In today’s workplace, team dynamics and self-awareness are no longer nice to have, they're essential. And with so many personality and strengths-based tools out there, the question I hear from leaders is:

“Which one should we use for our team?”

The answer?

It depends on your goals, your people, and how deep you want to go.

In this newsletter, I’m offering a high-level comparison of the most commonly used instruments I see in leadership and team development spaces. Some are more tactical. Others are more transformational. All have their place—if you use them with intention. And, I’ll share my observations and insights from experiencing them personally and when working with clients. 

🔎 A Look at the Most Common Tools

Let’s walk through some of the most widely used instruments I see in leadership and team development work:

StrengthsFinder (now CliftonStrengths) is a great entry point for identifying what people do best. It gives teams a shared language around talents and can boost confidence and collaboration quickly.

Myers-Briggs (MBTI) helps reveal individual preferences, especially around how we take in information, make decisions, and interact with others. It’s especially useful for understanding communication differences and work style friction.

DiSC focuses on behavior and how we respond under pressure. It’s often used in sales, leadership, and communication training because it’s simple, practical, and easy to remember.

True Colors focuses on temperament and how people naturally think, feel, and interact with others. It’s often used in education, team-building, and personal development because it’s engaging, easy to understand, and helps groups connect through a shared, color-coded language.

Kolbe digs into how people take action naturally. It’s great for teams trying to align roles or workflows, because it sheds light on instinctive approaches to problem-solving and execution. It can also be helpful in hiring to determine how two people’s styles will work together.

Predictive Index is a data-heavy tool often used in hiring processes, team design, and executive decision-making. It offers analytics and organizational insights that support talent alignment.

The Enneagram goes deeper—beyond behavior to motivation. It’s not about what you do, but why you do it. This tool is powerful for emotional intelligence, inner work, and navigating team dynamics consciously and with more empathy.

Leadership Circle focuses on the inner and outer dynamics of leadership by combining competency-based feedback with deep self-awareness. It’s often used in executive coaching and leadership development because it reveals both creative strengths and reactive tendencies, helping leaders grow from the inside out with clear, actionable insight.

Human Design offers a more holistic, intuitive framework that blends personality, energy, and decision-making that is very specific to each individual. It may be most helpful when people are ready to understand their energetic make-up and their life purpose on a soul level. Many corporate spaces have not yet embraced this level of authenticity quite yet. Human Design requires your birth date, birth time, and location. 

🌀 So Which One Should You Choose?

Here’s what I ask my clients first: “What do you actually want to learn about your team?”

• If you're looking for quick wins or confidence-building, StrengthsFinder or DiSC might be a great place to start.
• If you're navigating complex personalities or communication issues, MBTI or the Enneagram might serve you better.
• If your focus is hiring or role alignment, Predictive Index or Kolbe are designed with that in mind.
• If you're in a season of deeper reflection, Human Design might resonate more than you expect, particularly at key transitions points. 

The best tool is the one that matches your intentions and desired outcomes for yourself and for your team.

Some observations and insights from experience working with these instruments:

• While a strengths-based approach can work for some teams, in my experience this does not help people address their blind spots. I have watched leaders use StrengthsFinder to double down on their strengths where a more balanced approach may have brought less tension and more flexibility to the team. Not addressing blind spots is missing a major area that can foster unnecessary drama in organizations.
• Myers-Briggs can alter over time for people close to the middle. I tested one way when I was just out of college and a different way a few years later. It wasn’t consistent for me personally, so I do not prefer to use it with teams. 
• While DiSC can be great for a 1 day workshop, it is primarily used for communication styles and doesn’t get at underlying motivations in the same way that the Enneagram goes deeper.
• I tried Kolbe when I was considering hiring my first employee as a solopreneur. One indicator that was very helpful was “Quick Start.” I am high on “Quick Start,” so I would need someone even higher than me on this aspect because otherwise I would tend to jump into do a task myself if my assistant wasn’t on it first. 
• While the Leadership Circle provides a powerful 360 degree view, its reliance on getting 360 feedback within a large team can be time-consuming to fill out for all team members.
• Human Design can be really illuminating. I didn’t discover it until right around when I was turning 50 and it was the perfect timing to integrate it. I have been following Dr. Karen Curry Parker who created Quantum Human Design, and I prefer her assessment and video-based explanations of the chart. She has quite a library on YouTube and offers many ways to learn about your human design.

❤️ Why I Lean Into the Enneagram

Having tried all of these tools throughout my work with teams, I have to say that the Enneagram is my go-to when teams are ready to go deeper—beyond surface-level strengths into meaningful transformation. The advantage of the Enneagram is that it gets at underlying motivations and not just behaviors. It’s like a 3D MRI that goes deep into unconscious patterns that are hard to see, name, and address in other ways. It helps leaders understand their triggers, recognize their blind spots, and lead from a place of alignment, not unconscious reaction.

There are various ways to discover your Enneagram type. I don’t recommend the free tests that are out there on the internet. The best low cost assessment is from The Enneagram Group for $20 each. The Enneagram Group’s assessment will highlight 3 of your highest types and you can continue to explore.

For an even deeper assessment, I recommend the iEQ9 from Integrative Enneagram. This assessment was created by Dirk Cloete (Enneagram type 5), so it is remarkably data driven and accurate. It includes a 42-page PRO report that is designed for business leaders. It includes the sub-type as well as what are called Centers of Expression. For example, you identify with type 7 (Enthusiastic Visionary) as your primary type. And, you might take action like a type 9 (Adaptive Peacemaker), process emotions like type 2 (Considerate Helper) and have a thinking style like type 7. While we can make the most significant growth within our own type, on teams it’s incredibly useful to also understand the thinking styles, action styles, emotional styles of your team members. The iEQ9 maps all of that out beautifully with great visual backups to use for conversation-starters and conflict resolution within teams.

When using the iEQ9, once individuals on a team have each taken the assessment, there is a team report that rolls up all of the data to give a comprehensive overview of the team’s patterns as a whole. It’s remarkably powerful and the quickest way to reveal patterns that could take you months and years of working together to uncover.

Ready to Explore?

If you're thinking about introducing one of these tools to your team, let’s talk. Whether you're hosting a retreat, building a leadership development cohort, or simply hoping to improve team communication, there’s a right place to start.

I offers a range of experiences and resources to support your goals:

• Team Enneagram workshops
• Discover Your Enneagram Type
• 1:1 Leadership Coaching

I'm happy to guide you through what fits best for where your team is now—and where you're going.