I have no financial disclosures for this talk. The objectives that we are going to really focus on today is three things. One, defining the various psychological character strengths in leadership, and then to assess the value of psychological character strength testing in the clinical settings. Why is it helpful? Why do we need to really recognize our character strengths? And how does it influence our place of work? And then we'll be doing a few exercises and how we apply those various character strengths in team building. And I believe that prior to you coming today, there was a pre-assessment that everyone probably did and you kind of figure out who your character strength is. Right? Awesome, great. So before we start, we are going to put that to test. Some people may not have done it. That's okay. That's part of your character strength. But we are going to put that to test. And so the first thing I want us to do is take a sheet of paper on your table and draw a line right in the middle of that sheet of paper. And then I'll give you some few minutes. And then with your dominant hand, I want you to write on the right side of that sheet of paper, I will use my strength at SCCM. And then when you are done, I want you to use your non-dominant hand to write on the other side that I will use my strength at SCCM. And write it five times. Is that clear? Draw a line in the middle and use your dominant hand first on the right and write I will use my strength at SCCM five times. And then use your non-dominant hand to do the same five times. Maybe we'll give ourself an additional two more minutes. How are we doing? All right, how's that experience? Who wants to share their experience with this exercise? How was it different utilizing your dominant hand versus your non-dominant hand? Very challenging, which one? Dominant hand or non-dominant hand? Non-dominant hand, was it at the same speed or different speed? What'd you say? Hurry boost speed. Anybody else want to add any other thoughts? How was that? Did it look the same? Did it look so clean? No. You don't understand what you wrote? Exactly, so how does it feel to use your dominant hand? How did it feel? Comfortable, good. What else? Strong. Good. Any other thoughts? Nice and clean, right? It was easy, right? Awesome. So that is the essence of why today we are gonna have this discussion for the next couple of minutes, right? And again, why you are here today, what you are doing is really validating the reason why we need to do this. Investing in yourself, investing in your leadership. And I love this quote from Ralph Marston that says that what you do today can improve all your tomorrow. The tomorrow is so uncertain, but what we are doing today, when you are put in a position to lead, when you find yourself in a position to step up to lead, like Josh was talking about, this place of investment, this time that you are spending in identifying your characters or your character strength will play a huge role. And so when we speak about the psychological character strength, what is it all truly about? We have to look at it from the definition of the two key component, which is the personality psychology and also the positive psychology. When we speak about the personality psychology, we are looking at the process of how people behavior and their thoughts influence how they respond to situation, right? And so you have people that when it comes to responding to situations, they are very data-driven. They have to see the data before they make a decision. There are some people that when it comes to situations, they are very quick to just be very proactive and just act on it. There are some people that they, during a situation, they really wanna think through each step of the way. They are very detail-oriented. Their brain is sort of wired for them to react to a situation very differently, right? So that is that place of the personality psychology. Now, the positive psychology has to be looked at from three different sort of like perspective. One is the individual level. That really focus a lot on what leads people to be the best of themselves, right? So one of my character strengths, from the Gallup Institute is being a learner. So what leads me to be able to be the best of myself is constantly being put in a position that I can learn from it. I can learn from the experience that I'm going through. So everything that I go through, I'm always trying to find that learning process, right? And so in my place of work, if I can, as long as I can keep learning, the best comes out of me, right? And so we all may have different sort of like innate, sort of like character strength that shows up. And then it goes further to look at the aspect of the subjective level, where it looks at mainly the emotions that we all carry with us to bring the best out of us. And so the emotions of what drives us to be more hopeful, what drives us to be more content, what drives us to be very satisfied in certain situations. And I think Josh said this as well, in a sense of the concept of burnout. Just because we are burnout does not mean that we behave any way, any how, right? But the reason why some of us are not misbehaving, or some of us may not be misbehaving, is because of the emotions that we bring, or how our emotion shows up. And it's the positive emotions, right, that helps us to be able to carry and deal with certain situations. And the third component of positive psychology, is really the group level, where we are looking at how we are, our different, unique, innate strength and character, helps us to thrive to be a better team, a better community. And so my hope is that today, ultimately at the end, that is what we are going to try to really learn from this, is that when you go back, how do you ensure that through your own personal character strength, and vice versa, when your team develop that environment of character strength, how do we become a better team? You know, for my personal service world now, you know, all my APPs have gone through this approach of learning their character strength. And we actually utilizing that even in our discussions, using that in our evaluation, and ensure that we are evaluating people, not just because, like for most of us, when was the last time you had someone to do an evaluation with you, within the past year? Was the focus really on how good you are with everything that you do, your strength? Or was it really on the things that you need to do better on? The things that you need to improve in? And was the focus really on the things that you are supposed to improve in, are those things really your strength? Right, so a lot of times we are putting a lot of emphasis on things that sometimes that is not that person's strength. Like for example, perfect example, you know, I don't like IT stuff. I'm not good at it, I've tried, my children help me a lot with IT stuff. But I have an APP that is like, you can sit her down, and she is so quick to just figure things out so much. And so guess what? A lot of things relating to IT stuff, I turn to her and say, can you please help me with this? Right, and so the team, all of a sudden, everyone is bringing and showing their strength. I have another one that is such a people person. And when she first started with us, people did not understand why she was so too friendly. Right, but that's what makes her who she is. And so guess what? I put her in our onboarding team, and I said, you are going to onboard everyone. Right, and people felt like they could really connect with us because she was part of it. Because she was one of those people that would definitely go and say, let's go grab coffee. Let's go out and take a walk. There are people that have this innate nature of them that is really their strength. And embracing that really will help them also feel like they are part of the team as well. And so the concept of character strength, really, there's multiple twos out there. But the two twos I really want to focus on is the value in action inventory strength that was set up by Peterson and Seligman. And then the Clifton Strength Finder, which was developed by the Gallup Institute. And I think most people probably know more about the Clifton Strength Finders, which I am a coach as well relating to it. But the value in action inventory strength really looks at 24 characteristics of traits. And what they basically say is that it is what expresses out of us through our various things that we do in life. In our place of work, in our homes, in our social life, and within our families. It is really what speaks of what we own, what we celebrate as people, and what we find ourselves exercising more frequently. Now, one of the things that they argued is that most people have at least three to seven main character strengths. And with these three to seven main character strengths, that is what that person uses to demonstrate the best of who they are, right? Out of the 24. And so the exercise you did prior to coming today, and I think that's kind of like what it really tailors towards that. To demonstrate your character strength, what you bring to the table, what makes the best out of you. Now, the Gallup on the other hand, what they are focused on is they, with multiple research, Clifton Gallup is actually the founder of what the concept of positive psychology came from. And he came up with 34 themes, or 34 traits. And within these 34 traits, he basically said that 10 of them, the first 10, is really your top character strength that shows up more frequently. So it's really your dominant hand that is constantly being used, right? From 11 to 34 is more of your lesser strength. They are still part of you, but it doesn't always show the same way as everybody else. It's more of your lesser strength. And within that, they focus a lot on how that character strength of people can aid us in being more productive, enhance our engagement, build positive culture, and also teamwork, and also inspire us to excel as individuals and also as a team as well. One of the, over the years, what they have done is studying how character strength truly makes a difference in the life of clinicians, in the life of employees and workers. And what they found is that when people focus on their character strength, they are three times as likely to report having an excellent quality of life. When people focus on their character strength, they are 7.8% greater being productive. I want you to think about that. When people focus on their character strength, they are six times likely to engage in their work. Who doesn't want to be in a place where the entire colleagues are all engaged? If you've been in a place where your colleagues are not very engaged, man, that's very draining. Right? When strength was a primary focus, life satisfaction improved by 3.9%, more than those who had not received any training in strength character. Also, career well-being improved by 4.4%, more than those who had not received any training in character strength. Likewise, self-efficacy also improved by 4.7%. And teams that focus on strength every day, every day, have 12.5% greater productivity. So ultimately, what Clifton was teaching us is this. What happens when we start to look at people from what is right with them, rather than fixing ourselves on what is wrong with them? And so if we're able to look at people from, this is what makes this person who he or she is. What is right with them? Instead of looking at what they are not doing, or what they are not very good at. What is wrong with them? I think it would change the way we work collectively as a team. So the next step is really trying to reflect on this strength. And without putting names on the ones that you've already done, I want you to look at this, and what we are gonna do is, the person sitting on your right, I'm hoping that there is someone sitting on your right and your left. The person sitting on your right, I want you to introduce yourself with the question in sort of like the green circle. Who am I as a provider when I am at my best? That's gonna be your introduction. Who am I as a provider when I'm at my best? That's your introduction. And then you lead forth with the other two questions. What keeps me at my best? And what do I need to be at my best? And then the person sitting on your left, you are going to start the introduction also from the same place. So your introduction is always gonna be about who you are at your best. And then you are going to answer the other two questions. Where do I see growth opportunities to use more of my strength? And in what areas do I feel there is more opportunities to grow? Sounds good? All right. So work with your colleagues sitting next to you. The right and the left. If you don't have one sitting on your right or left, you can go to the next table. You can work with somebody on the next table. All right, that's good. So anyone want to share their contribution? Who are you at your best as a provider? Anyone want to share? Yes. What I shared was, who am I as a provider when I'm at my best would be efficient, compassionate. The other thing is the ability to teach. That's a huge feeling, empowering everybody in the team to feel as though they've got an equal say. And then the other thing that I added in my conversation was the ability that people feel as though I'm somebody that they can speak to, or I have a safe space, regardless whether that's the patient, family, other staff members. I'd like to think that at my very best I can be that for somebody. Awesome, awesome. So based on what you heard, what do you think she needs to really have a thriving and a very successful place of work? What do you guys think? What is required for her to be at her best? Time, good. Good, good. What else again? Right, right. What else again? Coach. Mentor. Mentor. Right? And so, you know, I have known Afton for a long time. We have not seen each other for a long time. I just saw her today and she was telling me, if you don't mind me sharing this, that, you know, her current, you know, institution, she just is now the new sort of like head for the APP education program. And that is excellent. That is exactly because that's who she is. Right? And so, you know, as she was talking to me, you could see all the excitement on her face. And she was like, I can share this with you. That excitement. And I think that is one of the things that we have to value when it comes to ourself, recognizing what brings the best out of us. And really ensure that we are utilizing that to tailor exactly our professional growth. How we engage in certain things. You know, it's not just the title of saying I want to do this. But is that what brings the best out of you? Based on that job, like, for example, if you don't like meetings, maybe some administrative stuff may not be the thing for you. Right? But you could still function in leadership in different components. Right? Either mentoring someone to foster that person to be able to grow in certain areas. So it all may show up very differently. But it's essential that we understand exactly the character strength that is embodied in us and how it shows up. Anybody else want to share their? Yes, sir. Yes. Correct. Correct. All right. Good. Right? So we keep hearing time as a factor, right? So again, those are the things that we need to recognize, especially with our roles as leaders, value the team members that may really cherish a lot of time. And I'm glad you are bringing this up, you know, and I always want to be very practical about this. You know, we switched from the 13-hour concept of doing 13 hours and we decided to do a diversified model where we have some of our APPs that do 10 hours, but then they do four shifts instead of three shifts. And the reason, because one APP felt the need that he wanted to be able to have dinner with his children. And that was so important to that person. And guess what? When we made that switch, that person started to excel extremely. Like I will call him and say, can you do A, B, C, and D, and his response would be yes, right? And according to that, all the time his response was no, no. So again, when we create a culture that people can be able to function, utilizing their strength and time, sometimes it's a strength, right? How to appreciate the time that we have. All right. So going through this, what are the values we've learned through the research when people utilize their strength in the clinical settings? One, they focus less on their weakness. Weakness does not become sort of like the focus, but the focus is really on the fact that the strength is what really proceed in everything that they do. Two, they also focus a lot on the resources that will result in achieving excellence. So a lot of times we've seen challenges with drugs, shortage, and so many different things that recently, for example, in where I work, there was quite a bit of a snow and our pipes in the city blew up. And so we had no water for four or five days and so many people did complain about it. But there were some of us that we were trying to figure out solutions of how we can still thrive and still, you know, make things happen, right? So when strength becomes the focus, people are always enriched and they're always empowered to find different solutions to excel, right? And also they see new opportunities. They see new opportunities. So even when things are not going the way that we want it to go, when people are empowered to use their strength, these people are able to come up with ideas and opportunities that will make us better clinicians and better teammates, ultimately, you know, impacting our patient outcomes, right? The environment is also very important. The environment has to also be an environment whereby it embraces character strength. And what we see in the research is that when the health system embraces, you know, people utilizing their character strength, it enlarged their cognitive, you know, concept. So these people are able to bring ideas that are unique. They feel like they can contribute. They feel more engaged, right? And engagement is a very important thing in the workplace. They are also, they feel like there's also a place of being more inclusive when the environment embraces. And when we see that, right, so if people don't feel like their strength is really one that is embraced by people, they feel like they're excluded. But if we can embrace an environment whereby they can use their strength, they feel like they're more included. And then also with conflict reduction, so the things that we talked about already, you know, when the character strength is at work, there is less conflict. Why? Because you tend to appreciate and acknowledge everyone's strength that they bring to the table. Also, work becomes very meaningful. I don't know the last time that you woke up that you said, yes, I look forward to going to work, right? It's because when you know that your strength, you know, I, you know, I'm just sharing this with you. I drive an hour and a half to go to work, right? And I have a hospital right 15 minutes from where I live, but I've, I used to work there for many years and it is not a place that really embraces the culture of strength. It's not a place that my strength was really welcome. But where I currently work, I enjoy it because you know what, I always have crazy ideas and my leadership always support my crazy ideas. And so I feel okay driving an hour and a half because you know what, when I walk to my, you know, my, my, my division chair's office and say, hey boss, I think we should do this. He would say, Kwame, I have no idea what you're talking about, but let's just do it, right? Where, you know, when you are in a place where you are constantly, you may have, you know, ideas all the time, but it's constantly not even given an opportunity for it to be listened to. I don't, have anyone ever experienced that before? Yeah. Man, it just takes everything out of you. It takes every strength out of you and going to work is so difficult, right? And so we need to look at how the environment also embraces our character strength. What we've seen in a sense of leadership is that when a leader understands and knows how to apply their character strength at the place of work, it does impact the entire team. It does impact the environment as well. There is increase in emotional commitment to the manager. So people feel more committed to them. There's increasing commitments of emotions as a team, right? There's also emotional commitment to the organization itself. So the team members changes their perspective of how they even view the leader. There's also increased emotional commitment to the job. And so we learned that with multiple studies out here that I was going to show you guys, we see that most of people, you know, research out there that shows of character strength demonstrate, you know, significant increase and improvement in things like job satisfaction and also employee turnover. We also see huge improvement in work engagement. And when we think about work engagement, I don't think sometimes we think about it from the dollar standpoint. But, you know, for some of us who are in leadership that really understands the dollar and how it plays a role in everything else, you know, there's multiple studies that have shown that one-third of our employees are engaged, two-third are disengaged. And so the past, you know, in 2024, Gallup survey did this survey looking at work engagement and the financial implication. And what it found was that the fact of the disengagement was costing most companies over $450,000 to $550—not thousand, sorry—$450 to $550 billion annually. That's huge. So when you have employees that are not engaged, it's highly a cost—it's not cost-effective. It's very challenging to the employee because, again, it decreases productivity. We also learned that, obviously, when people are utilizing their character strength and invested in utilizing it, there's obviously an increase in life satisfaction. Also when strength is also being used, there is harmony, there is passion, there is subjective vitality, satisfaction of life again. And then, obviously, organizational citizenship behaviors also do improve. And so when people are utilizing their strength as a team, we become a better team. As an organization, we become a better organization. The next thing I want to show is when Roach and his colleagues looked at strength character in the various different studies that I have listed here. And what they found was that the more people had, you know, recognized their character strength and they applied their character strength at work, there was an increase in positive experience. Employees considered their job as a calling, as a calling. And I know most of us probably got into our field because we felt this was a calling. And so sometimes the question we ask is that what has changed? It's still a calling, but it's sometimes because our character strength that led us into that very place, we have not been using that. Again, going back to the dominant hand and the non-dominant hand. If you are utilizing a lot of your non-dominant hand, ultimately, you start to find that what you are doing doesn't seem to be very clear. Everything becomes very difficult to do, right? So how do we change that? There's also when people utilize their character strength, if it fits the work environment, we see that the workplace wellness does improve and also job performance also does likewise improve. Peterson looked at, and his group looked at, potentially, are there some character strength that makes a huge difference in a sense of job satisfaction? And what they found was that these character strengths, these big character strengths, was more of a common denominator with most people when it comes to job satisfaction. Curiosity, the ability to be very curious about things, and I think that's where my crazy ideas always come from. Just being able to think, again, I'm always curious about stuff, vest, hope, it's good to have a sense of hope in what you do, right? The aspect of gratitude, and we learned this and we'll see this in the concept of appreciative inquiry. Having someone just say thank you goes a long way, and the act of just acknowledging the spirituality of what we do as a calling.

psychological character strengths

leadership

workplace productivity

team cohesion

VIA Inventory

Clifton StrengthsFinder

job satisfaction