How to gain the trust of players as a coach when you first join a team
How to gain the trust of players as a coach when you first join a team
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10-minute read
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure” - Marianne Williamson.
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Why Care About Your Character Strengths?​
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Research on the history behind the 24-Character Strengths suggests these have survived among humans for centuries irrespective of cultural differences because of their adaptive benefits for human living, growth and the progression of society (3). Interestingly, brain science indicates we are biologically hardwired to express and make the most of our Character Strengths to gain an advantage in life (4). According to this science, our brains are cleverly designed with certain neural pathways and reward systems to ensure that most of our thoughts and actions (99% of them in fact!) are geared towards using our Character Strengths in some shape or form. When we successfully tap into our Character Strengths, our brains reward us by making us feel great, so much so that we can’t wait to use them again. It’s nature’s way of trying to keep us on the right path to unlocking our greatness (4). This is why research shows the more we play to our Signature Strengths, the more we get out of ourselves. We become happier and feel more authentic, energised, productive and connected to people (5).
You might ask the question, however, that if we are naturally hardwired to play to our Character Strengths, why care about knowing them better, don’t we naturally make the best use of them? Unfortunately, we do not. Without conscious knowledge of our strengths, we are at the mercy of our strengths being applied through our unconscious efforts which are prone to a high degree of error (6). This is because there are many nuances to using our Character Strengths in the right way. For instance, the anatomy of our strengths has been designed in such a way that we can use them incorrectly by either using them too little (underuse) or too much (overuse) for what is warranted in each situation, with the right amount of use typically sitting within the middle of these two extremes, known as the ‘golden mean’ (Figure 2) (6). An analogy to help with understanding how our strengths are designed to work is to imagine you are cooking a cake. You can ruin the cake by undercooking it, making it look dense and gummy or you overcook the cake, causing it to become hard and dry. Neither is going to taste nice! The perfect cake is cooked for just the right amount of time at the right temperature and rewards you with a beautiful appearance and delicious taste! Our strengths obey these same natural laws. Hence, without the self-awareness, knowledge, and skills to know our strengths inside out, we will fail to reap the delicious rewards of improved mental health, relationships and performance levels that come with tapping into our strengths correctly (4,6).
“An analogy to help with understanding how our strengths are designed to work is to imagine you are cooking a cake. You can ruin the cake by undercooking it, making it look dense and gummy or you overcook the cake, causing it to become hard and dry. Neither is going to taste nice! The perfect cake is cooked for just the right amount of time at the right temperature and rewards you with a beautiful appearance and delicious taste! Our strengths obey these same natural laws.”
Does the United Kingdom Have A Problem With Character Strengths Use?​
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People score higher on measures of mental health and well-being when their lifestyles allow them to play to their top Character Strengths (5). The most common mental health measure used to make this asessment is the PERMA model, which proposes positive mental health is made up of the frequent experiencing of pleasure (P), deep engagement in interests (E), quality relationships (R), meaning and purpose (M), and a sense of achievement (A). Logically then, how the United Kingdoms (UK) population fair across the PERMA model in their national statistics can provide insight into how many UK citizens tap into their Character Strengths.
In the 2024 CIDP Work Index survey, nearly half of UK people (43%) felt they wouldn’t enjoy their job if it wasn’t for the money earned whilst people who claim they work their job only for the money earned had increased from 36% to 47% in the last four years alone (7). Well, from these statistics, the pleasure aspect of PERMA seems diminished in the work environment and worryingly, is becoming more absent from the work environment as time goes on. Whilst hope would have me wishing the rest of the PERMA model could fare better in the national statistics, the reality is they seem to worsen! Regarding feeling a sense of deep engagement in their work, the 2024 Gallup’s Global State of the Workplace report finds the UK to be amongst the worst-performing European countries for employee engagement, with 90% of UK citizens feeling a lack of commitment to their work or actively disengaged from their work altogether (8). When it comes to experiencing quality relationships, the most recent UK Government Community Life Survey from 2021/2022 finds that 1 in 3 English people don’t feel a sense of belonging in their community (9), whilst, in the 2024 CIDP Work Index Survey, 50% of UK people reported lower levels of mental and physical health due to poor relationships at work (7). According to both the 2024 CIDP Work Index Survey and the 2021 YouGov Death Study, 1 in 4 people in the UK feel life and work lack a greater sense of meaning and purpose (7,10). And unfortunately, a sense of achievement is marred by the same issues. The 2024 CIDP Work Index Survey reported that 1 in 3 UK people feel they lack the required skills and expertise to do their job well, whilst it may be no surprise then that 1 in 3 UK citizens also do not feel accomplished in their work career (7).
“Regarding feeling a sense of deep engagement in their work, the 2024 Gallup’s Global State of the Workplace report finds the UK to be amongst the worst performing European countries for employee engagement, with 90% of UK citizens feeling a lack of commitment to their work or actively disengaged from their work altogether”
These UK national statistics may suggest that many UK citizens struggle to ignite their best qualities. At a conservative estimate, it would seem that 1/3rd of the UK’s population is unable to experience the level of positive well-being and performance that would result from playing to their Character Strengths on a daily basis. Whilst addressing these underlying issues in society may require bigger changes at the environmental and cultural level, you can take greater control over your ability to ignite your natural spark by discovering your top Character Strengths and making a commitment to craft a lifestyle around the use of these. Start small and set a goal each day on how you can use your top strengths more in your daily life (11). If your top Character Strength is Honesty, for example, then you could look for opportunities to speak your mind on a topic to a family member or friend that you believe would be hard but the right thing to do. Or when you feel a lot of peer pressure to act in a certain way, maybe at work, take a step back, remember your personal principles for living and commit to acting on them with integrity rather than following what the crowd want from you. These acts of honesty will give you a greater sense of authenticity and are tapping into the best you have to offer the world. Crafting a life geared to your strengths will help you reach higher levels of positive well-being and performance; and based on the UK’s national statistics, you will ignite a glow around you that makes you stand out from the crowd!
In this blog, I introduce you to what Character Strengths are, how to identify your top strengths with the research-backed 24-Character Strengths classification system, and why learning to better tap into your strongest Character Strengths is crucial for living a happier and more successful life.
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What are Character Strengths?​
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When people achieve extraordinary things in their lives, they often attribute their strength of character as crucial to their success. For example, Albert Einstein, the famous German theoretical physicist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1921 with his revolutionary theories on modern physics, credited his achievements to his character strengths of persistence and commitment by stating “It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.” Whilst many might argue Einstein’s intellectual breakthroughs were somewhat due to his freakishly high IQ score of 160, Professor Howard Gardener, A distinguished professor from Harvard University who had spent his life’s work researching intelligence came to the same conclusions as Einstein did by stating “Perhaps more crucial than intelligence in the human firmament are motivation, personality, emotions and will" (1). When we take the time to understand what Character Strengths are and the purpose they serve in our lives, it should be of little surprise to hear Einstein pay homage to his as powerful and reliable resources he could draw on to fulfil his true potential. And what is exciting about Einstein’s use of his character strengths to achieve greatness is that we all have the same capacity as him. Okay, maybe not quite the ability to publish grand theories that change the course of history! But we all do have the ability to elevate our lives to higher standards of happiness, success and fulfilment by learning how to better tap into our character strengths.
Over the centuries what specific qualities constitute a strength of character has been studied and debated. The famous Greek philosopher, Aristotle suggested strong character was about the courage to live a virtuous life, one that centred on resisting unhealthy vices such as laziness, gluttony, and corruption by committing to intellectual, ethical and societal ideals like seeking out higher wisdom, exercising discipline, and promoting fairness (2). What is quite remarkable about Aristotle’s writings on character strength is that many of his ideas written back in the fourth century BCE are consistent with what we know today about Character Strengths. In the early 2000s, a scientific research programme was launched by the Virtues in Action (VIA) Research Institute led by Dr Christopher Peterson and Dr Martin Seligman to create a classification system of Character Strengths much in the same way there exists a periodic table to categorise the basic chemical elements of the world (3). The VIA research institute spent years studying the most ideal character traits throughout human history, from interviewing thousands of people across different cultures to immersing themselves in centuries worth of wisdom shared by religious texts and scholarly leaders. And their conclusions? There exist 24 Character Strengths which make up the most positive aspects of our personality and these fall within six bigger categories called virtues (Figure 1) (3). Virtues are what a Character Strength aims to achieve by their use. For example, the Wisdom virtue is about the acquisition and use of knowledge and hence the virtue of Wisdom includes thinking strengths such as Curiosity, Creativity, Critical Thinking, Love of Learning and Perspective. Everyone possesses all 24-Character Strengths to varying degrees, with each of us having a dominant top 5 strengths called our Signature Strengths. Our Signature Strengths represent the most essential and powerful aspects of who we are, reflecting our unique talents and gifts (3). From the classification list of 24-Character Strengths, can you identify your top 5 Signature Strengths?
“Everyone possesses all 24-Character Strengths to varying degrees, with each of us having a dominant top 5 strengths called our Signature Strengths. Our Signature Strengths represent the most essential and powerful aspects of who we are, reflecting our unique talents and gifts.”
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Figure 1 - The VIA 24-Character Strengths Classification System.
Figure 2 - The anatomy of the Character Strength, Honesty.
10-minute read
References
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(1) Gardner, H. (1991). The unschooled mind: How children think and how schools should teach. Basic Books (AZ).
(2) Aristotle. (1953). In Radice B., Baldick R. (Eds.), Ethics. The Penguin Classics.
(3) Peterson, C., & Seligman, M., (2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification. American Psychological Association.
(4) Buckingham, M., & Clifton, D. O. (2001). Now, discover your strengths. Simon and Schuster.
(5) Wagner, L., Gander, F., Proyer, R. T., & Ruch, W. (2020). Character strengths and PERMA: Investigating the relationships of character strengths with a multidimensional framework of well-being. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 15, 307-328.
(6) Niemiec, R. M. (2023). Finding the golden mean: the overuse, underuse, and optimal use of character strengths. In A Second-Wave Positive Psychology in Counselling Psychology (pp. 183-201). Routledge.
(7) CIPD. (2024). CIPD Good Work Index 2024. CIPD. Retrieved from https://www.cipd.org/globalassets/media/knowledge/knowledge-hub/reports/2024-pdfs/8625-good-work-index-2024-survey-report-web.pdf
(8) Gallup. (2024). Gallup State of the Global Workplace. Gallup. Retrieved from https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace.aspx#ite-506897
(9) Department for Culture, Media and Sport. (2023). Community Life Survey 2021/2022: Neighbourhood and community. UK Government. Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/community-life-survey-202122/community-life-survey-202122-neighbourhood-and-community#:~:text=Community%20Cohesion,-The%20percentage%20of&text=In%20addition%2C%20in%202021%2F22,2019%2F20%20(59%25).
(10) Dinic, M. (2021). The YouGov Death Study: The meaning of life. YouGov. Retrieved from https://yougov.co.uk/society/articles/37383-yougov-death-study-meaning-life
(11) Gander, F., Wagner, L., & Niemiec, R. M. (2024). Do character strengths-based interventions change character strengths? Two randomized controlled intervention studies. Collabra: Psychology, 10(1).