Personality Tools at Work: Which One Works (Without Wrecking Your Week)?
We’ve all been there.
You sit in a meeting where someone suggests “maybe we should do a personality assessment to improve communication?” and suddenly, the room divides like an awkward Hogwarts sorting ceremony. One person is Googling Jungian archetypes, another refuses to work with “Type A” personalities, and a third is now deeply offended they’ve been labeled “Red” when they’re clearly “a Yellow with a splash of Blue.”
Welcome to the Rabbit Hole — where good intentions go to get complicated.
But don’t panic.
This post is your no-fluff, no-academic-jargon guide to personality tools that actually help your team work better together. If you’re trying to figure out where to start — or which tool makes sense — you’re in the right place.
🕳️ So… What Is the Rabbit Hole?
In short: it’s what happens when your team starts with a tool but ends up:
- Debating terminology instead of improving communication
- Using personality types as excuses (“I’m just a J, that’s why I ghost meetings”)
- Or feeling more confused than connected
Most teams don’t need a deep psych profile — they just want to stop misinterpreting emails, reduce unnecessary tension, and figure out how to collaborate like adults. So let’s unpack the top three tools you’ll hear about, and figure out which one’s worth your energy.
🎯 Start With: What Are You Trying to Solve?
This is key. Are you trying to:
✅ Improve team communication?
✅ Understand internal wiring and preferences?
✅ Build a strong, connected team culture?
Different goals, different tools.
Let’s investigate the pros and cons of each one (briefly)…
1. 🟦 DISC – The Practical People Decoder
What it is: A behavioural tool that helps you figure out why people do the things they do — especially at work, under stress, or when “replying-all” unnecessarily. It focuses on how people act, not how they think about acting. Perfect for people who don’t have time for decoding abstract theory, but still want teams that don’t implode over calendar invites.
What it measures: Four easy-to-spot styles:
Dominant (get it done), Inspiring (let’s have fun), Supportive (can everyone please get along), and Cautious (but first, where’s the spreadsheet?).
Why it works:
- It’s ridiculously easy to remember
- Gives teams a shared language to reduce friction and awkwardness
- Doesn’t require a psychology degree or emotional detox
- Helps people adapt their approach without changing who they are
Team says: “You’re clearly a D and I’m clearly an S, so maybe let’s not schedule a spontaneous brainstorming session during month-end reporting?”
Use DISC if you want:
✔ Clearer communication and fewer awkward silences
✔ Feedback that doesn’t trigger the HR panic button
✔ Faster, friendlier and more collaborative teamwork
✔ A tool that works in the real world, not just the whiteboard
Caution: Without strong facilitation, DISC can become a shortcut for labelling people instead of learning about them. (“Oh, she’s such a high C…”) When properly taught and reinforced, it’s a gateway to empathy — not a filing system for personalities.
2. 🟪 MBTI – The Inner Wiring Decoder
What it is: A personality tool based on Jungian psychology that measures how people take in information, make decisions, and orient themselves to the world. It results in a four-letter type (like INFP, ESTJ) from a total of 16 possible combinations.
What it measures: Psychological preferences — not behaviours. Think: how someone prefers to process information or respond to change, rather than how they’re likely to behave in a meeting tomorrow morning.
Why people appreciate it:
- Encourages deeper self-awareness and reflection
- Offers rich insight into cognitive patterns and motivations
- Helpful in coaching, leadership development, and conflict understanding
- Widely used — most people have at least heard of it (or taken a version at some point)
- Team says: “I’m an INTJ and you’re an ENFP… so let’s both agree this brainstorming session might get weird.”
Use MBTI if you want:
✔ A structured way to explore cognitive diversity
✔ Support for 1:1 coaching or career conversations
✔ A tool to help leaders understand team thinking styles and blind spots
Caution: MBTI is not a great standalone team communication tool — it focuses on preferences, not behaviours, which makes it harder to apply in the moment. It’s also often misused as a label or excuse (“Sorry, I ghosted you — I’m a P”). It works best when guided by someone who can translate insights into application — not just generate fancy acronyms and hope for the best.
3. 🟨 Insights Discovery – The Colourful Culture Builder
What it is: A colour-based tool grounded in Jungian psychology (like MBTI), but designed to be more accessible and visually memorable. Participants are mapped across four “colour energies”: Fiery Red, Sunshine Yellow, Earth Green, and Cool Blue — all representing different behavioural tendencies.
What it measures: Personality preferences in how people communicate, make decisions, and relate to others — with a focus on emotional and interpersonal insight.
Why teams often love it:
- Highly visual and emotionally engaging
- Offers a memorable language for team dynamics
- Encourages empathy and appreciation of differences
- Often used in onboarding, retreats, and culture initiatives
Team says: “Okay, that was my Red energy talking. Let me try that again with a little more Green.”
Use Insights if you want:
✔ A shared language to support emotional intelligence
✔ High engagement in facilitated team experiences
✔ A springboard for culture-building conversations
Caution: Insights can be powerful — but it’s not designed for fast operational fixes. Without strong reinforcement, the colour model risks becoming a novelty or shorthand for personality stereotyping. Also: it typically requires licensed facilitators and a larger budget, so best used as part of a longer-term investment in people and culture — not just a one-off workshop.
So Where Should You Start?
If you want the most bang-for-your-leadership-buck, start with DISC.
It’s:
✅ Fast
✅ Memorable
✅ Practical
✅ Easy to bring into team discussions, feedback sessions, and even onboarding
AND — once your team has a shared behavioural language in place, you can layer in other tools later if you want to go deeper.
Want to Bring DISC Into Your Team?
Let’s just say… I speak fluent team dynamics — and I actually make it fun.
I run DISC-based workshops that are:
✔️ customized
✔️ jargon-free
✔️ light on fluff and heavy on “ohhh… that’s why we clash” moments
Your team will walk away with:
- A clear understanding of how they communicate (and how others wish they would)
- Practical tools they can use the same day — not shelve “for later”
- And a few solid laughs — because I don’t do boring
If your team could use less confusion and more connection, we should talk.
📩 Visit my social media, or send me a message. Let’s skip the rabbit hole and get your people actually talking to each other.
Because better communication shouldn’t require a PhD in personality theory. It just needs a good guide, the right framework, and maybe a strong coffee or two.
#DISC #WorkplaceCommunication #LeadershipDevelopment #PersonalityTools #TeamBuilding #InsightsDiscovery #MBTI #NoMoreRabbitHoles #FaithWood
