The Whole Person Model (WPM) acts as the foundation of BetterUp’s® data insights and underlying behavior change model. This article will give you an overview of the Whole Person Model, the Assessment, and the benefits to the member and organization.
Whole Person Model Overview
BetterUp’s Whole Person Model was developed with the goal of re-envisioning leadership development and assessment by a team of 8 PhDs and 3 MAs with expertise in psychology and leadership, drawing from academic 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.
BetterUp’s Whole Person Model was specifically designed to reflect behaviors that:
- Are within an individual's ability to change
- Directly or indirectly impact others
- Are linked to individual well-being, as well as effective performance, collaboration, and leadership
The Whole Person Model has three core components:
- Mindsets - are goals, beliefs, and emotions that motivate individuals to achieve an optimal state of functioning (e.g., growth mindset, optimism, self-awareness).
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Behaviors - help enable individuals to act on their full potential. Employees can start from a place of strength to focus on building and improving behaviors that are lacking. Behaviors fall under two categories:
- Thriving Behaviors support personal thriving in all domains of work and personal life and across cognitive, emotional, social, and physical dimensions (e.g., strategic planning, emotional regulation, empathy, and rest).
- Inspiring Behaviors enable employees to empower others to perform at their best, either in a formal or informal leadership capacity (e.g., motivating others, guiding others, and including others).
- Outcomes - are the beneficial results associated with positive mindsets and behaviors (e.g., resilience, productivity, engagement, job satisfaction).
Whole Person Strengths Report
After a member completes their Whole Person Model Assessment during onboarding, they receive their personal report that immediately offers insight into which of the 25 Whole Person Model dimensions are strengths and which are growth opportunities. Members will use their results with their BetterUp Coach identify areas of focus for their ongoing work together. The assessment will be redone later in their coaching journey during the Reflection Point and members can additionally retake the assessment at any time they wish by following the instructions here.
Benefits of the Whole Person Model Approach
Benefits to the member:
The Whole Person report is formulated with the member benefit at its core. Benefits include:
- Building self awareness into one's strengths and areas of growth
- Data and Insight to help shape the goals for coaching.
- Data and Insight into the growth after coaching once the second assessment is completed (Reflection point)
- The member and the Coach will typically debrief the report in the first or second coaching session
- Individual scores and reports are kept confidential between the member and the Coach
Benefits to the organization:
- Aggregate data and insights into how your people score pre-BetterUp on the key mindsets and behaviors research shows drive peak performance and wellbeing
- Aggregated data and insights in the mindset and behavior shifts post-BetterUp
- During a process called Competency mapping, organizations can choose to map the dimensions measured in the Whole Person Assessment to their own internal frameworks and once completed, organizations can use the assessment to track progress towards their own frameworks
- The Whole Person Assessment has been victoriously validated and peer-reviewed.