaching sessions have landed him in the middle of roundabouts in Milton Keynes and even a sky-high impromptu in The Shard.
Expect big takes on leadership, resilience, AI and why trust and love are business essentials, not just buzzwords.
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Transcript
Introduction to Voices with Insights
00:00:01
Speaker
Hello to our Insights community who continue to change lives around the world. My name is Marcus Wiley and welcome to the Voices with Insights podcast. I hope you're feeling colorful to your core today as you join us on a ride of discovery.
00:00:17
Speaker
We will chat with practitioners from across the globe to discover their fascinating untold stories. Whatever you are doing listening to our podcast, let's see if we can uncover an idea or two that will help you to create high-performing teams through awareness of self and others in a powerful and simple way.
Meet Andy Dowling
00:00:34
Speaker
So today I'm here with Mr Andy Dowling from The Colour Works. Hi Andy, how are you today? Very well Marcus, good to see you again. How are you? i am very good actually, very good today. having ah Having a nice month and ah and a good day today, I say very very positive. Hope you are very well.
00:00:51
Speaker
So we are going to hear a little bit of Andy's story and I think to hear your story Andy, we'll maybe start by... hearing a little bit about yourself.
Character Insights Game
00:01:02
Speaker
Now, would you like to play a game with me? I'm always up for a game. Go on. I've got three words. I'd like to distill who you are in three words, right?
00:01:09
Speaker
and um So here's what I'd like you to do. I'd like you to think of the person you you have met in your career to date, who is somebody that you've really gelled with Can you think of somebody like that? You don't need to tell me who they are.
00:01:22
Speaker
Yeah, okay. And if there was one word they would use to describe you, do you think that one word might be? um That person would say motivational, i would say. Motivational, loving it, loving it. Okay, second second round.
00:01:36
Speaker
I want you to think of the person in your career that's been your nemesis, right? Somebody who you've turned off and they've turned you off a little bit. And have you got somebody? Again, you don't need to tell us. Yeah, I've worked with my wife on a couple of occasions. but Okay, well, you might be in the dark room now, so you don't want to go too quick.
00:01:52
Speaker
and so love it So somebody who might be your nemesis, what is one word that they would use to describe you? um I'm not sure it boiled down to one word, but it'd be a pain in the backside.
00:02:03
Speaker
Pain in the backside, okay And then the third round was actually somebody who knows you better than anybody else. You might have selected one person, so it could be the second person that knows you. And what is the one word that they would use to describe you?
00:02:16
Speaker
um I would say calm. Calm. So ladies and gentlemen, today we will hear from a motivational campaign in the arse. I hope you are looking forward to hearing a little bit of Andy's story. And of course, that's just his perception of others' perception of himself. So it's actually his perception of himself.
Andy and The Colour Works
00:02:34
Speaker
Anyway, Andy, tell us a little bit about who you are and tell us about the Colour Works. Brilliant. Well, thank you for that introduction, Marcus. You can edit it out just about those few words.
00:02:45
Speaker
So I'm the chief executive of the Colorworks. I'll probably start with the Colorworks for myself. so we were founded 2003. We, as our name suggests, our founder was inspired by his insights profile.
00:03:00
Speaker
um So color through and through. and we've been an insights partner now fraud for 22 years. I think in that time, the last little look we had at our folder we had over 110,000 profiles in it. Wow. We've worked with quite a few people over the years.
00:03:16
Speaker
I think we've worked with over 300,000 in total, so both insights-related and obviously non-insights-related as well. What do we do? so The Colorworks, primarily, we use insights discovery as a kind of golden thread in what we do so Learning and organizational development, we'll do everything from coaching, whether that's managers, senior leaders, chief execs,
00:03:39
Speaker
We do a lot of leadership development. And as you probably guessed, that's often front loaded with a bit of insights as well. We do organizational consultancy, business consultancy, um SME growth, but we're also high performance specialists. So we work with teams and create pathways and programs to help teams get on better with each other, with clients, maximize opportunities in the workspace and that kind of thing. So we like to think of ourselves as an organization sort of external or extended L&OD department.
00:04:12
Speaker
And we sort of parachuted in to help solve problems, but also realize opportunities in that space.
Andy's Career Journey
00:04:19
Speaker
Me, I've not been on board for 22 years. I joined three years ago.
00:04:23
Speaker
ah in actual fact, Marcus, today is my third year anniversary. Oh, Happy birthday, happy birthday Mr. Colourworks. Thank you very much. So um yeah, 2022 I joined. My background is is quite eclectic. So I've worked in ah the motor trades, which is my first experience server of Insights came.
00:04:42
Speaker
I've sold watches on Regent Street in London. I've had my own IT business. And that's all before I got into the world of of learning and development. So my story sort of starts in that space with a a great big company called Fidelity.
00:04:57
Speaker
um So if anybody's listening in from ah America, very well known over there, but also over here. And I didn't go to university. I went to school, obviously, but failed. But I landed into a, I suppose what you call like a non-graduate graduate scheme at Fidelity, if that makes sense. A non-graduate graduate scheme. Yeah, I know. Got it. Know what you're talking about.
00:05:19
Speaker
but So the idea being is that it kind of mimics a grad scheme and you get rotated around. My first rotation was in learning and development and I just never left. I i sort of exited the program and just stayed there. So yeah, amazing company to work for.
00:05:35
Speaker
And my story after that is just kind of financial services, Aviva, Friends Life, those types of companies. And then little bit public sector work. So I worked at Hampshire Fire.
00:05:47
Speaker
as they combined with the Isle of Wight fire service and we created a talent and and OD function from scratch. And funnily enough, I'd always used insights and my account manager at the color works called me one day and said, so Hey, we're looking for a new chief executive.
00:06:04
Speaker
Are you interested? So that's how I find myself in front of you here today. That's how we got here. That's a great story. And we'll dive into some of that. Hashtag no wrong path, I think, is the of is the hashtag, isn't it? m And so so in terms of the Insights community, ah your your business has a partner role. So we talk about the practitioners who work work in organizations, client practitioners, and then the learners who experience some of the and the purpose and product and then so you're a partner business so you are your own standalone business right correct yeah yeah so we we look after client practitioners we also look after quite a few licensed practitioners as well and then we also have like a group of 25 odd consultants that are spread mostly in europe but also across north america as well to to go out and deliver insights into organizations so
00:06:54
Speaker
yeah We've kind of got the the full gamut of of client type that that you might expect to work with Insights.
First Encounter with Insights Discovery
00:07:00
Speaker
Good. Excellent. Thank you for sharing that. and um yeah You mentioned like one of your earlier or earliest experiences of Insights discovery. i don't know if that was in the motor trade you maybe mentioned. It might have been somewhere else.
00:07:12
Speaker
Can you describe what you did before that and what and what happened when you experienced that and then as you went on this little L&D merry-go-round journey? um how that manifested over the world. Sure. So in the motor trades, I was lucky enough to be sent on a sort of five-day residential course up to Yorkshire one one week.
00:07:29
Speaker
The idea being is that we try and obviously work on our sales skills, sell more cars, that kind of thing. And part of that was doing an insights profile. And it was like being sort of mildly or politely roasted by a Swiss psychologist.
00:07:43
Speaker
um It was both humbling and inspirational in sort of equal parts because i I'm a bit of a cynic at heart. And so reading this profile that I thought would be a horoscope and definitely wasn't was really, really eye-opening.
00:07:56
Speaker
And I utilized it back in the workplace the minute I got back. so I can tell you a bit of a story here, Marcus. um It's probably not best practice. And obviously, 20 years later, coming to terms with maybe I didn't do, please tell us back then. But so, you know, we we looked at kind of color personalities and preferences and how we might sell to those those preferences. So, you know, cool blue being introverted, detail orientated, perhaps needs things in writing.
00:08:29
Speaker
The objective was not to try and close the deal on that day. We'd give the information, we'd float by email, but we'd never try and push somebody into a decision if perhaps they had that color preference or we felt that they maybe have that color preference so yeah we'd often say look i won't contact you please go away have a think about things and please but please do let me know get back to me when you've made a decision earth green we talk about opportunities to use that vehicle with family you know opportunities to um like if it's a better emissions about the environment those kind of things but again
00:09:06
Speaker
never try and push for decision. Fiery Reds was, you know, ahd I'd often sit people in my seat on sort of that side of the desk. um So the screens are facing them.
00:09:17
Speaker
I'd say, go in my bottom drawer, there's some biscuits, help yourself, and they'd be sort of, you know, crumbs everywhere. And I'd sort of say to them, look, you know, I know you're going to beat me up on price.
00:09:28
Speaker
just tell me what you want to pay and let's have a ah chat about Let's, let's, let's, let's dance, which actually is a soft close way of trying to, yeah for sure but knowing that fire red preference may be controlled in that negotiation.
00:09:42
Speaker
and then, you know sunshine, yellow, And this is a little bit of a tongue in cheek comment, but at the end of a test drive, we're coming back to the dealership in the car and we'd say, look, you know, we parked the sold cars over there and they just less said to that. But again, it was about fun opportunities, ideas, how you can use the vehicle.
00:10:00
Speaker
Now I'm oversimplifying. But what I learned from that is is how to try and adapt and connect better with other people and how I can use that kind of that new knowledge to try and build better relationships with people.
00:10:14
Speaker
And it's not just to make sales. It was to build rapport. It was to, you know, negotiations happen in the workplace all the time on different things. So it stood me in good stead, and that first profile.
00:10:26
Speaker
And then when I landed in some of my my early roles, we were already using Insights. So it was just um a lovely kind of segue just to kind of pick it back up and continue. And yeah, who thought I'd be, you know doing it as a job now in terms of being ah an insights partner? And yeah, here here you go. Yeah, I guess the process that we talk about is um having understand understanding ourselves and and understanding other people.
00:10:51
Speaker
How can we adapt ourselves to connect with the person in that in that environment? And I think your story actually does really good justice to how... how As a learner, just applying some of the knowledge and tools in your own environment, how you adapted yourself to connect to deliver the result that was ah was part of the role you played.
00:11:10
Speaker
and And then at some point in time, did you become accredited and become a practitioner or was this at the same time? Yeah, exactly right. So as we were already using Insights, I was lucky enough to get accredited and then started to deliver you know workshops myself. And yeah, you know it became, as I said before, that golden thread and all we did. So the leadership program, induction, recruitment, we used it in all ways. And um yeah, it was a fundamental part of of kind of my toolkit.
00:11:40
Speaker
as a learning professional um and I wouldn't be without it. So, yeah. And did you have along the journey, like you must have applied the methodology in some unique different ways. You might have had a couple of defining moments as a coach or a facilitator. I don't know what are some have been the standout moments over the years where you faced a situation that you've kind of are gone, wow, that was a moment in time.
00:12:03
Speaker
Yeah. I think defining moments, it's probably a bit too early to have them, I would i would think. you know Our mission is to help a million people around the world. um We're about 30% there. So I think those moments will come.
00:12:17
Speaker
you know In terms of unique ways, I mean, i remember doing a beginning of the journey session a roundabout in Milton Keynes. because the room we had was too small and there were a lot of roundabouts in Milton Keynes and, you know, things like that, you know, impromptu sessions after a ah workshop where, you know, I'd run a session for a team and then gone out for drinks perhaps in the evening you know,
00:12:45
Speaker
the rest of that organization just happened to be in the same sort of environment and running a similar session for them at eight o'clock at night, halfway up the shard. aye You know, those kind of things. So ah wouldn't say we use things in ah relatively unique way, but I think we've got very good at identifying the underlying issue that we're trying to solve, the underlying opportunity that we're trying to realise and applying it in
Challenges in People Efficiency
00:13:13
Speaker
that way.
00:13:13
Speaker
Right. And so here you are, you've tracked forward and somebody's been in touch and you're now the the chief exec, right, of a partner business that, you know, started on that shop floor in the motor trade. And then,
00:13:27
Speaker
What a journey in between. What are some of the challenges that you face with your business or with the clients and the businesses that you support? I mean, i think at the moment it's difficult to ignore the the prevalence of AI and efficiencies.
00:13:43
Speaker
So lot of the challenges that we get, the requests that we get for help are about people efficiencies. So how can we help our workforce to work smarter? And in a world, particularly of learning professionals, there's an ever increasing demand on ROI and um results.
00:13:58
Speaker
I think ah a key challenge that we try and help solve is that in that people efficiency space. So whilst insights can be used as a kind of relationship building tool, it can also be used to cut out a lot of noise.
00:14:11
Speaker
So we do quite a bit of work at the moment around communication by email, by Teams and Zoom, where those visual cues, that body language may not be there in quite the same way it was before face-to-face and trying to utilize the learning from insights so that we try and match the shared outcome, but perhaps not the preference, if you see what I mean. So, you know, there's always a halfway house with these things and that's what we try and you know, preach in these sessions.
00:14:41
Speaker
But I think at the moment, a lot of requests we get are people are agonizing over slightly more difficult emails for half an hour. How can you help our workforce be more efficient?
00:14:52
Speaker
And I say that that's definitely a key challenge. The others that we we typically get are are almost the opposite of that, really. And it's a bit, yeah, a bit of the antitheses of it. So resilience and well-being.
00:15:04
Speaker
Work smarter, brackets work harder, but also how can we help our workforce build resilience um and look after themselves? So we talk about mental fitness as much as physical fitness.
00:15:17
Speaker
And we have a lot of um tools and techniques that we can share. But again, you know it's often pre-loaded with resources. a bit of how stress shows up in preference perhaps.
00:15:29
Speaker
Right. Help that common language. So there's part a part of the process that starts with self-awareness and then raising that individual awareness and collective awareness and then moving to the specific topic or subject to find some resolutions.
00:15:43
Speaker
Definitely. I think certainly the way in for us normally is is through that self-awareness um and then team effectiveness lens. and Then we look at, as I say, on how stress may might turn up and how we could help those organizations um build resilience, look after themselves better,
00:16:03
Speaker
um but that isn't to say that the the oldies don't still come up you know it's it's dysfunctional teams it's teams not getting on it's yeah leaders who struggle to flex those and often the kind of problem statements that we hear that when a client picks up the phone to us or emails us to say look can you help so yeah and then tell me a little bit and about your own personal journey so um ah You referenced you know somebody who knows you very well and how they might perceive you. so how how what have you learned about yourself
00:16:37
Speaker
What's your color mix been over the years and how has that transitioned and moved as you've stepped through different phases of your life? Yeah. So the first time I ever took at Insights Discovery Profile, I had really high yellow, pretty high ah fire red, some earth green, and a very little amount of cool blue.
00:16:57
Speaker
That hasn't changed as far as the cool blue goes, unfortunately. my My red now exceeds my yellow, but I would say that, you know, The things I've learned is that i'm I'm not particularly good at juggling lots of things.
00:17:10
Speaker
And that organizational ah or self-organization perhaps isn't a strong point of mine. So you know if you haven't got a muscle to flex or build, sometimes better to buy one in.
00:17:23
Speaker
So I try and you know utilize other tools to help me with that these days. But that's the journey of self-awareness, isn't it? you know If you haven't got it, don't try and build it. I think over the years and going into different roles with different challenges and I think particularly with different timelines and a lot of learning professionals will probably hear this and it will resonate with them where, you know, learning had to happen yesterday and we've got to get this program out. And I think that my fiery red particularly comes from those environments where having to build something at short notice,
00:17:59
Speaker
with you know fairly sort of limited budget, but no a job has to be done. And I think that's where my my shift has happened over the years and how my profile kind of
Company Mission and Values
00:18:10
Speaker
evolved.
00:18:10
Speaker
Running a small business, My Earth Green definitely has crept above the line now, um which is for the first time. And I think it's that sort of emotive bit of you know coming from the corporate world where there's a lot of people and you build a lot of connections with with people, perhaps they're not quite as as deep connections as you build perhaps in a smaller business.
00:18:33
Speaker
And so I find that perhaps My Earth Green has led to that kind of, um that shift as well. Right. And have you put some of the and positional literature in for your business around a purpose statement, a mission statement, sets of values, and how, like how are you, how as a CEO of a partnering business,
00:18:54
Speaker
how How are you how you building and creating your identity, building on the past about your forefathers that have gone to this place? Yeah. So we did a lot of work on purpose, values, mission, that sort of thing.
00:19:08
Speaker
And then we threw it all in the bin because we ended up with the same values and the same sort of mission that you tend to hear you know, in in the corporate world, you know, challenging being a value and inspirational being a value or whatever it might have been.
00:19:22
Speaker
And we went back to first principle. So our mission today is to make work in the world better for a million people. And that's effectively kind of it in a short sentence. And our values are trust and love.
00:19:34
Speaker
The first time I met our founder, that was how the business was positioned to me. And I think that, you know, although we work with our consultant team that's out and about and delivering and workshops and programs and interventions for us, that's ah assume more who we are and what we stand for.
00:19:50
Speaker
You know, my my view on trust is that you start off with a 100% trust and it's there to lose. I don't think we're one of these, you've got to earn trust um from each other and build it.
00:20:04
Speaker
And the love bit definitely sounds a little bit woo-woo, but it's it's it's a part of who we are because ah we love what we do, B, we we try and build these deep connections, not only with each other um within our organization, but also with our ah clients. you know We don't typically look for a one-off intervention.
00:20:25
Speaker
We care deeply about the people we work with and the challenges that they face, and we want to be there their external partner as well. So that's that's our kind of our North Star at the moment.
00:20:36
Speaker
um Yeah, it's it's a bit different, but I think it represents who we are particularly well. it great I just love it, right? The trust and love. i mean, I often think sometimes you said a little bit woo-woo, but I mean...
00:20:50
Speaker
if you love what you do, right, and you're passionate as your passion is flowing and you're being passionate and you're working with other people who love what they do, it's so different to working in environments where people hate what they do, you know, or really don't like what they do or kind of just do it.
00:21:05
Speaker
So I kind of think that's often a differential to say, it's not necessarily that love is woo-woo but like where people are not are not liking or loving what they do and they're hating it then the environment is not so inspirational fair yeah i definitely think so but i also think that you know i'm as guilty of this as anybody else when when you work in certain work of environments or when you work within certain organizations you kind of have this corporate mask on don't you you're not really your authentic self right I think insights is a great way and mechanism and tool and to to kind of take some of that away through self-awareness and through how we show up.
00:21:39
Speaker
So there's also that level of kind of authenticity and transparency that we don't typically often bring you know our full selves to work. So that's that value for us was really important. You know, we love what we do, but we're not afraid of of saying that word. and And we do care deeply about people. You know, it's the old cliche saying, I could give you 100 of them right now, but we're on the planet once, you know, let let's, let's have fun. Let's work with people that we enjoy working with. And yeah, let's build some real connections.
00:22:12
Speaker
It sounds like you've really tapped into the roots of your ah of the founder of of the business that you are now taking a lead on. And so I guess finally, Andy, I mean, you've you've had this you've had this journey through learning and development in different industries, different
Advice for Learning Professionals
00:22:28
Speaker
environments. and and Are there any key pieces of advice you might offer to any learning and development professionals out there that could be listening in to us today?
00:22:37
Speaker
I'm not sure my advice is is good advice. and We'll take it anyway, though, you know. I suppose if I could coach my younger self, I'd probably say to stay curious. I think at the times where, particularly in in in my previous roles, again, you know high pace, lots of things going on high demand and return investment,
00:23:00
Speaker
And, you know, hopefully practitioners and partners, this resonates with because we we do do a difficult job with high stakes, but we're also human nature is is about finding solutions. And sometimes we're too quick to go to solution.
00:23:15
Speaker
So if I was to coach my younger self, I'd say definitely stay curious, make sure that you understand the real issue. a lot of what we do is it's consultative, right?
00:23:26
Speaker
So we'll get an inquiry that comes in from a client and it might say, um this day, this many people at this location, please could you run an insight session? Okay, great. But let's have a chat and let's find out really and truly what's driving this.
00:23:40
Speaker
It's not just part of an away day. There's something to understand so that we can do a better job. So staying curious for me so we can try and unpick that slightly is really important.
00:23:51
Speaker
Other things I'd say, so this is this is cooking related. I mean, you know you've met me, Marcus. Cooking's a big part of my life. But Marco Pierre White has a phrase, which was, I think it's, we live in an age of refinement and not invention.
00:24:05
Speaker
and keeping things simple and using know what's already out there. the The classics are still valid today. You know, if we were to take a group of new leaders through a program, change would be really important.
00:24:24
Speaker
Resilience and well-being. There's no point in trying to reinventing the wheel. Although there's lots of things happening in the world of L&D and new things coming out, keeping things simple is is really important.
00:24:34
Speaker
And the only other thing I'd say, because I think what we do is it's quite powerful as as learning professionals. You know, we... we can build quite core relationships with the people we work with, where perhaps their manager is the only other person that gets to play in the space that we play, you know, in terms of development.
00:24:55
Speaker
And we hold that space for them. So, you know, you ah ah fully believe that people own their own development and we're not responsible for their development, but we hold that space to give them fantastic learning experiences,
00:25:10
Speaker
memorable things that will help them go from where they are now to what they might be in the future, their their potential. And I suppose, you know, when times are tough and it's busy and we're getting lot of heat from, you know, internal clients, external clients, whoever it might be, what we do is quite special.
00:25:29
Speaker
So i think just grounding ourselves in that, remembering that we're quite privileged to to have that time with with everyone that we work with. So, yeah, but that's the kind of things I'd say to my younger self, if I could. Fantastic. Well, thank you, Andy. It has been a pleasure to be in the conversation with you, ah hearing your recipes and how you're cooking up things in your part of the world and sharing some of those recipes with us.
00:25:54
Speaker
I think some of the ingredients you've demonstrated have been calm and motivational. I won't mention anything beyond that. Perhaps you've been purposeful and dare I say insightful. So thank you very much for your time, Andy. It's a pleasure. Thanks for having me on. I really appreciate it.
00:26:10
Speaker
Good. And thank you to everybody for listening in today.
00:26:16
Speaker
Well, that was a truly fantastic story we shared together today. i love the fact that our community of practitioners makes such a huge difference across the globe. That's all for today, folks. Thank you for listening to our Voices with Insights podcast.
00:26:29
Speaker
Look out for the next story in our series.