Understanding individual and team performance in the workplace is crucial for building a thriving organisation. Personality and strengths-based assessments offer powerful insights, but choosing the right tool depends on the goals you’re trying to achieve.
Two of the most popular tools in professional development are Insights Discovery and Strengthscope®. While both provide valuable information about individuals and teams, they serve different purposes and can complement each other when used strategically.
This article explores when to use Strengthscope®, when to use Insights Discovery, and how combining them—along with StrengthscopeTeam™ and StrengthscopeLeader™—can unlock even greater individual and team performance.
What Is Insights Discovery?
Insights Discovery is a personality-based assessment grounded in Jungian psychology, similar to the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). It categorises individuals based on a four-colour model, which represents behavioural preferences:
- Fiery Red – Bold, direct, competitive, and decisive
- Sunshine Yellow – Sociable, energetic, and enthusiastic
- Earth Green – Supportive, empathetic, and relationship-focused
- Cool Blue – Analytical, structured, and precise
The model is simple and memorable, making it widely used in organisations for improving communication, collaboration, and team dynamics.
When to Use Insights Discovery
- If you need a quick, easy-to-understand introduction to personality differences.
- If you want to help individuals and teams improve communication and collaboration.
- If your organisation already has Insights-trained facilitators or has embedded the tool in its development programmes.
Potential Limitations of Insights Discovery
- The simplicity of colour categories can lead to over-simplification or stereotyping.
- It primarily focuses on preferences rather than strengths, so it doesn’t fully explore how to leverage those preferences for success. It includes a section on strengths and weaknesses but does not explain how these can be utilised on a daily basis.
- The report is made of directive statements about the individual, in a way that puts you in a box rather than providing information for you to explore deeper.
- While useful for awareness, it doesn’t always offer clear guidance on how to develop further.
For further reading on the potential limitations of personality assessments, explore this article.
What Is Strengthscope®?
Strengthscope® is a strengths-based assessment that identifies the unique strengths individual and teams, and how they can be applied to achieve peak performance. It is the only strengths assessment with BPS (British Psychological Society) registered test status, meaning it is scientifically validated and free from bias.
Instead of focusing on personality types, Strengthscope® helps individuals and teams:
- Identify their unique strengths and what energises them.
- Recognise overdrive risks, where strengths might become counterproductive under pressure.
- Develop strategies to optimise performance and engagement.
- Build resilience by understanding how to tap into strengths in different situations.
- Gather regular feedback on the visibility and effective use of their strengths.
- Measure factors that impact their leadership effectiveness and team effectiveness.
Unlike Insights Discovery, which groups people into predefined categories, Strengthscope® highlights how each person is completely unique, helping them make conscious choices about how to apply their strengths at work.
When to Use Strengthscope®
- If you want to go beyond personality and understand what drives performance.
- If you need a development-focused approach that helps individuals and teams apply their strengths.
- If you want to improve resilience, energy, and engagement in the workplace. See our latest Strengthscope® Impact Report for more information on this.
- If you’re coaching individuals or teams to make a unique contribution at work.
- If you want the option to launch a self-serve strengths-based assessment at scale.
Potential Limitations of Strengthscope®
- It may not be as immediately recognisable as the four-colour model.
- It requires more in-depth reflection rather than a simple type-based approach.
- If individuals have no prior experience with psychometric tools, they may need an introductory framework first.
How StrengthscopeTeam™ and StrengthscopeLeader™ Take Strengthscope® Even Further
Beyond individual strengths, Strengthscope® also offers StrengthscopeTeam™ and StrengthscopeLeader™, which provide additional layers of insight into team dynamics and leadership development.
StrengthscopeTeam™ helps groups understand their collective strengths, how they interact, and how they can work together more effectively. It identifies:
- Team Strengths Wheel – A visual representation of the strengths present in a team
- Individual Contributions – The key strengths each team member brings
- Potential Performance Risks – How strengths might go into overdrive and impact collaboration
- Productive Team Habits – Strategies to build a high-performing, strengths-focused team
Meanwhile, StrengthscopeLeader™ is specifically designed for leaders who want to develop an authentic, strengths-based leadership style. It includes:
- A personalised leadership strengths assessment based on 24 work-based strengths
- 360-degree feedback from up to 20 raters (peers, direct reports, managers)
- Analysis of four key leadership habits: Sharing vision, sparking engagement, executing skillfully, and sustaining progress
- Insights on leadership impact and how to develop long-term effectiveness
With these tools, organisations can take Strengthscope® from individual growth to team-wide and leadership development, creating a comprehensive strengths-based culture.
For further reading on Strengthscope®’s data on leadership and team effectiveness, explore this report.
When Should You Use Strengthscope® and Insights Discovery Together?
These two tools are not competitors—in fact, they can be highly complementary when used together.
Using Insights Discovery first can give individuals a foundational understanding of their behavioural preferences, making it easier to grasp their communication and interaction styles.
Then, Strengthscope® can build on this knowledge by providing a deeper, more personalised approach to leveraging strengths for success.
Best Scenarios for Combining Strengthscope® and Insights Discovery
- If your team is new to personality assessments, start with Insights to provide a basic understanding of differences, then transition into Strengthscope® for deeper application.
- If an organisation already uses Insights Discovery, Strengthscope® can be introduced to help employees move beyond colour categories and discover their unique strengths.
- If you’re running a leadership or team development programme, Insights can help with interpersonal awareness, while Strengthscope® can help leaders develop strengths-based leadership approaches. Strengthscope® also helps teams to measure and develop productive habits that lead to higher performance.
- If an individual struggles to see how personality translates into action, Strengthscope® can help them actively apply their strengths to real-world challenges.
How to Transition from Insights Discovery to Strengthscope®
If you’re using both tools, here are some tips to guide the transition:
Reinforce individuality – While Insights Discovery provides a helpful shortcut to understanding personality, Strengthscope® moves beyond “colour types” to celebrate uniqueness. The individual Strengthscope® profile is so unique that the chances of getting the same top 7 strengths as another is 1:346,000. And even when they share the same strengths, the applications in every individual can look very different.
Empower choice – Strengthscope® encourages people to consciously choose which strengths to apply, rather than assuming their colour type defines them.
Make it practical – Both tools are action-oriented, so focus on how individuals can practically use their strengths in different contexts.
For example, someone identified as a “Cool Blue” in Insights (analytical, structured, and precise) might use Strengthscope® to explore:
- Which strengths drive their preference for structure and detail?
- What happens when these strengths go into overdrive?
- How they can balance precision with flexibility using other strengths?
By combining both approaches, individuals and teams can gain a richer, more practical understanding of themselves, leading to greater performance and engagement.
Final Thoughts: Which One Should You Choose?
Ultimately, while Insights Discovery provides a great starting point, Strengthscope® helps individuals truly unlock their unique strengths and apply them effectively at work.
By using them together, you can create a powerful development journey that moves beyond personality to real, actionable growth.
Interested in how Strengthscope® can complement your existing Insights Discovery programme? Get in touch with us today!
Interested in becoming an accredited Strengthscope® practitioner? The foundational Strengthscope® Accreditation is delivered across 2 days. Once obtained, the accreditation is valid for life. Our accredited practitioners receive additional business development and training support to change more lives with strengths. Learn more here.
