In the early 2000s, something groundbreaking occurred in the social sciences. Scientists discovered that a common language of twenty-four character strengths makes up what’s best about our personalities.
Everyone possesses all twenty-four strengths in differing degrees, so each person has a truly unique character profile. Each character strength falls under one of these six broad virtue categories that are universal across cultures and nations:
wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence.
(Taken from the VIA Character
website.)
Since most of our clients come to Free To Be Coaching because we specialize in ADHD, Neil and I find that most of them know a lot more about their deficiencies than their strengths. For that reason, before our first meetings with new clients, each of us invites them to take the VIA Character Strengths Survey. This 20-minute
survey reveals how the twenty-four character strengths uniquely show up in each person.
Starting our work together with an emphasis on the client’s strengths lays a solid foundation for our engagement. When our clients leave us they have created new ways of looking at and working with their areas of challenge, which is often what they expected when they came to
coaching, but they have also developed a much greater appreciation for their positive qualities and their unique combination of strengths.
If you would like to take the VIA Character Strengths Survey, you can find it at viacharacter.org. The basic survey and report are free. You can purchase upgraded versions of the report that will give you many more details about each strength along with suggestions for engaging with your strengths.
When we can name our strengths, we can identify where they have played a significant role in past experiences, and we can intentionally call on them to help us in current situations. Because some strengths are not as highly developed as others, we can also decide to focus on and strengthen the ones that show up as weaker in the
survey results.
These are the twenty-four identified VIA Character Strengths in alphabetical order:
- Appreciation of Beauty and Excellence
- Bravery
- Creativity
- Curiosity
- Fairness
- Forgiveness
- Gratitude
- Honesty
- Hope
- Humility
- Humor
- Judgment
- Kindness
- Leadership
- Love
- Love of Learning
- Perseverance
- Perspective
- Prudence
- Self-Regulation
- Social Intelligence
- Spirituality
- Teamwork
- Zest
A section in each of the next twenty-four newsletters from Free To Be Coaching will examine one of these character strengths. Each of us has every one of the twenty-four, so it’s a good idea to become better acquainted with them and to discover how they show up in
us!
I invite you to take the free survey which is also available for children beginning at age ten. What a gift it is for a young person or a person of any age to be introduced to the wonderful world of strengths!
