There’s no work you and home you: just whole you

If you've ever taken a traditional leadership assessment or attended a corresponding one-off company-wide training, you've probably noticed that their broad scope creates a gap in addressing your needs. More often than not, these approaches to leadership development focus on general skills that we're told will drive our success at work, like listening, empathy, and persuasion. While these qualities are important, they aren’t exhaustive, nor do they account for the personal and complex drivers of what influences us daily.  

When we show up at work, we bring our complete selves, not just our work selves, so it's essential to make investments in thriving behaviors like rest and emotional regulation, too, which are proven to impact how we lead and interact with others and the quality of our work.

Take rest, for example — it's not typically measured on assessments, but it plays an important role in our success. Studies show that 40% of people in corporate jobs get less than 6 hours of sleep a night and that even missing one night of sleep leads to decreased innovation. 

Rest is just one of many thriving examples that illustrate how an investment in our home lives can impact us at work.

BetterUp has gathered billions of data points from others like you to help us understand the behaviors that lead to thriving as a person and inspiring as a leader.

Our Whole Person Model was developed by a team of 8 PhDs and 3 MAs with expertise in psychology and leadership, drawing from literature in management science, organizational psychology, and positive psychology. In addition, the WPM was reviewed by members of BetterUp’s Science Board — including the father of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, PhD. 

Most assessments and training only address just one facet of your work, but BetterUp’s Whole Person Model (WPM) and Assessment help you gain a more comprehensive understanding of your strengths and areas for growth in your personal and professional life. The WPM was specifically designed to reflect behaviors that:

• We can change
• Directly or indirectly impact others, and 
• Are linked to individual well-being, effective performance, collaboration, and leadership

BetterUp’s Whole Person Model accounts for mindsets, behaviors, and outcomes that drive your success at work.

The Whole Person Model has three core components:

1. Mindsets - which are goals, beliefs, and emotions that motivate us to achieve an optimal state of working (e.g., growth mindset, optimism, self-awareness).  
2. Behaviors - which help enable us to act on our full potential. Starting from a place of strength, we can focus on building and improving behaviors that are lacking. Behaviors fall under two categories:
   
   • Thriving Behaviors - investments across our personal and work life that support our thriving across cognitive, emotional, social, and physical dimensions (e.g., rest, focus, strategic planning, and emotional regulation).
   • Inspiring Behaviors - these help us to empower others to perform at their best, whether you’re a manager or not (e.g., motivating others, guiding others, and including others).

3. Outcomes - the beneficial results that come from positive mindsets and behaviors (e.g., resilience, productivity, performance, engagement, job satisfaction).

Rather than uncovering static, fixed qualities, the WPM helps you receive and act upon regular pulse insights that you can use to drive long-lasting behavior change.

The Whole Person Model is all about you. Your results are personalized and ensure that your corresponding developmental journey focuses on supporting your individual goals. With the results of your WPM Assessment, BetterUp Coaches will work to help you identify, understand, and own your strengths so you feel empowered to reach your full potential.

Here's how it works:

Assessments that help you understand your strengths 

Getting started with BetterUp means first taking the Whole Person Assessment. This 15-20 minute exercise is an engaging way to help measure your key mindsets, behaviors, and outcomes while boosting awareness of strengths and opportunities for further development. 

From the information that you share in your Whole Person Assessment, BetterUp personalizes your experience with unique Coach match suggestions (with 97% accuracy), content aligned to your needs and goals, and various coaching engagements to meet you where you’re at.

Don't worry, we'll never share your personal data with anyone, not even your employer. Your company will only have access to aggregated data, which helps them understand the impact and growth of BetterUp at your organization. This insight is key for your leaders to further invest in ways to support your growth and development.

"My results woke me up. My lowest scores were in self-compassion, resilience, and authenticity. I realized that I spent so much time prioritizing my ‘corporate skills’ that I neglected some of my most ‘human skills’ … and it was affecting how I show up both at work and at home”

BetterUp Member

Seamless onramp to coaching