When participants get amber circles with the letter E, it means that they scored in the middle of the scale (not too high or too low - between 4.0 - 7.0).
If a participant gets many amber circles, it is important to go back to the corresponding benchmark graph and check the positioning of the results. Are they in band 1 or 2? Or perhaps band 3 or 4?
If the scores are in band 1 or 2, the best way to debrief the amber scores is to say that the person has most of the items above the 50th percentile, so they are closer to the green than to the red. If the scores are in band 3 or 4, it means that the items have been scored closer to the lower part of the scale so they may be closer to the red (rather than to the green).
Saying this gives the client a better idea of the meaning of the items. Even if the scores are not red, if when compared with the benchmark results, you find that they are in the lower bands, you may want to put a plan of action to tackle some of these.
In the same way, if the person scores are in band 1 and they have many amber circles, then it would mean that those scores are not as low as they think. The explanation to give the client would be that perhaps one or two raters could have given them scores of 5 or 6 and that would be sufficient to go from green to amber. Remember that green only appears when the median of most raters provides a score of 7.1 and above.
This does not mean that having so many amber circles is a bad result. It simply means that perhaps certain rater groups can see some of these abilities with more clarity due to frequent interaction. These differences can be observed by looking at the percentages in the rater breakdown bars.
At times, clients get surprised by looking at these differences in perception that exist between family and people at work, friends and direct reports or manager and other groups.
Helping the client notice this will encourage reflection and perhaps a conversation between the client and his/her raters to deepen the understanding of their behaviours around the various groups.