Character Strengths Are the Fuel That Makes the Otheranks Rise

Dr. Ryan Niemiec is a leading figure in the education, research, and practice of character strengths that are found in all human beings. He is Education Director of the VIA Institute on Character, a global, nonprofit organization.  He is an award-winning psychologist and adjunct professor at Xavier University, an annual instructor at The University of Pennsylvania.  He is a frequent speaker and workshop leader on positive psychology topics around the world. His latest book is Character Strengths Interventions: A Field Guide for Practitioners.

In this conversation, you will hear Ryan talk about how your character strengths are the fuel that makes our other strengths rise. Ryan talks about ways to identify and develop your strengths at work each day and the behavioral traps that can bring your strengths unstuck.

Connect with Ryan:

Websites:  http://www.ryanniemiec.com and http://viacharacter.org

You’ll Learn:

• [02:12] - Ryan starts the conversation by explaining what a strength is.
• [03:36] - Over 5 million people have measured their strengths by using the wonderful VIA Character Survey.
• [04:24] - Ryan talks about The Power Zone of Strengths.
• [07:35] - Ryan explains what he has found around subsets of our character strengths.  
• [10:39] - Ryan discusses the idea of taking middle strengths and moving them up.  
• [14:38] - Ryan selects three of his favorite strengths and interventions from his latest book.  He talks about subtract signature strength, appreciation, and alignment.
• [21:00] - In his book, Ryan shares behavioral traps around developing our strengths.  He shares some words of caution. He talks about trying to immediately apply a concept and the need to be flexible in this work.
• [23:35] - The Lightning Round with Ryan Niemiec.

Your Resources:

• Character Strengths Interventions: A Field Guide for Practitioners - Ryan Niemiec
• The Upside of Stress: Why Stress is Good for You, and How to Get Good at It - Kelly McGonigal

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for joining me again this week.  If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.  

Please leave an honest review for the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them.  And don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It’s free!

You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing.

Until next time, take care! Thanks for joining us today Ryan!