The Berens CORE™ Approach is an ideal method for organizations and professionals looking for a comprehensive system that not only uses simple, yet rich, models for understanding human behavior but also affects the bottom line. Organizations report:

  • Shifts in Leadership and Management Practices: Leaders easily integrate and use the Berens CORE™ Approach and the methods taught to increase employee engagement.

How is Berens CORE Approach different from personality typing?



The Berens CORE Approach focuses on building self-awareness skills and learner owned identification of their own personality patterns through our pioneered CORE Self-Discovery Process™. The practices that help them develop much needed agility stay with them throughout their lifetime. Most of all the information learned about themselves and others is so profound that it can be life changing. With the models held lightly, there is room to grow and develop and a high degree of buy in.

For more information see our comparison chart below. Experience The Berens CORE Intensive.

 Personality TypingBerens CORE™ Approach
Learning ProcessTake an instrument, get feedback, verify type.Self-discovery process with validated descriptions and behavioral feedback, using lightly held models, followed by practices that foster horizontal and vertical development and agility.
Learning RetentionDepends on how relevant it seems to the learner. Sometimes a printed report or booklets to be referenced. Often these land on the shelf or the file drawer.While materials and tools are provided, learner leaves with deeply understood internal 'maps' that can be referenced anytime, anywhere, with or without books or computers. Embedded practices bring content and theory to life, for life.
Participant materials for individualsRanges from just the resulting type code to reports and sometimes booklets.Published workbooks for each model, job aids, leader materials, and context specific assessments.

The Berens CORE™ Approach is a set of practices for fostering self-leadership in all kinds of situations. Self-leadership is fundamental to effective leadership, teamwork, and the agility required in today’s complex, rapidly changing world. Self-leaders operate with high levels of self-awareness and personal self-management. They tend to be self-determining, managing their lives so they are intrinsically motivated.

The practices guide individuals through a process of Centering, Opening, Relating, and Expanding.

Centering—Recognizing and connecting to the unconscious operating systems that are driving our thoughts, feelings, and behavior. We all have a constant core that is at the center of who we are. It has always been there even as it has evolved over time. The CORE Approach helps you uncover this constant core using multiple lenses and frameworks that provide a rich level of self-awareness and understanding. Once you have this self-awareness, you can come back to it to center yourself.

Opening— Opening to new situations where we can use our own strengths and to perspectives and approaches other than our habitual ones. Once we become aware of the strengths of our core, we can better manage our lives to get those core needs met in ways we hadn’t realized were possible. We also become aware of how overusing these strengths can be counter productive. While our constant core provides us with talents to get our needs and drives met, it also sets up blind spots. Our early tendencies are to come from this core in every aspect of our lives, yet the habitual perspectives or approaches may not be the right ones for the situations we find ourselves in. We need to open up to the value of other approaches and perspectives.

Relating—Increasing our capacity to connect with others and to relate to the various contexts we are in. Once we have opened to the value of the strengths and perspectives of others, we can make space for others to apply their strengths and appreciate them for who they are and what they bring to the relationship. We can also learn to take the perspectives of others and shift our language and behaviors to connect with them as well as to better match needs of the situation. This will improve the quality of our relationships, reduce unproductive conflict, and improve teamwork.

Expanding—Increasing our capacity to sense beyond our blindspots into what is needed and what is emerging. When we are stuck in our own unconscious operating systems, we limit what we can see and how much complexity we can manage. In some situations we need to expand our skill levels to better engage our strengths. In others, we need to expand our skill sets to better fulfill our purpose. Sometimes expanding involves removing roadblocks to our development by facing our darker sides and doing shadow work. As we expand, our capacities to bring forth what needs to emerge will increase.

Find out more about The Berens CORE Intensive


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