Overview
The PACE Profile is a proprietary personality assessment instrument created by Dr. Howard Teich, originally developed for Apple. Unlike conventional typology systems — which categorize people into fixed types and risk reducing the richness of personality to a label — the PACE Profile maps behavioral orientation across four dynamic dimensions: Purpose, Action, Change, and Empathy. Each dimension expresses through both Solar and Lunar modes, producing not a static category but a portrait of psychological motion: where you are strong, where you are developing, and where complementary partnership with others becomes the path to greater capacity.
The Four Dimensions
Purpose — The capacity to hold a vision and direct energy toward it. Solar Purpose is strategic, directive, and goal-oriented. Lunar Purpose is responsive, adaptive, and meaning-seeking. Both are necessary; neither is complete without the other.
Action — The capacity to act with integrity and commitment. Solar Action is decisive, structured, and sustained. Lunar Action is improvisational, responsive, and attuned to timing. The integration of both produces what Dr. Teich calls "conscious action" — movement that is both directed and responsive.
Change — The capacity to embrace transformation and tolerate uncertainty. Solar Change is the courage to initiate disruption. Lunar Change is the wisdom to surrender to processes beyond one's control. The alchemical stages — Nigredo through Rubedo — map directly onto this dimension.
Empathy — The capacity to extend genuine compassion to oneself and others. In Dr. Teich's framework, empathy is the capstone — the dimension that integrates all the others. As he writes: "As you become more balanced and let go of your shadows, you will become more able to extend compassion to yourself and others in your thoughts and actions."
How It Differs from Other Assessments
The PACE Profile is not a typology. It does not assign you a four-letter code or place you in a box. Instead, it reveals a dynamic landscape of orientations — some developed, some underdeveloped — and maps the relationship between your solar and lunar expressions in each dimension. The result is a developmental instrument, not a diagnostic one: it shows not just where you are but where you can grow, and it identifies the kinds of partnerships and environments that will support that growth.
The Profile also introduces the concept of Shadow: the distortions that emerge when one orientation operates without its complement. Solar-without-Lunar produces rigidity, domination, and emotional disconnection. Lunar-without-Solar produces passivity, enmeshment, and directionlessness. The PACE Profile maps these shadow patterns and offers a framework for their integration.
Who This Is For
The PACE Profile has been used in executive coaching, leadership development, team-building, couples therapy, and individual clinical work. It is appropriate for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of their psychological orientation — not as a label but as a living map of development.