Why VIA Strengths?

Welcome to a Focus on Strengths

A brief introduction

(A YouTube video introduction can be found by scrolling to the bottom of the page)

With the advent of positive psychology in the 1960's, there began a movement to focus on people's strengths instead of their weaknesses.

Instead of trying to slog uphill with our frailties and faults on our backs, psychology began to focus on the lighter side of strengths and positive attributes.

There have been opponents, especially and in this case justifiably, as some interpretations of this new science of positivity became "positively" toxic (pun intended), bypassing the very real shadow side of humanity. But holistically, the movement has allowed for a better integration of this shadow than either the sappy and saccharine positivity genre or the negative victim mindset that had prevailed.

Focusing on strengths doesn't mean we no longer have uphill climbs, but we are buoyed and carried by our previously unrecognized attributes along with a new sense of our own potential for growth.

Psychologists, Coaches, Authors, and Scientists are continuously discovering that there is much more to the human than meets the eye.

Strengths Tests and Personality Tests

Positive Psychology meets Mainstream Demand

While we are making headway in the human potential movement, it's important to note that many tests that have come out over the years are potentially harmful to a global community as they are based on Western worldviews, often patriarchal and hierarchical in nature. Some also derive from a paradigm of fixed personality which science is showing us more and more is categorically not the case. Human personality is diverse and fluid.

Even now, there are no easy answers as the narratives shift daily. The most promising views empower humans by recognizing their innate ability to demonstrate and develop resilience, mind shifts, growth-oriented habits, and a renewed sense of personal agency and responsibility.

I want to share why I chose to work with VIA Strengths in particular, over some other strengths-based systems, in my coaching and workshops, and why they are highlighted in many of my keynotes and lectures.

Why VIA?!

Why I personally work with VIA Strengths

1. The initial survey is free which makes it accessible to everyone. (Scroll down or hit the Table of Contents title to access the 🔗 to the free survey.
2. Based on universal strengths of character, found across virtually all religions, cultures, nations, and belief systems.
3. Presented in common language and is applicable to all of life, both work, home, school, and social.
4. Having to do with the core human phenomena of being and doing.
5. Categorized in 6 Virtue Sets of Wisdom, Courage, Humanity, Justice, Temperance, and Transcendence
6. Focused on Signature Strengths (generally 5) but education teaches that all 24 matter. The hierarchy tends to focus more on a continuum of more visible to less visible, not more valuable or less valuable strengths. The lower strengths are decidedly not weaknesses and all strengths can be improved.
7. The VIA Institute is a non-profit entity, their work open to all scientists. The work is peer-reviewed and shows validity through historical analyses, criteria and psychometrics.

The VIA Character Strengths, according to Positive Psychologist Martin Seligman* "are the wellsprings or mansions of the good life - a life well lived."

The show up in our capacity for thinking, feeling and behaving, reflecting our personal identity.** A study and intentional focus on these character strengths produce the positive outcomes of well-being, positive relationships, and achievement, among others for ourselves and those around us. They are core to our being/identity and our doing/behavior. ***

The VIA Character Strengths have been purported to instill in us "a power to act well, a force that has or can have an effect, or the will to act in a human way." **** (This sounds an awful lot like "Genius" to me. See Newsletter {1}.)

****See bottom of page for References

Take the VIA Survey! It's FREE!

VIA Strengths Survey

Available at VIACharacter.org. I encourage all my clients to take it before their first or second coaching session or workshop and we work with the report extensively.

I have no direct affiliation with VIA, nor your survey and will only know what your Strengths Profile is if you choose to share it with me.
(I do offer additional value-added reports through my own professional VIA dashboard, upon request.)

I also love that it's called a Survey. It feels much more holistic than a test or assessment. Don't you agree?

Account Registration | VIA Institute

VIA Institute On Character

Expanding Your Personal Paradigm

A Growing Sense of Identity

Humans are amazingly multi-passionate, multi-talented, and dynamic beings. It is not likely that the VIA Strengths Survey can cover the entirety of beautiful intricacies in each of us. But it's a great start, for the reasons listed above.

So in fairness, let's explore a few (by no means a comprehensive list) of the more popular strengths and personality based "tests." I don't link them here, nor are the brief descriptions my own, but all are easily accessible with an online search for your own research.

You may find that these tests/assessments/surveys help you to expand your sense of identity. You might also find that they can pigeon-hole you into a "fixed" personality. It is my opinion that as Benjamin Hardy says so aptly in one of his book titles "Personality isn't Permanent." A great read, by the way, if you want to go more in depth into our ability to transform our personalities and lives for the better.

Strengths

VIA Character Strengths - As explained briefly above, Values-based character strengths, applicable across all domains of life, with a focus on Signature Strengths, but emphasizing that all 24 strengths matter.

CAPP Strengths - helps individuals identify and understand their strengths, weaknesses, and learned behaviors by assessing 60 strengths, categorizing them into realized strengths, unrealized strengths, learned behaviors and weaknesses. Designed to provide practical advice on how to describe your best self, develop future potential, and enhance personal and professional growth.

Clifton (Gallup) Strengthsfinder - helps individuals identify and define their strengths in the workplace, focusing on a top 5 among 34 strengths.

Strengthscope - Designed for workplaces to help teams discover their unique strengths in a memorable, practical way leading to a more diverse, engaged, productive and agile workforce Results are scientifically backed, robust and free of any bias in regard to gender, age and ethnic origin.

Personality

DISC - focuses on individual preferences when communicating and collaborating with others.
Enneagram - The Enneagram is a personality typology system that identifies nine distinct personality types. Each type represents a distinct pattern of thinking, feeling, and behaving. The Enneagram can be used for self-awareness, personal growth, and understanding others.
Myers Briggs (MBTI) - cognitive preferences, or ways of processing information.
Big Five (Five Factor Model or OCEAN) - The Big Five personality traits, also known as the Five Factor Model or OCEAN, is a well-researched and widely accepted personality model that measures individuals across five broad dimensions: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism.
16PF (16 Personality Factors) - The 16PF is a personality assessment based on Raymond Cattell's 16-factor theory of personality, measuring an individual's traits across 16 different factors, providing a more detailed understanding of their personality and behavior.

References

* Seligman, M.E.P. (2002). Authentic Happiness. New York, NY: Free Press.
** Park, N., & Peterson, C. (2009). Character Strengths: Research and Practice. Journal of College and Character, 10(4), np. http://doi.org/10.2202/1904-1639.1042
*** Niemiec, R.M. (2014) Mindfulness and Character Strengths: A practical guide to flourishing. Boston, MA: Hogrefe.
**** Compte-Sponville, A. (2001). A small treatise on the great virtues (C. Temerson, Trans.). New York, NY: Metropolitan Books.

All above references accessed in Character Strengths Interventions: A Field Guide for Practitioners by Ryan M. Niemiec.
Niemiec, R.M. (2018). Character Strengths Interventions: A Field Guide for Practitioners. Boston: Hogrefe

To your Genius

🩵 Michele Jennae