Identifying Your Personal Character Strengths

How Nursing Professionals Benefit From Using Their Strengths

Think of how often we describe someone as having strong character. That description of a person tends to have a positive connotation, but what does it mean? Our character is really not something we can describe so simply. According to The Positivity Project, our character is made up of three things: our thoughts, our feelings, and our actions. It is essentially who we are as a person—and that is understandably complex.

In their book Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification, Christopher Peterson and Martin E. P. Seligman classified 24 specific character strengths grouped under six broad virtues: wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence. Essentially, every person possesses all 24 strengths but to different degrees. Understanding the strengths that come naturally to you is part of your character strength profile.

If you are interested in learning more about your personal character strengths, there is a free online strengths survey from the Institute on Character that you can complete to receive a detailed report. At McGregor, we are most interested in the fact that simply knowing your strengths can improve your life, both personally and professionally. The Institute on Character noted that “people who use their strengths a lot are 18 times more likely to be flourishing than those who do not use their strengths.”

As we seek to hire new nursing professionals to join our team, we have identified character strengths most relevant to the roles of our RNs, LPNs, and STNAs, including:

• Perseverance
• Integrity
• Love
• Kindness
• Optimism
• Purpose
• Leadership
• Teamwork

We understand that to be successful in your role at our senior care facility, these particular strengths are essential. While we work to support and train our new hires, you are more likely to thrive and grow in your role if your unique character strength profile naturally aligns with that required of your job.

Do you possess the character strengths above? If so, you may be an ideal candidate to join the McGregor family. We invite you to reach out to our team with any questions and to complete the application process at the provided link below.

Information for this article was sourced from:
The Positivity Project
Institute on Character