design-character-strengths-plan

Design Character Strengths Plan

Identify an individual's top VIA character strengths and design a concrete, personalized plan to use them in new ways to increase engagement, meaning, and wellbeing.

Why This Is Best Practice

Adopted by: VIA Institute on Character (6M+ survey completions in 195 countries), Gallup Strengths-based development in 90% of Fortune 500 companies, University of Pennsylvania Positive Psychology Center (Peterson & Seligman's foundational research), Google's Project Aristotle team wellbeing research, Australian Positive Education Schools Association

Impact: Seligman et al. (2005) landmark RCT in American Psychologist demonstrated "Using Signature Strengths in New Ways" exercise produced the largest, most durable increase in happiness (and reduction in depression) of five tested interventions — effects persisted at 6-month follow-up; Proyer et al. (2015) RCT (n=178) found strengths-based intervention produced significant wellbeing gains (d=0.56) vs. control; Harter et al. (2002) Gallup study of 198,000 employees showed those who use strengths daily have 8% higher productivity and 15% lower turnover

Why best: Deficit-based approaches focus on fixing weaknesses, producing slow improvement from low baseline. Strengths-based development amplifies existing excellence to achieve breakthrough performance. VIA's cross-cultural empirical validation of 24 character strengths (across 54 nations, 17,000 participants) provides a rigorous, universal taxonomy that self-help typologies lack.

Sources: Peterson & Seligman "Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification" (2004); VIA Institute "Research on Character Strengths" (2023); Seligman et al. (2005) "Positive Psychology Progress" in American Psychologist; Proyer et al. (2015) "Strengths-based positive psychology interventions: A randomized placebo-controlled online trial" in Frontiers in Psychology; Harter et al. (2002) Gallup Business Journal

Steps

1. Complete the VIA Character Strengths Survey — Have the person complete the official VIA-IS (Values in Action Inventory of Strengths, 96 items, free at viacharacter.org). This produces a rank-ordered profile of all 24 character strengths across six virtues: Wisdom (creativity, curiosity, judgment, love of learning, perspective), Courage (bravery, honesty, perseverance, zest), Humanity (kindness, love, social intelligence), Justice (fairness, leadership, teamwork), Temperance (forgiveness, humility, prudence, self-regulation), and Transcendence (appreciation of beauty, gratitude, hope, humor, spirituality). Top 5–7 strengths are typically termed "Signature Strengths."

2. Identify Signature Strengths through resonance, not just scores — High VIA survey scores correlate with Signature Strengths, but subjective resonance is the deciding criterion. For each top-5 strength, ask: "Does using this feel natural and energizing? Do you feel diminished when prevented from using it? Does it produce a sense of 'this is the real me'?" Not all high-scoring strengths meet these criteria. A strength that scores 4th on the survey but scores highest on all three resonance questions is the stronger Signature Strength.

3. Map current strength usage across life domains — Create a strength-usage map across four domains: Work/Career, Relationships, Leisure/Personal growth, and Community/Service. For each domain, identify: which Signature Strengths you currently use (high, medium, low frequency); which are completely absent from the domain; and which are overused (using a strength to the point that it becomes a liability — e.g., kindness becoming inability to set limits). The map reveals where new strength applications will produce the greatest wellbeing lift.

4. Apply the "Using Strengths in New Ways" protocol — This is the specific exercise with the strongest empirical support (Seligman et al., 2005). For each of the top 3 Signature Strengths, brainstorm 5–10 specific new ways to use that strength in the next week in situations where it is not currently deployed. Example: if Curiosity is a Signature Strength, new uses might include asking a colleague about their career path, trying a new cuisine, reading one article outside your professional field daily, or transforming a tedious task by approaching it as an investigation.

5. Set behavioral strength experiments — Convert the brainstormed ideas into specific behavioral commitments using SMART format. Minimum: one new strength application per Signature Strength per week. Track using a daily 5-minute journal entry: "Where did I use my strengths today? What happened as a result?" The logging habit produces metacognitive awareness of strength activation and maintains motivation through visible evidence of intentional living.

6. Design a strength-based role or task crafting plan — Job crafting and task crafting reconfigure daily work to increase strength expression. For each Signature Strength not currently expressed in the primary role: identify one specific task or interaction that could be reframed to incorporate it; propose one project or initiative that centers the strength; or volunteer for one responsibility that naturally calls on it. Research by Wrzesniewski & Dutton (2001) shows job crafting predicts engagement and meaning independently of formal role design.

7. Identify strength-based relationship practices — Interpersonal wellbeing increases when Signature Strengths are shared in relationships. Identify: which relationships currently allow full expression of Signature Strengths; which relationships suppress them; and what one new practice per relationship could introduce strength use (e.g., expressing gratitude daily with a partner, using humor in a tense professional relationship, practicing social intelligence during a conflict conversation).

8. Address underused and overused strengths — Every strength has an overuse shadow: Perseverance → stubbornness; Kindness → difficulty with limits; Zest → impulsivity; Leadership → domineering. Identify any Signature Strength showing overuse patterns in feedback or relationships. Design one corrective behavior that keeps the strength active while mitigating the shadow (e.g., pairing perseverance with a weekly "is this still worth pursuing?" check-in). Underused middle-ranking strengths can be developed as supporting resources for goals aligned with Signature Strengths.

9. Build a 30-day strength development sprint — Create a structured 30-day plan: Week 1: complete survey, map current usage, choose top 3 Signature Strengths. Week 2: implement new-ways experiment, daily journaling. Week 3: introduce role crafting and relationship practices. Week 4: review results, identify high-impact applications to institutionalize, plan for month 2. Review the SWLS (Satisfaction with Life Scale) or PERMA Profiler at day 30 to measure wellbeing change.

10. Institutionalize through strength-based habit stacking — Durable strength use requires linking new strength applications to existing habit anchors (BJ Fogg's habit stacking principle). Example: "After my morning coffee [anchor], I will note one upcoming interaction where I'll deliberately deploy my Signature Strength of Social Intelligence [new behavior]." Identify 2–3 such habit stacks for the top Signature Strengths. At 90 days, strength use patterns have typically shifted to automatic deployment without deliberate planning.

Rules

• Always anchor the plan to the individual's own VIA survey results, not a generic strengths typology — the VIA's empirical cross-cultural validation is what gives the framework its predictive validity.
• Never frame the plan as "fixing weaknesses" — the plan explicitly focuses on expanding strength use; weakness mitigation is a separate, secondary concern addressed through complementary partnering or role design, not personal deficit improvement.
• Require behavioral specificity: "use curiosity more" is not actionable; "ask one non-work question during every team meeting this week" is. Every strength application must specify the what, when, where, and how.
• Include overuse assessment for every Signature Strength — missing this produces blind spots where a strength is actively causing relationship or performance problems while the individual remains focused only on deploying it more.
• Track wellbeing metrics at baseline, 30 days, and 90 days — without measurement, the plan cannot be adjusted and the individual cannot observe their own progress, reducing motivation.

Common Mistakes

• Treating all 24 strengths as equally important — Top-5 Signature Strengths have the largest wellbeing impact when used deliberately; strengths ranked 15–24 have minimal impact from overactivation efforts. Focus ruthlessly on the top 5.
• Mistaking talent for character strength — VIA character strengths are moral virtues (honesty, kindness, courage); they differ from CliftonStrengths' talent-based competencies (achiever, relator, strategic). Conflating them produces confusion about what is being developed and why.
• Planning without environmental redesign — Behavioral intentions alone rarely sustain strength use in environments that actively suppress them (e.g., an organization that penalizes creativity). Pair the personal plan with environmental change: seek strength-compatible tasks, projects, and relationships.
• Skipping the resonance check and relying only on scores — High scores on the VIA survey sometimes reflect socially desirable responding rather than authentic strength expression. The three resonance questions (feel natural, feel diminished when absent, feel authentic) are essential filters.
• One-time assessment without ongoing development — VIA surveys are most often taken once and forgotten. Character strength profiles shift with life experience and deliberate development. Re-assess annually and review strength applications monthly to keep the plan current.

Examples

Mid-career professional in low-engagement role: Top VIA strengths: Love of Learning (1), Curiosity (2), Creativity (3). Current role: operational compliance work. Strength gap: all three top strengths barely used. New ways experiment: proposed a knowledge-sharing lunch series (love of learning), submitted a process improvement proposal (creativity), spent 15 minutes daily reading outside field (curiosity). 30-day result: engagement score rose from 3/10 to 7/10; negotiated one monthly innovation project into role description.

University student with performance anxiety: Top strengths: Honesty (1), Bravery (2), Hope (3). Anxiety masking strength expression. Identified that academic dishonesty temptation was a signal of unmet Honesty strength. New application: joined debate club (bravery + honesty), started a study group (hope as motivator for peers). SWLS score: pre-intervention 18/35, post-30-days 27/35.

Team leader seeking culture improvement: Team completed group VIA. Shared strengths: Fairness, Teamwork, Kindness. Underexpressed: Creativity, Zest. Designed monthly team rituals: appreciation circle (kindness/gratitude), "bad idea brainstorm" session to unlock creativity without judgment, team celebrations for milestones (zest). Six-month engagement survey: team cohesion score increased from 6.1 to 8.4/10.

When NOT to Use

• When acute mental health symptoms (depression, anxiety, trauma) are the primary presenting issue — strengths work is highly beneficial as an adjunct but cannot substitute for evidence-based clinical treatment in symptomatic individuals.
• When the organizational context is so misaligned with individual strengths that no realistic role or task crafting is possible — systemic career change counseling is needed before a within-role strengths plan can succeed.
• As a performance management substitute — character strengths plans improve engagement and meaning; they are not designed to remediate specific skill deficits or behavioral violations that require direct performance feedback and accountability.