Article contents
- What are Character Strengths?
- The Values in Action(VIA) Classification
- What are Virtues?
- List and Definition of each Character Strengths
- Why should Managers Worry About Character Strength?
What are Character Strengths?
Character strengths may be defined as those aspects of personality that are valued. When exercise, these character strengths lead to healthy human development across life-span. They prevent undesirable consequences and facilitate stress coping. Having good character strengths also enables young men and women to thrive in life. Martin Seligman and Christoper Peterson developed 24 character strengths that are classified under 6 virtues.
The Values in Action (VIA) Classification
Over the period of hundreds of years, psychologist have directed their attention to the study of negative human behaviour and abnormalities. They have studied mental disorders, maladaptive traits, impact of negative life events and so on. However, positive psychologists like Martin Seligman, claim that if we want a positive society were human beings have positive interactions with each other, just focusing on the negative will not help. Instead, there is a need to find out what is good in people and nurture them so that they can turn out to be good human beings.
This attempt to find out what is right about people led to systematic work by positive psychologists. The outcome of intense and systematic work was the development of 24 character strengths classified under 6 virtues.
The VIA assumes that character is plural. Character consists of varying degrees of different character strengths. For instance, an individual may have high degrees of character strength C1, medium C2 and low C3. This profile will be a predictor of the overall character of the individual.
What are Virtues?
Virtues are core features of a character that are valued by religious and spiritual thinkers. Virtues are deemed to be morally correct or good and are almost equally valued across cultures. The following slide show depicts the six virtues and 24 character strengths:
List and Definition of Each Character Strength
Creativity:
It involves the use of imaginativeness or original ideas to develop some solutions. Creativity correlates with openness to experiences and cognitive flexibility. Example: making up a new bedtime story for your child.
Curiosity:
It is an urge or drive to one feel to know more. Curiosity correlates with positive affect, willingness to challenge stereotypes, desire for change, etc. Example: asking questions in a team meeting.
Judgment:
It is the ability to make a sensible decision. Judgment correlates with problem-solving skills, increased cognitive ability and effective stress management. Example: reading two opposite schools of thought about an issue.
Love of learning:
It is the way in which a person engages with new information. It is also described as a willingness to learn and master new skills. Love of learning is likely to be strongly related to curiosity. People who have a high degree of this character are likely to be resourceful, have high self-efficacy, open to seeking challenges. Example: Reading a book to know more about what the CEO was talking about.
Perspective:
In common usage, it refers to the art of representing two-dimensional objects in three-dimensions so that one can see it and consider the object from all angles accurately. From the managerial point of view, perspective means the ability to maturely assess all dimensions and components of a problem. It correlates with successful aging and life satisfaction. Example: Trying to motivate your subordinates with a motivational talk.
Bravery:
It literally means being courageous. Bravery correlates with prosocial orientation, internal locus of control and an ability to delay gratification. Example: Dropping a colleague home late at night.
Perseverance:
It refers to persisting at a task despite difficulty and delay in achieving the goal. Perseverance co-relates with goal completion and self-efficacy. Example: Greeting an abusive colleague everyday despite their non-responsiveness.
Honesty:
It involves virtues like truthfulness, integrity, straightforwardness and an absence of behaviors such as lying, cheating and deceit. Honesty correlates with life satisfaction, empathy and positive social functioning. Example: Admitting a mistake in the workplace.
Zest:
It refers to being enthusiastic about something. If someone has zest, they put their wholehearted efforts into achieving it. Zest is related to autonomy and goal-attainment. Example: Waking up early in the morning for yoga.
Love:
It refers to a deep affection for something. The ability to love correlates strongly with positive relations with others and a healthy balance between autonomy and interdependence. Example: Listening to your spouse who had a difficult day.
Kindness:
It is the quality of being generous, friendly and considerate. Kindness improves overall mental and physical health. Example: Offering a lift to your neighbor.
Social intelligence:
It is the capacity to know oneself and others. Social intelligence has a high correlation with smooth social functioning, lesser conflict and lower levels of aggression. Example: Being mindful of your child’s emotional state.
Teamwork:
It is the collaborative effort of a group to reach a common goal. Being a good team player is related to social trust and positive relations with others. Example: Helping a team member with your computer skills.
Fairness:
This refers to impartiality and not exhibiting discriminatory behavior. Fairness and perspective have high inter-correlation. Example: Offering an equal salary for equal work to employees.
Leadership:
It refers to the act of leading a group or an organization. Good and effective leaders have superior cognitive abilities, flexibility, emotional stability and social intelligence. Example: Organizing a re-union of your college-mates.
Forgiveness:
It refers to a conscious and deliberate decision to release feelings of resentment toward a person or group who has done some offense against you. People who have high degrees of forgiveness have lower levels of anger, anxiety and depression. Example: Letting go of the resentment towards a colleague who cut the queue for coffee.
Humility:
Humble people are modest. They do not brag about their achievements or accomplishments. It is related to forgiveness and perspective. Example: Letting your friend share an image you created.
Prudence:
It is the ability to discipline oneself with reason and logic. Prudent people are assertive, insightful and have a high need for achievement. Example: Making and following a strict daily schedule.
Self-regulation:
It refers to behavioral control and the ability to delay gratification until the time is right. Self-regulation leads to high academic and job performance. Example: Not taking a coffee break till the work is complete.
Appreciation of beauty and excellence:
Noticing and appreciating beauty in nature, other people, a work of art or any other thing. Example: Appreciating the musical skills of your colleague.
Gratitude:
Gratitude is the quality of being thankful. It also encompasses the willingness to do something for someone who has done something good for you. It is related to positive emotions and life satisfaction. Example: Thanking the waitress who served your meal.
Hope:
Hope is a feeling of expectation that something good will happen. It is related to optimism and overall wellbeing. Example: Feeling optimistic about a job interview.
Humour:
It is the quality of being amusing. Humor is a positive emotional state associated with being happy and managing stress in an effective manner. Example: Smiling at the person sitting next to you on the bus.
Spirituality:
It is a sense of connection with something bigger (universe). Spirituality is related to lower levels of substance abuse, altruism and compassion. Example: Practicing mindfulness in everyday life.
Why should managers worry about character strengths?
- Wellbeing: Character strengths like zest, hope and gratitude are linked to increased wellbeing. Research suggests that wellbeing is directly related to positive work-related outcomes like productivity, focus and citizenship behaviour.
- Resilience: Character strengths like appreciation for beauty may be very important for resilience. In times of uncertainties, resilience is very important for successful work performance. Highly resilient employees are more likely to bounce back and perform well in times of adversities and uncertainties. Check out our article on What is personal resilience.
- Leadership: It is very crucial that organizations appoint good leaders for inspiring employees to put maximum efforts in the workplace. Good leaders have a combination of character strengths like creativity, perspective, social intelligence and self-regulation. Efforts to enhance these character strengths might be crucial for leaders.
- Working in teams: Most organizations have now adopted a structure where employees work in teams. Teamwork may be difficult due to a variety of reasons like poor social skills, self-regulation failure, lack of zest and gratitude and a lot more. Exercises and motivation can help cultivate and enhance character strengths. A team that has enhanced these character strengths in its members is likely to thrive.
- Role Conflict: Many times, employees experience role conflict because there is a discrepancy between their character strengths and the job role assigned to them. We can find out our character strengths by taking a survey developed by VIA. The survey is free of cost. Finding out our strongest and most consistent character (signature strength) might be a successful way to reduce the risk of role conflict and increase job satisfaction.
- Counter-productive Behaviour: Organizations need to know what is good in their employees. Working on developing good characters would increase positive functioning in the workplace. It is also likely to reduce counter-productive workplace behaviours like bullying and harassment.
Can Character Strengths be Cultivated?
Although some of the character strengths are trait-like, it is possible to cultivate them with the help of training and participating in exercises with dedication.
More articles of developing your inner self coming up soon. Meanwhile, please join the email newsletter to follow The Management Weekly or at https://twitter.com/JoinMagWe