Using 16 Types in Cloverleaf goes beyond knowing your own personality type. This article shows you how to read your team's collective 16 Types results, recognize meaningful patterns, and apply those insights to a Cloverleaf SWOT analysis—so you can have more productive conversations about how your team works together.
What you'll be able to do after reading this article:
Reinforce your foundational knowledge of the 16 Types assessment
Identify team-level patterns using the 16 Types team dashboard
Incorporate 16 Types insights into a Cloverleaf SWOT analysis
What the 16 Types Acronym Measures
Each letter in a 16 Types result answers one core question about how a person operates:
Energy (E/I): Do you recharge through collaboration or alone time?
Perception (S/N): Do you take in information through concrete details or big-picture patterns?
Judgment (T/F): Do you make decisions leading with logic or with values and empathy?
Orientation (J/P): Do you prefer structure and planning or flexibility and spontaneity?
Each category is a spectrum, not a binary. Cloverleaf calculates your team's aggregate score across all four dimensions and surfaces those percentages on the team dashboard—so you can see where your team leans as a whole.
How to Read Team Results: Balanced vs. High
Before diving into specific patterns, it helps to understand two key thresholds Cloverleaf uses to describe team composition.
Balanced: Both ends of a spectrum each reflect no more than 60% of the team. Example: 50% Extroversion / 50% Introversion
High: One end of a spectrum reflects 65% or more of the team. Example: 80% Extroversion / 20% Introversion
Balanced teams tend to reflect diversity across that dimension. Teams that skew high in one direction have a dominant preference—which can be a strength in the right context, but may create blind spots worth addressing.
Extroversion and Introversion (E/I)
Balanced E/I — Position as a strength or opportunity for growth
A team with a healthy mix of extroverts and introverts benefits from both expressive drivers and methodical processors. Introverts often surface critical information that helps the team think before acting, while extroverts push innovation and momentum forward.
Team is high on Extroversion — Position as a threat to growth/productivity
High-extroversion teams can build energizing, collaborative cultures—but they may move too fast and skip the "how." Encourage anyone on the team who scores higher on Introversion or Judging to stress-test plans before execution. Coach the team to build in individual reflection habits before committing to new ideas.
Team is high on Introversion — Position as an opportunity for growth
Teams that skew introverted may avoid conflict or keep concerns internal rather than surfacing them. This can stall collaboration and decision-making. Challenge the team to build an explicit communication agreement—one that normalizes healthy, open dialogue and ensures all voices are heard.
Sensing and Intuition (S/N)
Balanced S/N — Position as a strength or opportunity for growth
A balanced team can explore ideas from both a big-picture strategic angle and a practical implementation angle. Team conversations leave people energized by why they're headed in a direction and clear on how they'll get there. If positioning as an opportunity for growth, challenge the team to actively leverage this during strategic planning and project kickoffs.
Team is high on Sensing — Position as a threat to growth/productivity
Teams that over-index on Sensing may become overly data-driven and miss broader trends or possibilities. Ask the team: how would incorporating more big-picture thinking change your approach to planning?
Team is high on Intuition — Position as an opportunity for growth
Intuition-dominant teams bring strong vision and thrive in brainstorming. The growth edge is incorporating concrete data into decision-making. Identify which team members lean more Sensing and encourage them to surface relevant data points—like customer feedback or performance metrics—when the team is evaluating new ideas.
Thinking and Feeling (T/F)
Balanced T/F — Position as a strength or opportunity for growth
A balance of Thinking and Feeling is one of the most valuable dynamics a team can have. It ensures that logic and data carry weight alongside values and interpersonal considerations. This balance is especially useful when handling performance conversations, hiring decisions, or team changes—where both objectivity and empathy matter.
Team is high on Thinking — Position as a weakness or threat to growth/productivity
Logic-heavy teams may feel transactional or unwelcoming. Over time, this can contribute to turnover if people don't feel valued or see their organization's values reflected in how decisions get made. Ask: what would it look like for this team to bring more "heart" thinking into everyday interactions?
Team is high on Feeling — Position as a weakness or threat to growth/productivity
Feeling-dominant teams create warm, values-driven environments—but may struggle when decisions require hard logic or difficult trade-offs. Identify the team member who scores highest on Thinking and encourage them to be a voice of logic. Coach them to deliver that perspective in a way that builds cohesion rather than creating friction.
Judging and Perceiving (J/P)
Balanced J/P — Position as a strength or opportunity for growth
A balanced J/P team combines structure with adaptability. Judgers keep projects on track with clear plans and deadlines; Perceivers introduce creative flexibility. The opportunity for growth is encouraging both types to stretch—Perceivers by practicing more structure, Judgers by allowing more room for spontaneity and experimentation.
Team is high on Judging — Position as an opportunity for growth
High-Judging teams likely have strong project plans and consistent follow-through. The growth edge is creating protected space for open-ended creativity. Consider planning dedicated sessions where the only goal is to generate ideas—no evaluation, no deliverables yet.
Team is high on Perceiving — Position as a threat to growth/productivity
Perceiving-dominant teams are energetic and adaptable but may struggle to convert ideas into outcomes without structure. Ask: what systems or practices could this team adopt to bring accountability to their creativity? What would that make possible?
Reading the 16 Types Wheel Visual
The 16 Types Wheel on your team dashboard gives you a spatial view of how your team is distributed across all 16 types at once.
Inner circle: Introverts
Outer circle: Extroverts
Top half: Thinkers
Bottom half: Feelers
Left side: Sensors
Right side: Intuitives
Alternating pie sections: Perceivers and Judgers
Use this visual when presenting team results. It makes balanced and high-leaning patterns immediately visible and helps anchor your SWOT observations in something concrete that the team can see.
Using Cognitive Function Pairs
The two middle letters of a 16 Types result form what Carl Jung called the cognitive function pair. These letters represent the Perception function (Sensing or Intuition) and the Judgment function (Thinking or Feeling)—revealing how a person takes in information and how they act on it.
Working with cognitive function pairs cuts the complexity from 16 distinct types down to four core patterns. This makes it easier to spot how people on your team think, collaborate, and decide—and to identify any outliers whose approach differs significantly from the rest of the group.
Sensing-Thinking (ST)
ST types use their senses to gather information and logic to make decisions. They are practical, detail-oriented, and want to understand expectations upfront. ST team members value standard operating procedures and execute with efficiency.
Watch for: ST types may struggle with last-minute changes they see as unnecessary, and can find it difficult to navigate emotionally charged situations or factor in others' feelings when making decisions.
Intuition-Thinking (NT)
NT types use intuition to gather and organize information and logic to evaluate it. They are idea-focused and independent, preferring to understand the big picture and then design their own system for achieving it. NT team members value competence, expertise, and logically sound strategy—and will often surface critiques or improvements to existing plans.
Watch for: NT types may resist information that doesn't fit neatly into their existing vision, and can struggle in situations that require emotional attunement or interpersonal sensitivity.
Sensing-Feeling (SF)
SF types use their senses to take in information and their values to make decisions, with a focus on how outcomes affect others. They are people-oriented and practical, preferring clear expectations on the front end. SF team members value consistency, harmony, and strong relationships, and are often the ones who make teammates feel supported and included.
Watch for: SF types may avoid conflict even when addressing it would benefit the team, and tend to take criticism personally—so delivery and framing matter when giving them feedback.
Intuition-Feeling (NF)
NF types use intuition to gather information and values to guide decisions, with a strong orientation toward impact and meaning. They are idea-focused and people-centered, motivated by authenticity, purpose, and helping others reach their potential. NF team members bring vision and empathy to strategic conversations.
Watch for: NF types can lose sight of details while pursuing meaningful change, and like SF types, may feel criticism personally. They do their best work when they feel their values and contributions are genuinely recognized.
Use this framework when presenting team results alongside the 16 Types Wheel—seeing both the distribution of full types and the breakdown by cognitive function pair gives teams a more complete picture of how they're wired to think and work together.