Coaching practices for Naming Character Strengths

Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Naming Character Strengths, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.

Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?

• I catch myself scanning everyone around me for what’s wrong with them, and I want to flip that lens
• My child has gotten so used to being "the difficult one" that they act like it’s just who they are
• The very thing I’m best at turns on me under pressure
• I’ve got a list of my strengths but it reads like a flat personality quiz
• If you asked me to name what I’m actually good at, I’d freeze

Practices that may help

1. Spot and name character strengths in others
   Notice and explicitly name the character strengths you observe in people around you.
   VIA Character Strengths, Made Practical
2. Use experiential recognition to highlight strengths in the moment
   Catch the child demonstrating a virtue and name the virtue directly.
   The Nurtured Heart Approach (Howard Glasser)
3. Map how your strengths distort under stress
   Identify the "overuse" and "underuse" of each signature strength — how they show up when you’re at your worst.
   VIA Character Strengths, Made Practical
4. Connect individual strengths to the broader virtues they serve
   Understand which of the six VIA virtues your signature strengths express, and what that reveals about your character.
   VIA Character Strengths, Made Practical
5. Take the VIA survey and identify your signature strengths
   Discover your top five to seven character strengths using the validated VIA survey.
   VIA Character Strengths, Made Practical
6. Identify your core strengths through your own history
   Find the recurring threads in your best moments to name the strengths that are actually yours.
   Life Review and Reminiscence Therapy
7. VIA Character Strengths, Made Practical
   Peterson and Seligman’s VIA Classification identifies 24 character strengths organized under six virtues, and multiple randomized trials find that using your top "signature strengths" in new ways reliably increases well-being and decreases depressive symptoms. The effect is most robust when strengths are deployed in engaged, relational ways — not just recognized but actively applied.
8. Use a signature strength in a new way each day for one week
   Apply one of your top character strengths to a context or relationship where you don’t normally use it.
   VIA Character Strengths, Made Practical
9. Use your signature strengths in a new way
   Identify your top character strengths and deploy one of them differently each day.
   Positive Psychology, Made Practical
10. Identify the strengths the hardship revealed
    Name capacities you discovered in yourself only because the situation demanded them.
    Benefit-Finding: Locating Meaning and Growth in Adversity

Describe your situation in your own words to search the complete practice library.