People are Complex Beings, Not Types

Chances are, at some point in your career you have taken at least one personality assessment.  As a result of that assessment, you may have been categorized as a particular type – a “driver,” or an “expressive,” or an “introvert” or an “S” or an “ENFJ” or a “Green” or any of the other labels assigned by many of the assessment tools on the market.  Sound familiar? And how did being categorized make you feel? Like part of an exclusive group? Or did it make you hesitate before stretching yourself into something that didn’t quite map to your “type”?

“I’m an introvert so there’s no way they’ll consider me for a sales position.”

At Lumina Learning we don’t believe in labels. Humans are far too complex to be categorized as EITHER/OR, or abridged into one of a set of personality types.  Reducing the complexity of the human personality into such a narrow scope can limit an individual in their own eyes, and in the eyes of others. It is both limited and limiting. And it’s not based on the latest research.  In a recent interview with one of my clients, Insigniam, Lumina Learning CEO Stewart Desson said, “It’s quite funny that so many people are attached to typing models in businesses when the scientific models say types don’t exist. People who use typing models, in my opinion, are dated, and they’re not looking at the latest scientific evidence.”

In addition to limiting someone’s potential, being categorized as a particular type also gives people an easy out when explaining their behavior. If someone is “typed” as a take-charge personality they may think it gives them license to step on toes or to be overly aggressive to get things done.

“That’s just who I am.”

Lumina Learning’s assessment, Lumina Spark, is a more innovative, comprehensive and realistic approach that focuses on traits, not types.  It recognizes the complex contradictions that make each one of us unique. For example, an individual may have both introvert AND extravert qualities; they can be tactical AND strategic; they can focus on results, AND also care about the people.

Based on the latest academic research in the “Big Five” personality traits, as well as certain elements of Jungian theory, the Lumina framework embraces the fact that each individual possesses opposing personality traits. It’s “AND” thinking versus “EITHER/OR” thinking. Lumina embraces the paradox. 

Lumina Spark achieves this more comprehensive view by looking at 8 aspects and 24 qualities, and measuring these along a continuum to create a unique portrait for each individual. And it goes deeper.  Each quality is measured for three personas:

1.       Your Underlying persona – who you are most naturally
2.       Your Everyday persona – how you “show up” based on what’s required of you at work
3.       Your Overextended persona – how you behave under stress

The Lumina model is built around understanding ourselves and others so that we can adapt our behavior and communicate and work better together. Individuals are complex, and should not be placed in boxes, limiting the beliefs about their effectiveness, their capabilities and their ability to develop and expand.

If you’d like to learn more about Lumina Spark, please contact me at info-us@luminalearning.com or 888.827.8855.

Leading from within,

Rebecca