Character Strengths and 4 reasons why you need to know yours.

In a world where our personality can be ‘tested’ in a hundred different ways, we can learn all sorts of things about what sort of person we are, how are we supposed to know what is reliable and can not only tell us something about ourselves, but actually be helpful to us? 

One of my favourite tools to use with my coaching clients is the VIA Character Strengths. It’s a well researched survey which gives you great insights into yourself. Work first started in the early 2000s, with the original work being published in 2004 by Peterson & Seligman. Researchers are continuing to study the Character Strengths to find out more about how the show up in our lives and influence us. 

The character strengths are all positive aspects of you that influence how you think, feel and behave. From my experience there is movement in them – they aren’t going to stay exactly same, the order of some may change, but I tend to find they are pretty stable and reflect what is going on in my life at the time (more on that later). 

There are 24 Character Strengths and these are grouped in to 6 Virtues: 

Wisdom 

• Creativity 

• Curiosity 

• Judgement 

• Love of learning 

• Perspective 

Courage 

• Bravery 

• Honesty 

• Perseverance 

• Zest 

Humanity 

• Kindness 

• Love 

• Social Intelligence 

Justice 

• Fairness 

• Leadership 

• Teamwork 

Temperance  

• Forgiveness 

• Humility 

• Prudence 

• Self-regulation 

Transcendence 

• Appreciation of Beauty & Excellence 

• Gratitude 

• Hope 

• Humour 

• Spirituality 

These are then ranked (as you take the survey), producing your personal Character Strengths Constellation, split into three sections – your Signature Strengths (top 5), your Lesser Strengths (bottom 5) and the rest. Most people I work with aren’t surprised with what they find (in fact I don’t think anyone has been), there is a sense of knowing, and after all, they’re your strengths.  

So, what's the point then? 

Knowing your Character Strengths and where they rank can articulate what you knew, but perhaps didn’t have words for. It enables you to have some distance from these aspects of yourself so you can explore how they can better work for you. 

The research into Character Strength has shown us that knowing our Character Strengths can be used to support our wellbeing 

1. We can use them to job craft – it we find ourselves using the majority of our Signature Strengths at work we have a more positive experience of work 

1. We are more likely to find flow when we are using our strengths. More on the benefits of Flow here. 

1. We can use our Signature Strengths in new ways to support ourselves. For example, if Love is a Signature Strength, we can practice using this towards ourselves if we’re trying to develop self-compassion. 

1. We can develop our Lesser Strengths by intentionally practicing them to serve us better. Self-regulation for example can be challenging for us, but if we’re aware that it is a lesser strength, we can take steps to practice and strengthen it. 

If you want me ideas about how to use your strengths, sign up for The Collective to get these to your inbox every Thursday. 

Alex x

P.S. If you’re curious, my Signature Strengths are Love of Learning, Fairness, Humility, Kindness and Love