It is a well-documented fact that we are far more likely to fulfill our potential by focusing on our strengths rather than on our weaknesses. In the words of Peter Drucker, renowned management consultant: “It’s the abilities, not the disabilities, that count”!

Awareness of our character strengths can be a really helpful tool for building capacity – going from first-rate to excellent. Understanding character strengths is also essential  for developing new paths for engagement, satisfaction and fulfillment on the job. Last but not least, this approach can also be used for problem-solving.  Experience this for yourself and for your team by trying these 3 simple steps:

1)      Identify your top character strengths using the free VIA online test (www.viasurvey.org)

2)      Identify a problem that you need to deal with

3)      Ask yourself how you can apply your specific character strengths to solving this problem

“The real tragedy in life is not that each of us doesn’t have enough strengths, it’s that we fail to use the ones we have.” (M. Buckingham and D. Clifton in Now, “Discover Your Strengths”)