Here are some strengths-based activities you can use with your own clients and groups, with guiding questions and video clips from the character strengths sessions I facilitate for career practitioners. I lead the CDANZ Special Interest Group on VIA Character Strengths, and conduct regular workshops on character strengths for university students and teams.
The activities are free to use with attribution. Please refer to the credits at the bottom of this page.
Character Strengths Activities – Slide Deck
The deck covers the two activities that got the most discussion in my sessions: The Sailboat Metaphor and The Golden Mean. It includes guiding questions and links to the video clips.
Before you start: the VIA Survey
Both activities work best when people already know their VIA results. Ask clients or participants to take the free VIA Survey first and bring their ranked list of 24 strengths. Everyone has all 24 strengths in different degrees, so the full ranking is worth reading, not only the top five.
Activity 1: The Sailboat Metaphor
A visual warm-up that helps people talk about their situation and their strengths without starting from a list of traits. You can use this activity at the start of a coaching conversation or as a facilitated group session.
How it works
- Show the picture of the sailboat and ask everyone to imagine they are in the boat, with life happening all around them.
- Give people a few minutes to note what they see or sense, on sticky notes or a shared whiteboard.
- Invite them to share. What people notice often says a lot about what matters to them right now.
- Move into small groups for about 15 minutes of role play. One person is the client and talks about a real career or life situation through one part of the picture. One person is the coach and asks questions that bring out strengths. A third person, if there is one, observes and listens for the strengths in the client’s story.
One way to read the picture
The water is the environment you are in. The steering wheel is direction, and the map is your goals. The sails are your strengths and resources, and the compass is guidance, which your strengths results can work as. The leak might be a gap in confidence, the weather is what you cannot control, and the other boats are the people around you. Your clients will bring their own meanings, so treat this as a starting point.
Guiding questions to try
- Imagine you are in the sailboat.
- What do you notice as you think about your current career or life situation?
- What opportunities or threats do you see?
- What strengths are you using at the moment?
- What is the ranking of these strengths on your VIA Survey results?
- How else can you use your strengths?
- What other strengths can you use?
This clip is an excerpt from a CDANZ SIG Character Strengths meeting. The Saliboat Metaphor discussion starts from 1:41.
Sailboat metaphor adapted from: Alberts, H.J.E.M. (2016). The Sailboat. Maastricht: Positive Psychology Program.
Activity 2: The Golden Mean
A strength can be underused, overused, or used in the right amount for the situation. The golden mean is about finding that right amount. I use a seesaw image to start the conversation. It works well for a strength a client leans on heavily and wonders about, and for a lower-ranked strength they could call on more.
The Golden Mean resource comes from the VIA Institute on Character which you can download from their website: Finding the Golden Mean (VIA Institute on Character)
Guiding questions to try
- How does the seesaw remind you about how you have used your strengths?
- Think of a time you overused or underused a strength.
- What was the impact?
- How did you feel?
- What could you do differently?
- Use the Golden Mean table to reflect on how your strengths are expressed across three types of use.
- Underuse: too little of the strength
- Optimal use (the golden mean): balanced expression
- Overuse: too much of the strength
This clip is an excerpt from a webinar I gave on VIA character strengths and career development. The golden mean section starts at 3:38.
Blog articles on character strengths
- How to use character strengths to overcome a career setback (5 October 2026). Includes research articles on character strengths in the workplace.
- How to Overcome Imposter Syndrome: Using Character Strengths to Build Career Confidence (4 June 2026)
- How Character Strengths Help You Network Better Across Cultures (16 April 2026)
- Character Strengths in your Career Development (30 June 2025)
Want me to run a session?
I facilitate strengths-based sessions for career practitioners, professional groups and teams. If you would like a session like the ones in these clips, adapted to your people and context, get in touch.
Submit an enquiry or book a free 20-minute conversation.
Stay in touch
- Join the CDANZ Special Interest Group (SIG) on Character Strengths mailing list. Meetings are held once every two months.
The SIG is open to CDANZ members and non-members. Career practitioners and those working in related contexts are welcome. - Connect with me on LinkedIn
- Subscribe to my monthly newsletter International Career Journey
Credits and how to use these resources
Activities adapted and facilitated by Dr Sherrie Lee. Free to use with attribution. Please cite as:
Lee, S. (2026). Resources for career practitioners. Dr Sherrie Lee Career Coach. https://thediasporicacademic.com/resources-for-career-practitioners/
Sailboat metaphor adapted from: Alberts, H.J.E.M. (2016). The Sailboat. Maastricht: Positive Psychology Program. Sailboat image created via Canva, © 2026 Dr Sherrie Lee.
The VIA Classification of character strengths, the VIA Survey and the Golden Mean activity belong to the VIA Institute on Character (viacharacter.org). This page is not affiliated with or endorsed by the VIA Institute on Character.
© 2026 Dr Sherrie Lee. The video recordings may not be copied, edited or redistributed without written permission.