01-08-2025
Personality-Tuned Exercise Can Be Good For More Than Your Health
It goes back to the schoolyards of our youth: the sense that physical activities are a 'recess' from the real work of reading, writing and 'rithmetic. We grow a bit older and sports or gym class become a sidecar activity for most of us—not something we plan to build a career around. The careers we do build may place some physical demands on us, but if we take one of the 80% of jobs that are sedentary or are like most people who spend more than half of their time in front of a screen, exercising our bodies can seem unimportant or like something we 'should' do for our health but without any real bearing on our professional efficacy.
So, when New Atlas recently reported on a study from University College London (UCL) on the connection between personality and physical activities, their orientation (and that of the study) was on what kind of activities each personality type would enjoy enough to stick with. That perspective is valid and matches the sidecar mentality around exercise; however, our work with FEBI patterns in the nervous system flips that around to show what kind of activities can strengthen one's personality and bring needed agility to one's leadership. Looked at this way, the UCL study further validates that personality is not some abstract, cognitive 'type' but deeply embedded in our bodies. We can run that mind-body connection in reverse, as it were, using our bodies in particular ways that give rise to four different and essential mindsets for leadership. What's more, guided by the UCL study, we can do that in ways that we're likely to stick with.
The UCL study sought to establish connections between personality and preferences for different types of exercise, willingness to engage them, and results in fitness or stress levels. Participants were put through an 8-week at-home cycling and strength training program or in a control group. The cycling program varied from fast and intense to slow and easy and participants reported how much they enjoyed each part of the workout program. They also completed a Perceived Stress Survey and a personality assessment based on the Big Five traits identified by McCrae and Costa as: extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness and neuroticism (or negative emotions).
As Flaminia Ronca, PhD, lead author on the study, summarized, 'We have found that personality can influence how we engage with exercise, and particularly which forms of exercise we enjoy the most.' While fitness results did not vary significantly across personality traits, the orientation toward exercise did, as summarized in Figure 1.
Looking at these findings from a FEBI perspective, we shift into a model that emerged from physiology, not psychology. In the 1930's Josephine Rathbone characterized four large-scale patterns in the nervous system relating to the order in which nerves activate opposing muscle groups and how we carry residual tension in our bodies. Years later, Hunt and Fitt measured these four patterns using electrophysiology and Fitt went on to apply them in education and dance therapy. When choreographer and movement researcher, Betsy Wetzig learned of these patterns, she was struck by the link to personality and began cataloguing the connections. Learning about these patterns from Betsy, I recognized their connection to leadership and a principle from my training in Zen and martial arts: when you make something physical, you make it trainable beyond the capacity of the mind to train itself. The patterns were a perfect framework for helping people access the range of mindsets, skills and behaviors needed for successful leadership—or a successful life.
While these four patterns have gone by different names, we call them by their dominant leadership characteristic: Driver, Organizer, Collaborator and Visionary. As written about elsewhere, we developed the FEBI assessment as a validated measure of these four patterns of personality. As part of our validation process, we did a correlation study with the Big Five model, which allows for useful connections to this UCL study. We found strong correlations between the four dominant factors of the Big Five model and the FEBI patterns, while the 5th factor, neuroticism, represented a set of dysfunctional expressions found in the other four patterns. We also found that extraversion came in two flavors: extraversion toward tasks (e.g., high activity, achievement striving) mapped to Driver, while social extraversion (e.g., gregarious, warmth) mapped to Collaborator. Organizer strongly correlated with Conscientiousness, while Visionary mapped to Openness. The correlations between the FEBI patterns and the factors and subscales of the Big Five model are summarized in Figure 2.
In our work with FEBI as part of Zen Leadership development, we focus less on what's enduring in personality (i.e., a rigid 'type') and more on what's available through fluid use of each pattern as it's needed. While FEBI measures one's pattern order and most preferred (i.e., Home) pattern, every pattern is essential and has unique strengths. The expansive Visionary, for example, is best at seeing the big picture, thinking strategically and imagining futures ready to happen. The disciplined Organizer is great at giving those ideas form, developing plans, processes and next steps. The Collaborator excels in relationships and playfully bringing others along. The Driver brings determination and urgency to hitting targets and breaking through barriers.
A probable mapping of the UCL exercise preference findings to FEBI Home patterns would predict:
We know from our research into FEBI patterns that these exercise preferences also match what puts people into each of the patterns. For example, hard and fast, intense activities put the nervous system into Driver mode and it's not surprising that someone already strong in Driver would feel at home there. Other ways to enter and cultivate each of the patterns are shown in Figure 3.
Years of coaching leaders with FEBI, often alongside feedback they've received from others, have shown that it's usually the case that the area they most want to work on (or are told to work on by others) is associated with one of their weaker patterns. For example, a leader strong in Driver and weak in Visionary might be praised in multi-rater feedback for their ability to hit the numbers but told they need to be more strategic. A high Visionary, low Driver leader might have a million great ideas but struggle to set priorities or get to the point.
If we do activities only based on our enjoyment of them, there are some patterns we may never develop, which means there will be aspects of leadership and situations in life we'll never rise to. On the other hand, if we try to develop a weak pattern by doing something we don't enjoy, we may not stick with it long enough to make a difference. The UCL study and our work with FEBI suggest a productive blend: use what you enjoy to stretch into a pattern that matches what you need.
Returning to our examples and applying FEBI coaching, the high Driver leader preferred intense activities but needed more of the big picture expansiveness that comes with Visionary. Reviewing the physical ways to cultivate Visionary, sailing had appeal as they had done that in their youth. Slow and easy was not their style but competitive sailing was something that would keep their interest. It met their preference for intensity, while also giving them practice seeing the big picture, reading the patterns of nature and being strategic.
Conversely the high Visionary, low Driver leader needed more of the Driver's focus but was unlikely to stick with a high intensity practice. One of their existing practices was Tai Chi, done in a characteristically open and relaxed way. Punctuating their practice with moments of sharp intensity and then going back to relaxed openness gave them practice in momentarily focusing into Driver and then relaxing back into the bigness of Visionary. Over time they were better able to do the same thing in their work.
In ways such as these, flipping the mind-body connection around so that the body equips us with the best-suited frame of mind, our leadership becomes more agile and effective. Moreover, our physical activities move from sidecar status to giving us real horsepower, which also gives them staying power in our lives. Tuning a practice to both what we enjoy and what we need, the body becomes a deeply effective trainer of the mind—not just something for 'recess.'
