Strengths-Based Coaching and Appreciative Inquiry in Practice

Many conversations about change start with what is wrong: the habit to break, the skill gap to close, the problem to fix. Strengths-based coaching flips the starting point. It asks what is already working, what the person does well, and how those strengths can carry them toward what they want.

Two frameworks sit at the heart of this approach. The VIA classification gives coaches and clients a shared vocabulary for character strengths. Appreciative inquiry, which began as a method for changing organizations, offers a four-stage cycle that many coaches have adapted for one-on-one work.

This guide explains both, shows how they fit into a coaching conversation, and is honest about their limits.

What Strengths-Based Coaching Means

There is no single agreed definition. A 2020 systematic review in Frontiers in Psychology by Llewellyn van Zyl and colleagues looked at 24 peer-reviewed publications on what they call positive psychological coaching, which they note is also referred to as strengths-based coaching or positive coaching. They found little consensus on how it should be defined or practiced.

The common thread is a focus on identifying, using and developing a person's strengths and resources in service of their goals and wellbeing. One definition the review cites, from van Zyl and Marius Stander, describes it as a client-centered relationship aimed at the identification, utilization and optimization of individual strengths.

Importantly, strengths-based does not mean ignoring problems. The same review quotes Kauffman and colleagues (2015): "A positive psychology theoretical base does not assume that clients are paragons of virtue or that everything goes smoothly." A good strengths-based coach keeps a balanced view of both strengths and limitations.

The VIA Classification of Character Strengths

The VIA Institute on Character, a nonprofit based in Cincinnati, Ohio, grew out of a study involving 55 scientists, led by psychologists Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman in the early 2000s. That work produced the book Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification.

The classification lists 24 character strengths grouped under six virtues:

• Wisdom: creativity, curiosity, judgment, love of learning, perspective
• Courage: bravery, honesty, perseverance, zest
• Humanity: kindness, love, social intelligence
• Justice: fairness, leadership, teamwork
• Temperance: forgiveness, humility, prudence, self-regulation
• Transcendence: appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor, spirituality

According to the VIA Institute, "Everyone possesses all 24 character strengths in different degrees." Its free VIA Survey takes about 10 to 15 minutes and ranks your strengths from strongest to least prominent. Because the ranking is relative, a strength near the bottom of your list is not a weakness. It is simply less prominent for you than the others.

Using Strengths in Coaching Conversations

A 2021 systematic review by Stefanie Richter and colleagues, in Frontiers in Psychiatry, cataloged the tools positive psychological coaches report using. Several are easy to bring into an ordinary session:

• Strengths spotting: listening for strengths in the client's stories and naming them.
• Strengths assessments: using an inventory such as the VIA Survey to start a conversation.
• New uses: asking clients to use one of their top strengths in a new way for a week.
• Strengths mapping: planning how specific strengths can help reach a specific goal.

Imagine, as a hypothetical example, a team leader dreading a difficult restructuring conversation. A problem-focused session might list everything that could go wrong. A strengths-based session might start with: "Tell me about a time you handled a hard conversation well. What strengths were you drawing on?" If the answer reveals honesty and kindness, the next question becomes how to bring both into this conversation on purpose.

Our guide to asking powerful coaching questions has more on phrasing open, forward-looking questions like these.

Appreciative Inquiry and the 4-D Cycle

Appreciative inquiry was developed in the 1980s by David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva at Case Western Reserve University, as an approach to organizational change. The Cooperrider Center for Appreciative Inquiry at Champlain College describes it as starting with "asking questions that help people see what's working, what's strong, and what's worth building on."

A 2022 review in BMJ Open Quality, by Abi Merriel and colleagues, summarizes the logic: appreciative inquiry investigates the best of "what is" before thinking about "what might be," deciding "what should be" and finally experiencing "what can be." The authors note there is no fixed method, but the 4-D cycle has emerged as the leading framework.

Coaches have adapted the cycle for individuals. The van Zyl review describes it this way:

1. Discovery: exploring the client's strengths and what they mean to the client.
2. Dream: imagining the ideal state and what it would mean in practice.
3. Design: developing an action plan to get there.
4. Destiny: building hope and sustaining momentum for ongoing change.

In a session, that might sound like the following illustrative questions:

• Discovery: "When have you felt most effective in your work? What made that possible?"
• Dream: "If the next year went really well, what would be different?"
• Design: "What is one structure or habit that would make that more likely?"
• Destiny: "How will you keep this going when motivation dips?"

Limits and Criticisms

Strengths-based approaches are appealing, and that is one reason to apply them with care.

• The definitions are loose. The van Zyl review found significant differences in how positive coaching is conceptualized, which makes it hard to say exactly what is being practiced or studied.
• Appreciative inquiry can look away from real gaps. The same review notes a criticism that it "only focuses on what currently works well" and can miss opportunities to develop weaker areas. Some authors argue for approaches that use strengths to close specific gaps, not just to celebrate what works.
• The evidence is thin in places. The Merriel review of 33 studies using appreciative inquiry in healthcare found study quality was generally poor and concluded there is "minimal empirical evidence to support the effectiveness" of the approach, while noting positive reports that warrant more rigorous research.
• Positivity can feel dismissive. If someone is grieving or overwhelmed, jumping straight to strengths can sound like being told to cheer up. Acknowledge the difficulty first.

Finally, strengths-based coaching is still coaching, not therapy. It is not a treatment for depression, anxiety or any other mental health condition. If a client is struggling with their mental health, a licensed mental health professional is the right referral, and in the United States anyone in crisis can call or text 988.

Key takeaways

• Strengths-based coaching focuses on identifying, using and developing a person's strengths in service of their goals, without ignoring limitations.
• The VIA classification describes 24 character strengths under six virtues; everyone has all 24 in different degrees.
• Appreciative inquiry, developed by Cooperrider and Srivastva in the 1980s, is often applied through the 4-D cycle: Discovery, Dream, Design and Destiny.
• Critics note that appreciative inquiry can overlook development areas, and evidence for its effectiveness is still limited.
• Strengths work complements, but never replaces, professional mental health care.

Sources

• VIA Institute on Character, Character Strengths
• VIA Institute on Character, About
• van Zyl and colleagues, Positive Psychological Coaching Definitions and Models: A Systematic Literature Review, Frontiers in Psychology (2020)
• Richter and colleagues, Positive Psychological Coaching Tools and Techniques: A Systematic Review and Classification, Frontiers in Psychiatry (2021)
• Champlain College, About Appreciative Inquiry
• Merriel and colleagues, Systematic review and narrative synthesis of the impact of Appreciative Inquiry in healthcare, BMJ Open Quality (2022)