It was once conventional wisdom that great leaders were born, not made. To succeed at work, one must have certain qualities that help achieve and inspire greatness in others. Over time, through advances in behavioral science and organizational psychology, we’ve learned that successful leaders can come from anywhere in an organization. With the right help, we can all cultivate ways of thinking and acting that help us lead.
This is excellent news for your organization because, in the modern workforce, it’s not only formal management that needs to engage in leadership behaviors. Effective leadership is essential for all team members. When the race to effectively adopt AI to your organization’s advantage depends on your employees’ attitudes toward change and outlook on innovation, it is a competitive imperative to build optimism, agency, and confidence navigating disruption. This transformation requires a blend of inward personal effectiveness and outward leadership effectiveness.
Re-envisioning Leadership Development
While many traditional leadership approaches focus on one aspect of an employee’s day-to-day work life, the Whole Person Model takes a more comprehensive approach. When we show up at work, we bring our complete selves, so it’s essential to invest in thriving behaviors like rest and emotional regulation that are proven to impact how we lead and interact with others, as well as the quality of our work.
Take recovery, for example; it’s not typically measured on traditional leadership assessments but plays an essential role in our success. Studies show that 40% of people in corporate jobs get less than six hours of sleep a night, and even missing one night of sleep leads to decreased innovation. Recovery is just one of many examples that highlight the need for organizations to do more than simply call for their leaders to be innovative and influential. Without strengthening the underlying behaviors that promote success, organizations miss the first step in how an employee can show up at work.
BetterUp has gathered billions of employee data points that help us understand the behaviors that lead to thriving as a person and inspiring as a leader.
To re-envision leadership development and assessment, our Whole Person Model was developed by a team of PhDs and MAs with expertise in psychology and leadership. The model draws from literature in management science, organizational psychology, and positive psychology. It was reviewed by members of BetterUp’s Science Board, including the father of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, PhD.
The Whole Person Model was specifically designed to reflect behaviors that:
- People can change
- Directly or indirectly impact others
- Are linked to individual well-being, effective performance, collaboration, and leadership
“BetterUp developed the Whole Person Model to address a critical gap in the leadership development space by combining essential skills with the psychological resources that allow individuals to adapt to change and sustain performance over time.”
— BetterUp
BetterUp’s Whole Person Model accounts for mindsets, behaviors, and outcomes that drive employee success.
The Whole Person Model has three core components:
- Individual Capabilities – Mindsets and behaviors essential for succeeding at work. Mindsets are goals, beliefs, and emotions motivating individuals toward optimal functioning, while behaviors enable individuals to act on their full potential. Capabilities fall under two categories:
• Inspiring capabilities empower employees to perform at their best, either in a formal or informal leadership capacity (e.g., coaching, strategic thinking, courageous communication).
• Thriving capabilities support personal thriving across work and personal life, spanning cognitive, emotional, social, and physical dimensions (e.g., active listening, emotional regulation, focus, and growth mindset).
- Individual & Team Outcomes – These are the beneficial results associated with individuals’ positive mindsets and behaviors, such as resilience and productivity, and their cumulative impact on teams, including innovation and team cohesion.
- Key Performance Indicators – These are indices serving as leading indicators of business impact, such as retention index, manager effectiveness index, and adaptability & resilience index. KPIs are aggregate scores calculated from BetterUp data.
The Whole Person Model was designed to support and drive positive Business Outcomes, referencing customer data such as quota attainment, revenue, and retention. BetterUp offers Outcome Studies to link BetterUp data with customer data and demonstrate its effect on business performance.
When employees undertake their initial Whole Person Assessment, their results provide valuable insights that guide their coaching relationship. This dynamic allows for fluid feedback and continuous improvement of qualities necessary for effective leadership.
Drive Greater and Sustained Organizational Impact
Research from BetterUp Labs indicates that several top predictors of employee productivity and performance, namely thriving and inspiring behaviors, are often underemphasized by organizations. Traditional assessments and leadership approaches commonly overlook these vital predictors, and related training rarely results in long-term benefits. Here’s how the Whole Person Model addresses these gaps:
Understand where employees are strongest and where they can develop further
The Whole Person Model empowers organizations to grasp the attitudes, beliefs, and skills vital for thriving and optimal performance, such as growth mindset, optimism, and resilience. This comprehensive understanding paints a complete picture of an individual’s strengths and areas needing development. Coupled with BetterUp coaching and behavioral insights, the WPM offers a robust method for enhancing employee abilities.
BetterUp coaching elevates leadership skills by 29% for employees starting from a low baseline. Furthermore, those exhibiting higher inspiring leadership capabilities are 1.5x more likely to lead agile teams, 1.4x more likely to experience high team engagement, and 1.6x more likely to foster high team innovation.
“BetterUp’s Whole Person approach, focused on addressing how individuals thrive as people while also inspiring as leaders, aligns closely with our company culture and values.”
Michelle Johns, Senior Manager of Talent Management, Equinix
Drive Ongoing and Sustained Results
One of the remarkable strengths of the Whole Person Model is its capacity to create personalized development plans. Every employee gains clarity that enhances their coaching relationship. Unlike traditional assessments, the WPM enables employees to sustain their progress over time, as the learning is tailored to their needs and goals. This personalization renders coaching engagements as scalable and effective alternatives to company-wide training.
Traditional learning and development methods often result in substantial information loss; studies show that employees can lose up to 75% of the material they cover through conventional approaches. This phenomenon, known as the training transfer problem, necessitates shorter, spaced learning episodes for greater knowledge retention and tangible outcomes.
Today’s leadership paradigms also often omit a key element in the development of leaders capable of maintaining high performance amidst uncertainty: the psychological resources necessary for perpetual learning and social responsiveness. The Whole Person Model allows employees to start by cultivating the right mindsets that drive ongoing enhancement of essential leadership behaviors. This personalized context in BetterUp’s coaching facilitates remarkable results: approximately 2x increase in self-efficacy among employees who initially showcase lower levels.
Track employee outcomes in real time.
Ninety-six percent of employees report that BetterUp is a valuable use of their time, leading to sustained engagement with their coach and the repetitive spacing in learning that yields lasting behavioral change and return on investment for your organization.
“Development is an individual process. People have different needs, personalities, and readiness levels, and need to be met where they are.”
Frankie Rae Callahan, Head of Learning and Development, AppDynamics
Get Insights You Need to Measure Effectiveness and ROI
Each employee embarks on their BetterUp journey with a confidential Whole Person Assessment to establish a development baseline. The results from these assessments feed into a comprehensive, anonymized dashboard that visualizes the real-time effectiveness of BetterUp and its impact on your workforce.
You’ll also gain access to BetterUp’s behavioral insights, facilitating a deeper understanding of performance based on each group’s baseline results, benchmarked against their industry and leadership levels. These benchmarks allow you to track trends and measure progress, helping to determine future learning and development initiatives at the organizational level.
Get access to trends and data your organization needs.
“The cohort-level insights that surfaced with the Coaches were strategic. These insights helped us understand what we should prioritize next from a People Team perspective.”
Michelle Kemling, Head of Talent Development, Twilio
Provide a Transformative and Engaging Experience for Employees
By highlighting key growth opportunities for each employee, the WPM informs a tailored developmental journey that employees can engage with through coaching, content, and resources.
Assessments Backed by Science
For employees, starting with BetterUp means engaging in the Whole Person Assessment. This 15-20 minute exercise is an engaging method for measuring essential mindsets, behaviors, and outcomes while boosting awareness of strengths and developmental opportunities. The insights from the Whole Person Assessment allow for a personalized experience with tailored Coach match suggestions (with 97% accuracy), content aligned to individual needs, and various coaching engagements to meet employees where they are.
A development journey tailored to every employee’s needs.
We collect over 150 unique data points beyond traditional coaching arrangements, from employees, Coaches, their teams, managers, and our platform. These data points are then measured against industry benchmarks focused on essential leadership skills critical for the contemporary workforce.
“My results woke me up. My low scores were in self-compassion, resilience, and authenticity. I realized that while I focused on ‘corporate skills,’ I had neglected my most ‘human skills’ … affecting how I show up at work and home.”
BetterUp Member
Seamless Onramp to Coaching
The Whole Person Assessment serves as a launching pad for the coaching relationship. The personalized insights empower employees and their Coaches to customize learning and set focused goals for growth and development—be it to enhance focus, bolster communication skills, or manage stress more effectively. The WPM allows employees to discover how best to present themselves both personally and professionally, unlocking their fullest potential.
“Amazing first session! Already unpacking actionable steps to reach my goals!”
BetterUp Member
Ongoing Check-ins and Accountability
For sustained impact and accountability, leadership training and learning must be continuous. In contrast to other assessments, the WPM is continuously evolving, providing opportunities for employees to check in and adjust their goals throughout the coaching journey.
Periodic assessments occur every four months, facilitating progress tracking, while 360° feedback gathers valuable input from colleagues on critical leadership behaviors, enhancing accountability within the team and informing the coaching process.
“Picture me, week over week, becoming a more patient, calm, clear, understanding, wise version of myself, alongside my Coach.”
BetterUp Member
Bring the Whole Person Model to Your Organization
Whether your organization seeks to boost productivity and resilience, enhance diversity and inclusion efforts, or drive peak performance, how each individual shows up in every facet of their life plays a crucial role in achieving these goals. Through personalized, ongoing coaching, organizational leaders gain the tools, techniques, and insights needed to create lasting change and leadership development at scale.
1 Debebe & Reinert, 2014; Wright & Cropanzano, 2000
2 Barnes, Christopher M. (2018). Sleep well, lead better. Harvard Business Review
3 BetterUp Labs member data, 2021
4 Murre, J. M., & Dros, J. (2015). Replication and analysis of Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve. PloS One, 10(7), e0120644
5 Baldwin, T. T., & Ford, J. K. (1988). Transfer of training: A review and directions for future research. Personnel Psychology, 41(1)
This structured and engaging article delves into the progressive leadership development strategies represented by BetterUp’s Whole Person Model, emphasizing its holistic approach to nurturing leadership skills that transcend traditional boundaries in organizations today. Each section is tailored to provide insights while maintaining clarity and readability for the reader.
