Truth about True Colors

As the Campus Recreation True Colors© representative, I am proud to report that the True Colors training has been included in the student staff training agenda for the last three years. I have witnessed our staff progress from only knowing their dominant color, to learning their entire color spectrum, and now being able to recall specific traits associated with each color. Staff members speak with confidence about the truths associated with their respective color spectrums.

To illustrate this point, I asked three staff members for their perspective on True Colors. Do they see the colors alive at work? I asked student employee, Ashford Evans-Brown about how he felt his color spectrum represents his daily actions at work. He stated, “My color spectrum is GOLD, BLUE, GREEN, and ORANGE. My gold helps me manage the multiple lists of tasks that I have working in the marketing department. My blue is evident as I work in a team environment. I care about my colleagues and how we get things accomplished. My green is realized when I receive my daily task list and go get the work done via multiple electronic and print mediums. My orange is evident especially during crunch times when I have to simply “get things done”.

The same question was posed to Gabriela Martinez, who has been employed with Campus Recreation in the informal recreation program area for just over a year. She stated that, “My color spectrum is GOLD, GREEN, ORANGE, and BLUE. My gold provides me with routine and consistency that I like at work, my green provides me with the ability to understand and seek the explanations that I feel I need, my blue is my emotional side which tends to be often when stressed, my final color of orange is true because I am not a very outgoing person”.

The same question was posed to a colleague, Andrew Chadick, assistant director for intramural sports. He responded with the following, “My spectrum is GOLD, GREEN, ORANGE, and BLUE. I feel that my color spectrum is fundamentally in line with the associated characteristics. I am very gold and it shows in how I organize and coordinate the intramural sports program. My green is evident in my knowledge and research of various sports rules. My orange is evident in my ability to manage multiple sport activity and student staff in multiple locations. Blue is my least dominant color and I find that I am not an emotional person at work”.

I am pleased that the students are knowledgeable and able to articulate characteristics associated with their True Colors spectrums. I attribute this to our training facilitated prior to each first day of classes. Students and professional staff have dots placed on their name tags to display their True Colors spectrums to other employees. It has a continued presence throughout the year.

Campus Recreation student staff members are encouraged to review and incorporate characteristics associated with each color to better communicate and understand each other. Use of True Colors has established a common language for understanding and to provide customer service to all those we serve.

How would you describe your truths about True Colors?

Tony Daniels
Associate Director
Campus Recreation

True Colors Training Schedule for STAFF (SD 410) ---- FALL 2013
Training Schedule for FALL 2013 ----- see attached schedule

True Colors Training Schedule for Student Affairs STUDENT employees (SD 417) -- FALL 2013
Training Schedule for FALL 2013 ----- see attached schedule

Any questions or comments? Please send us an email at VPSA@utsa.edu.