Alexander HoMe

What kind of blue colored pencil are you?

By Vjekoslava Pavičić, Chief Communications Planner

I was recently at a big business conference when I overheard a conversation between two people waiting in line at the concession stand. One guy says: “I’ll copy you on that important email to the client.” And the other one said “Only involve me if you think it’s absolutely necessary. I don’t want to be a blue colored pencil.”

Now this was an interesting turn of phrase. He was using the term “blue pencil” as a metaphor. In this case, he meant, he didn’t want to make any unnecessary marks on the situation. But because I’m a language nerd, I realized that the term “blue colored pencil” could also mean something very different. Sometimes the term is used by leadership to mean the most well worn and experienced person in a group: the colored pencil everyone needs most.

That got me to thinking: What kind of colored pencil am I?

Am I the kind of colored pencil that marks up the walls or signs documents when the only other option is a pen?

Or, am I the kind of colored pencil that people use to color the sky—the biggest part of a picture. The pencil that people use, and sharpen, and use again. The reliable blue. Always ready.

Since that day at the concession stand, I have done my best to live each day as the blue colored pencil that people trust. Not the one that gets ground into the carpet and makes a big mess, but the the one who—through guidance and support—helps the team move forward.