Manila, 6 April 2023 — On what it takes to flourish in your life and leadership.

Story

It happened in 1998. When a new president of the American Psychological Association began his term, he carefully chose a theme that would open the door to new ways of improving our human lives, individually and collectively. Soon, the new theme would turn into an important domain of scientific exploration, with numerous researchers joining in to shed new light on the human condition. The theme was Positive Psychology, and the researcher who chose it was Martin Seligman, a professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.

Nowadays, positive psychology is understood to be the scientific study of human strengths and virtues that make life most worth living, focusing both on individual and societal well-being. It offers contrasting views to the earlier focus of psychology on mental illness, maladaptive behavior, and negative thinking. Seligman argued that it was time to complement that with studies on happiness, well-being, and positivity, and what he called “the pleasant life, the engaged life, and the meaningful life.” 

It did not take long for this new domain of psychological studies to take off among researchers and the public. Over the past two decades, a wealth of insights have resulted from research studies around the world. Through such research, Seligman and his colleagues identified five important factors of happiness and well-being that he called PERMA, referring to Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishments. Meanwhile, two psychometric instruments were soon launched to help people globally in identifying their character strengths, also referred to as strengths or talent themes.

Challenge

What are these two psychometric tests and how can they help us in work, life, and leadership today? Let’s unpack that challenge. First, there is the (paid) Clifton Strengths Finder, launched in 1999 and named after its founder. This survey is offered by Gallup, a company known for conducting polls. The publicity and income gained from their strengths finder enabled Gallup to start international consulting services to help companies with management and leadership. Their design of the survey is managed in-house by Gallup, hence we have little insight into the details of their research ‘under the hood.’ 

The second test is offered (for free) by the VIA Institute on Character since 2001 and is called the VIA Character Strengths Survey (formerly the Values in Action Inventory). Numerous researchers have published peer-reviewed studies on the use of this instrument. While the Gallup offering is focused on the workplace, the VIA Survey is more broadly applicable to a variety of work and other life domains, including education. When I started working on my own leadership development, I used both surveys and found them helpful and complementary in the way that they used different terms to describe my strengths.

Clifton Strengths and the VIA Survey will both offer you a ranking of your top 5 ‘signature’ strengths, from a total of 34 in Gallup’s case, and 24 in VIA’s case. Research has shown that working with your top 5 strengths will help you to improve both your performance and your well-being which is what positive psychology is after. In my experience, the challenge of using the instruments has three steps: discovering, communicating, and leveraging your strengths.

Question

To discover your strengths, using either or both instruments will help you. Communicating your strengths starts with familiarizing yourself with the strength descriptions until they resonate with you, and then sharing and explaining your strengths to people who are important in your life, including your bosses and teammates at work. This is well worth the time and courage it can take. Finally, the third and most crucial step is to learn how to leverage the use of your strengths — especially your top 5 ‘signature’ strengths — in your work, life, and leadership every day and week. 

In my experience with coaching leaders, they benefit when we draw on several insights from positive psychology research, including the use of their strengths identified with the help of these instruments. We also make use of several other instruments to inform their leadership development and growth. Together, that allows us to recognize, appreciate, and work with a clear and composite ‘picture’ of their unique backgrounds, strengths, and interests on their leadership journeys.

That leads me to my question for you this week. How will you use your strengths to boost your leadership and well-being? In positive psychology, ‘flourishing’ is seen as a desired outcome of using the five PERMA factors that Professor Seligman discovered. Increasingly, psychologists distinguish whether people are flourishing, languishing, or in depression. For leaders, the choice will be a no-brainer. We want to flourish, like the beautiful blossoms in the photo, and recognize that each leader among us is unique. Book a free strategy if you want to discover how to flourish on your leadership journey with your unique combination of strengths and interests.