Character Questionnaire (VIA) cont.

Relevance to Change Management & Leadership

In change management, the VIA questionnaire is commonly used to:

• Build psychological readiness for change
• Identify natural change champions
• Reduce change resistance
• Improve:
• Hope
• Leadership
• Perspective
• Teamwork
• Self-regulation

Example:

• A team high in Hope, Zest and Teamwork adapts faster to disruption.
• Leaders high in Perspective and Fairness navigate uncertainty more effectively.

Reliability and Validity

Research consistently shows:

• Good internal reliability
• Strong test–retest stability
• Positive correlations with:
• Life satisfaction
• Engagement
• Meaning
• Work performance
• Psychological resilience

Used in hundreds of peer-reviewed studies worldwide.

Key Limitations to Be Aware Of

• Self-report bias
• Not a predictive performance tool on its own
• Should not be used for:
• Hiring/firing decisions
• Clinical diagnosis
• Best used as a developmental, not evaluative, instrument

An Example of Signature Strengths (Top 5)

If you are rate highly on the following strengths, you have natural change leadership advantages—use them deliberately in:

• Strategy
• Communication
• Decision-making
• Culture shaping

Under-Used Strengths (Bottom 5)

These often indicate:

• Change blind spots
• Leadership stress reactions
• Emotional or relational risk points

PRACTICAL CHANGE APPLICATION GUIDE

TEAM-LEVEL AGGREGATION (for Workshops)

You may average each strength across team members to identify:

• Team signature strengths
• Collective risk areas
• Change readiness profile
• Leadership strength

OPTIONAL ASSESSMENT FLAGS from particular combinations:

• High Courage + Low Prudence increases the risk of reckless change
• High Wisdom + Low Zest suggest insight without momentum
• High Leadership + Low Humility increases the authoritarian risk
• High Kindness + Low Self-Regulation increases the burnout risk

Summary

The VIA Institute on Character questionnaire is a scientifically-validated strengths assessment that identifies a person’s core character strengths across 24 universal traits. It is widely used to enhance:

• Wellbeing
• Leadership
• Education
• Organisational change
• Personal growth

It shifts the focus from:

“What’s wrong with people?”
to
“What’s strong within them?”

The table below summarise strengths:

(source: https://www.viacharacter.org/reports/total-24)