Stop Overcompensating: The New Development Model Blending Personality, Strengths, and Competencies
The Data Overload Problem: Why One Assessment Isn’t Enough
The Pitfall of the Single Tool: Why your Myers-Briggs (MBTI) doesn't tell you how to change, and your StrengthsFinder doesn't tell you what skills to build. This is why we incorporate multiple tools to provide actionable insights around the why, the what, and the how. It takes conscious effort to transform your intent into realized impact. MTR-i gives you an indication of the role (s) you play in a team or organization which may align with your strengths or stresses. Kolbe A gets us out of personality, focusing instead on optimizing energy for peak performance. WCU provides validation and gap bridging around where you naturally focus your communication energy. The last piece of the puzzle is Lominger which provides actionable feedback on the positive and negative behaviors observed and how they impact your team and organization. Additionally, one can’t improve by data alone, this requires personal interaction and dialogue that creates a safe space where you can understand, ideate, plan, and make targeted efforts to make a lasting and impactful change. I will use my values to illustrates how all this can fit together into a coaching plan. Weaved throughout the layers is Emotional Intelligence (EI).
The 3-Layer Development Stack: Personality, Strength, and Action
Layer 1: The Foundation (MTR-i, MBTI)
Understanding Tim’s default energy and orientation (The 'Why').
ENTP (MBTI) driven by inventive, challenge-driven, and strategic thinking based on inputs and feedback.
Explorer (MTR-i) as confirmed by thriving in ambiguity and reframing problems from observations.
EI growth as evidenced by: Self-awareness growth from 7 to 9; Self-management growth from 3 to 8 across 25-year span test results.
Academic achievement resulting in deep introspection, trauma reflection, conflict analysis from professors’ feedback.
Work activity observable shift from executor to strategist; builder of frameworks coming from resume and feedback.
Work behavior seen as a transparent, emotionally intelligent, and self-aware leader from LinkedIn recommendations.
Fundamentally driven by curiosity, innovation, and intellectual challenge, naturally seeking to generate new ideas and strategies rather than adhering to rigid existing structures. His energy is directed externally toward brainstorming possibilities and conceptually engaging with the world, making him a powerful visionary. Needs to maintain discipline to overcome natural tendency to move on to the next project and communicate well to avoid confusing others.
Layer 2: The Fuel (StrengthsFinder, Kolbe, WCU)
Identifying what energizes and differentiates Tim (The 'What').
Kolbe A profile: Quick Start 8 (Innovate), Follow Through 2 (Adapt)
WCU standouts: High Idea & Action, Low People
DISC rating: High Influence/Dominance, Low Steadiness
EI growth as evidenced by: Social awareness growth from 6 to 10 across 25-year span test results.
Academic achievement displayed as strategic messaging, visual storytelling, and peer engagement from professors’ feedback.
Work activity observed rapid ideation, systems thinking, and delegation of process from resume and feedback.
Work behavior seen as one who energizes teams, reframes challenges, and drives innovation from LinkedIn recommendations.
This suite of tools reveals his immense creative power: his Ideation strength and dominant WCU Idea score ensure he continuously generates innovative solutions, while his Strategic Thinking and Kolbe Adapt energy define his approach to building and refining new systems. However, the low WCU People score signals a critical tension, as his communication naturally prioritizes logic and action over relational engagement, meaning his powerful WOO and Individualator strengths are often deployed consciously and strategically to override his natural communication preference. This combination demonstrates a leader who is fueled by conceptual design and measurable output but must intentionally invest energy to ensure his people-focused skills land effectively.
Layer 3: The Blueprint (Lominger)
The specific, observable behaviors required for success (The 'How').
360 Strengths: Strategic Agility, Problem Solving, Developing Direct Reports
360 Overused (Crutches): Drive for Results, Innovation Management
360 Less Skilled: Planning, Process Management, Sizing Up People
EI growth as evidenced by: Relationship management growth from 5 to 10 across 25-year span test results.
Academic achievement demonstrating mastery in conflict resolution and team facilitation from professors’ feedback.
Work activity outcomes, he has built PMOs, scaled global teams, and coached direct reports.
Work behaviors observed as one who provides mentorship, team development, operational leadership from LinkedIn recommendations.
This comprehensive Lominger blueprint serves as the actionable guide, translating Tim's innate energy and observable strengths into specific, job-related behaviors required for his success. By consciously developing Listening and Planning, Tim can strategically mitigate his tendency to overuse his Strategic and Action-Oriented competencies. This informed approach moves development past mere self-awareness, offering a clear path to optimize his leadership performance without risking burnout or alienating the teams he needs to implement his vision.
The Strength Paradox: When Your Superpower Becomes a Crutch
The most dangerous blind spot for any top performer is the moment their greatest natural gift becomes their greatest liability. When you overuse a strength, you deplete your energy and inadvertently create bottlenecks for your team. We call this The Strength Paradox.
The combined profile of the Ideator (StrengthsFinder), ENTP (MBTI), and Explorer (MTR-i) describes a leader wired for pure Innovation. However, this potential behavior gets in the way “So many brilliant ideas are started, none are finished. The leader moves on before the team can execute the first one. The team experiences constant pivots and changes because the leader’s focus is always on the next trend, eroding trust and causing burnout.” The leader is a "Great Thinker, Poor Finisher", brilliant on the whiteboard, but frustrating in the deployment phase.
The key to resolving the paradox is recognizing that the problem is not a lack of effort, but the avoidance of specific Lominger competencies that require energy the leader instinctively resists. The way I manage it today is forcing myself to listen, actively listen, to understand not just what the team is saying but how they are feeling. I also work very hard to not jump in and try and fix every problem myself. The reason my recommendations list me being a great mentor and coach is because I actively use the skills I had to develop raising two children with autism. That personal lesson and the skills my wife taught me (with her extensive experience in coaching professionals to provide successful outcomes for children with autism) have bled over into my professional world and helped mitigate my natural inclinations.
Beyond Compensation: A Targeted Development Plan
If you haven’t been lucky enough to learn these skills in your personal life, then this is where the beauty of a structured, observation-based, research-driven combined set of tools can help you make the difference between improving weaknesses and developing necessary skills. A plan for somebody like me would seek to provide coaching that helps identify the specific Process and People competencies the intellect is actively avoiding. It won't slow down the Ideator, it will build a reliable, structural "Execution Bridge" that externalizes the burden of detail, allowing that innovative energy to be used for maximum value, not maximum frustration. This is something that can have concrete steps applied, regular check-ins, and direct reflective feedback sessions to track your progress towards your leadership excellence goals.
Tim Should:
Build an “execution bridge” to externalize structure to mitigate overuse of innovation & drive.
Develop rituals, feedback loops, and delegation scaffolds to minimize avoidance of process & people diagnostics.
Use systems and team strengths to sustain momentum so that he can leverage high ideation coupled with low follow-through inclination.
Your Next Move: Stop Analyzing, Start Activating
Start your journey towards effective communication, leadership, and achieving successful outcomes today. There are many times this competency-based feedback and dialogue has resulted in actionable results within a couple weeks. The more self-aware and vulnerable you are, the quicker and more effective the outcomes will be.