7. Character Strengths: The Pathway to Well-Being

This chapter is the first chapter of Section Two which deals with positive psychology and Seligman’s (Flourish: A visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being, Free Press, New York, NY, 2011) well-being theory as a proposed antecedent to servant leadership. A character strength is “a disposition to act, desire, and feel that involves the exercise of judgment and leads to a recognizable human excellence or instance of human flourishing” (Yearley in Mencius and Aquinas: Theories of virtue and conceptions of courage, State University of New York Press, Albany, NY, p. 13, 1990). Using our character strengths enables one to be their best and also provides an important pathway to the other elements of well-being, each of which will be discussed in succeeding chapters. While traditional psychology has focused on what is “wrong” with us, positive psychology is focused on what is “right” with us. The first step in this process was to identify virtues which are needed to say one is of good character. Through a rigorous process six virtues (wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence) were identified along with 24 character strengths that enable us to be virtuous. These strengths can be identified and developed. Seligman refers to character strengths as foundational to his well-being theory and that knowing and acting upon one’s character strengths “gives you more positive emotions, gives you more engagement, gives you better relationships, gives you more meaning, and it gives you accomplishment” said Seligman.