Institute of Coaching - Positive Psychology

To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others

Danad t Deek — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 05:56:48 +0000

Author:

Pink, Daniel

Summary:

Pink's exceptional work provides insight into how buyer and seller behavior, psychology, and culture intersect in consumer motivation. A crucial read for members of the sandwich generation wishing to become more empowered consumers and advocates. (Library Journal)

Content Type:

Book Summary

Coaching Specialty:

Leadership, Health / Well-being, Internal/Organizational Coaching, Life Coaching, Positive Psychology

Resource Topics:

Self-Determination Theory, Positive Psychology

Resource Content Type:

Book

Positive Psychology: Harnessing the power of happiness, mindfulness, and inner strength (Harvard Medical School Special, Health Report Book 4)

Danad t Deek — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 05:56:48 +0000

Author:

Siegel, Ronald

Summary:

Positive emotions have been linked with better health, longer life, and greater well-being in numerous scientific studies. On the other hand, chronic anger, worry, and hostility increase the risk of developing heart disease, as people react to these feelings with raised blood pressure and stiffening of blood vessels. But it isn't easy to maintain a healthy, positive emotional state. People often misjudge what will make them happy and content. Positive Psychology, a Special Health Report from Harvard Medical School, is a guide to the concepts that can help you find well-being and happiness, based on the latest research. This report includes self-assessment tests and step-by-step advice and exercises to help you maximize the positive emotion in your life.

Content Type:

Book Summary

Coaching Specialty:

Positive Psychology, Life Coaching

Resource Topics:

Positive Emotions, Positive Psychology

Resource Content Type:

Book

Understanding Strengths-Based Coaching

Danad t Deek — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 05:56:48 +0000

Author:

Biswas-Diener, Robert

Summary:

Most people think that strengths are those skills or talents at which we excel. This is the commonsense view of strengths and the way most people use the term in the English language, to mean “The things we do well.” Some psychologists, however, add another dimension to strengths: they are not just the behaviors at which we excel but also those that energize us. When we work in our areas of strength we tend to feel enthusiastic and aroused. This energy helps us to distinguish between strengths and learned behaviors, those things we may do well but which do not come naturally and which tire us out by the end of the day. Understanding strengths are relevant to human flourishing. This article will help you learn more about strengths-based coaching.

Article Content:

Most psychologists working in the field think of strengths as being similar to PERSONALITY TRAITS. That is, some people are likely born with a particular strength, such as optimism or courage, and this strength will naturally come more easily to them than to people who have learned the strength. Some people naturally get some strengths, such as curiosity and other folks get a different set of strengths, such as creativity. Most scholars believe that strengths most often serve an evolutionary purpose: they help individuals function and lead to better group harmony and effectiveness, thereby allowing people to survive and pass their genes along. Curious people, for example, are likely to elicit closer relationships, know their surroundings well, try out new activities and be more creative.

Despite the fact that most researchers take a personality approach to strengths they also generally believe that some amount of strengths can be learned and that STRENGTHS ARE AFFECTED BY SITUATIONS. Some situations may call for humor while others call for bravery. Stanford researcher, CAROL DWECK, cautions that thinking of personal abilities as traits—a common trap she refers to as a “fixed mindset”—actually leads to underperformance. Her studies of the grades of intelligent school children support the idea that not exerting effort is a safer strategy for kids who have been branded as “smart.” Dweck recommends people lean toward a “growth mindset,” the notion that even our strengths can grow and develop and require effort. To learn more on Carol Dweck’s research, watch her discuss her findings on the differences between the ‘fixed’ and ‘growth’ mindsets.

Dweck Interview Part 1

Dweck Interview Part 2

Dweck Interview Part 3

Positive psychologists also do not believe that strengths should be focused upon at expense of attention to weaknesses. We live in a realistic world and acknowledge that problems are often urgent and that weaknesses can keep us from performing well. Instead of ignoring weaknesses most positive psychologists suggest that people attend to their weaknesses to keep from failing but develop there strengths to push forward toward success. The late DON CLIFTON, former CEO of the Gallup Organization, advocated an approach that is best described as “manage your weaknesses, but develop your strengths.” Psychologist Alex Linley argues that it is our strengths, not our weaknesses that are our greatest areas of potential growth. Still, ignore weaknesses at your own peril. For more information on strengths in organizations, and the relationship between strengths and weaknesses see this article on STRENGTHS BASED PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT.

The VIA

Strengths are something of a Holy Grail to positive psychologists. For years the field of psychology labored under the weight of a problem focus, with clinical psychologists interested in depression, anxiety, trauma and other psychological problems. Problems are both pressing and painful, and it makes sense that people in the field frequently chose to address these topics. To help clinicians work more effectively with their clientele researchers created a formal system for diagnosis, enshrined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DMS). The DSM serves as a guidebook to diagnosis. Clinicians can use it as a reference guide to see if specific symptoms, such as not eating food, are related to an eating disorder or might be related to the experience of depression.

Positive psychologists, MARTIN SELIGMAN and Chris Peterson chief among them, argued that there should be a similar volume that helped diagnose mental health (as opposed to mental illness). They began the process of assembling a list of universally recognized character strengths. To do this they read religious texts, etiquette manuals, famous novels, and even the “Klingon Code” from the popular Star Trek television series. Their study yielded 24 VIRTUES that were widely recognized and valued across cultures and throughout history. Peterson and Seligman created an assessment to measure these 24 character strengths [link to pdf- VIA 24 character strengths], which included virtues such as creativity and forgiveness, and this measure became known as the “VIA” which stands for Values in Action.

Coaching Series Leading From Strength: Making a difference as only you can.

Watch Carolyn Foster, a coach at Google Inc., talk about using signature strengths as the best route to sustain top performance in the workplace.

The VIA has been used as the basis of most of the psychological RESEARCH ON STRENGTHS within positive psychology. Scientists have found, for example, that STRENGTHS USE is related to higher confidence, self-esteem, resilience and higher rates of happiness. Among the most notable of the strengths related studies is the finding by Seligman and his colleagues that identifying and using strengths led, IN A CONTROLLED INTERVENTION STUDY, to higher rates of happiness and lower rates of depression. Strengths have also been examined in the organizational context. DON CLIFTON reports that top managers typically focus on their best workers and emphasize a strengths focus. CLICK HERE or an overview of the research on the benefits of strengths use.

There are a variety of strengths assessments available. The most widely known within positive psychology is the VIA, which is a computer based measure that rank orders the 24 virtues from those that an individual endorses the most to those that he or she endorses the least. An extended report is available for a fee.

To learn more on how to conduct a character strength assessment as a coach, click below to view Harvard associate professor, Christopher Krebs’s presentation on strengths assessment. (INSERT CHRISTOPHER KREBS- VIA STRENGTHS ASSESSMENT)

The strengths measure that is the most widely used within organizations is the CLIFTON STRENGTHSFINDER, which also uses computer based administration to identify 34 strengths. The GALLUP ORGANIZATION, the publisher of the StrengthsFinder, has also produced a number of BOOKS on strengths that include case studies and tips for using them in educational and business contexts. Finally, the CENTRE OF APPLIED POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY publishes a strengths assessment called the REALISE2. The Realise2 is a computer based measure that places 60 candidate attributes into one of four conceptual categories: realized strengths, unrealized strengths, learned behaviors, and weaknesses. There is also a Realise2 team report available for teams of up to 15 people.

While each of the three assessments listed above helps individuals (or teams) identify their strengths there are a number of other assessments that help people to measure their ability to KNOW, USE, and SPOT strengths in everyday life. Click here for a wide range of case studies in strengths-based RECRUITMENT, LEADERSHIP and PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT.

AVIVA strengths based recruitment video from cappeu.com

Watch Robert Biswas-Diener discuss why strengths are relevant.

Content Type:

Video

Coaching Specialty:

Leadership, Internal/Organizational Coaching, Health / Well-being, Positive Psychology, Life Coaching

Resource Topics:

Positive Psychology, VIA, Strengths, Positivity

2014 Video Interview with Todd Kashdan PhD

Danad t Deek — Sun, 11 Jan 2026 05:56:48 +0000

Author:

Kashdan, Todd

Summary:

Todd Kashdan PhD discusses his work on wellbeing and his material from his keynote presented at the 2014 Coaching in Leadership and Healthcare Conference in an interview with Joan Ryan, Founding Fellow. Todd is a Professor of Psychology and Senior Scientist at the Center for Consciousness and Transformation at George Mason University. He has been honored as faculty member of the year and early career awards from the American Psychological Association, Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, and International Society for Quality of Life Studies. He has published over 150 scholarly articles and authored Curious? Discover the Missing Ingredient to a Fulfilling Life (William Morrow), Designing Positive Psychology (Oxford University Press), Mindfulness, Acceptance, and Positive Psychology: The Seven Foundations of Well-Being (New Harbinger), and his secret book with Robert Biswas-Diener comes out in December, 2014 (Penguin). He's a twin has twin 7-year old daughters, with plans to rapidly populate the world with great conversationalists.

Content Type:

Video

Coaching Specialty:

Leadership, Internal/Organizational Coaching, Positive Psychology, Life Coaching

Resource Topics:

Emotional Intelligence, Positive Psychology

Integrating Images & Metaphors in Your Coaching Practice

Danad t Deek — Mon, 26 Aug 2024 14:36:42 +0000

Summary:

Integrating Images & Metaphors in Your Coaching Practice Presentation slides

Author:

Golan, Yaron

Content Type:

Presentation Slide

Coaching Specialty:

Health / Well-being, Positive Psychology

Resource Topics:

Positive Psychology, Well-Being

RLP Thumb:

Resource Content Type:

Presentation Slides

IOC Vision of Scientific Excellence Award Presentation and Positive Psychology and Coaching Past, Present, & Future

Danad t Deek — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 23:00:06 +0000

Author:

Seligman, Martin

Summary:

Over the last thirty years, Positive Psychology has gone from just an idea to a scientifically grounded discipline. It delineates a scope of practice with its underlying theory, it has validated tests and interventions that reliably build well-being. Artificial intelligence (AI) is about to revolutionize positive psychology coaching. Large Language Models can assist the coach in creating the narrative identity of the client, formulating an intervention plan, and actually giving impactful advice.

Content Type:

Video

Coaching Specialty:

Leadership, Health / Well-being

Resource Topics:

Conference, Conference 2024, Positive Psychology

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Resource Content Type:

Conference Video

Tomorrowmind: Coaching for the Whitewater World of Work

Danad t Deek — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 22:41:38 +0000

Author:

Kellerman, Gabriella

Summary:

In her book Tomorrowmind, co-authored with Martin Seligman, Kellerman outlined the five skills essential for personal and professional success in a workplace of uncertainty, volatility, and isolation. These five PRISM powers - prospection, resilience, innovation, social connection, and mattering - can all be developed, and are best built through coaching. In this session, Dr Kellerman will describe the process of arriving at the PRISM five; share novel scientific findings about how to build each; and highlight coaching techniques best suited to support coachees working on these skills. She will also describe the importance of building these skills for coaches in particular.

Content Type:

Video

Coaching Specialty:

Leadership, Health / Well-being

Resource Topics:

Conference, Conference 2024, Positive Psychology

RLP Thumb:

Resource Content Type:

Conference Video

Integrating Images & Metaphors In Your Coaching Practice

Danad t Deek — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 04:42:27 +0000

Author:

Golan, Yaron

Summary:

Research in positive psychology predicts numerous benefits of play and playfulness including enhanced positive impact on motivation, emotional stability, divergent thinking, creative expression and an overall increase in well-being. Images and Metaphors are science-backed techniques that can ignite imagination, trigger intuition, provoke the mind and spark an authentic dialogue.

In this webinar Yaron Golan shows us how we can integrate images and metaphors into coaching conversations with our clients.

Get to know a simple 4-step method that can revolutionize your coaching practice.
Experience creative tools and how a fascinating combination of images, words and questions can bring together a whole world of associations, feelings and insights.
Unleash creativity, expand points of view, evoke clarity and create meaningful dialogues.

Content Type:

Video

Coaching Specialty:

Health / Well-being, Positive Psychology

Resource Topics:

Webinar, Positive Psychology, Well-Being

RLP Thumb:

Resource Content Type:

Webinar

The Suicide Funeral (or Memorial Service): Honoring Their Memory, Comforting Their Survivors

IOC Admin — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 17:28:11 +0000

Author:

Moore, Melinda

Summary:

To our knowledge nothing with The Suicide Funeral (or Memorial Service): Honoring Their Memory, Comforting Their Survivors' scope and depth has ever been published. This is an aid to anyone who will be called upon to do a funeral for the nearly 43,000 suicides in America each year. This book is designed to assist clergy, chaplains, and other faith leaders as they develop sermons and homilies for a funeral service. Its mandate is to help those searching for inspiration even though they may feel confused or uncertain undertaking such a daunting assignment. Those who plan and lead a funeral service may enable family and friends to understand and participate intentionally in their grief process. Clergy can have a significant impact on how people react to the suicide as well as provide comfort and assistance to those left behind on their journey through grief. Your leadership will influence how the suicide's bereaved are treated by others in the days, weeks, and months following the death. Because suicide does not discriminate by race, socio-economic status, or religion, a broad range of faiths and denominations are represented in this book's sermons, services, and perspectives.

Buy on Amazon

Content Type:

Book Summary

Coaching Specialty:

Life Coaching

Resource Topics:

Grief, Posttraumatic Growth, Positive Psychology

Book Thumb:

RLP Thumb:

Resource Content Type:

Book

After the Suicide Funeral: Wisdom on the Path to Posttraumatic Growth

Danad t Deek — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 22:51:25 +0000

Author:

Moore, Melinda

Summary:

After the Suicide Funeral: Wisdom on the Path to Posttraumatic Growth references the long and painful journey of bereavement that many suicide-loss-survivors experience in the wake of losing their loved one. A new area of positive psychology offers another vehicle for understanding the consequences of this experience by investigating the possibilities for personal growth within the context of this distressing and traumatic event.

There is much to be mined by exploring faith as both a facilitator of growth and an outcome of growth. The contributors to this book are all suicide bereaved and have written short essays about how faith changed and grew as they traversed their journey of bereavement and also buoyed them in their darkest time of loss. Contributors are faith leaders, mental health professionals, caring survivors, and leaders in the fields of suicidology, thanatology, and bereavement. A must-read for any survivor of suicide loss.

Buy on Amazon

Content Type:

Book Summary

Coaching Specialty:

Health / Well-being, Positive Psychology

Resource Topics:

Grief, Posttraumatic Growth, Positive Psychology

Book Thumb:

RLP Thumb:

Resource Content Type:

Book

Institute of Coaching - Positive Psychology

To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others

Coaching Specialty:

Resource Topics:

Resource Content Type:

Positive Psychology: Harnessing the power of happiness, mindfulness, and inner strength (Harvard Medical School Special, Health Report Book 4)

Coaching Specialty:

Resource Topics:

Resource Content Type:

Understanding Strengths-Based Coaching

The VIA

Coaching Specialty:

Resource Topics:

2014 Video Interview with Todd Kashdan PhD

2014 Conference Video: Optimizing Social Relationships in Coaching with Todd Kashdan PhD

2014 Conference Video: Psychological Flexibility in Coaching with Steven Hayes PhD and Todd Kashdan PhD

Coaching Specialty:

Resource Topics:

Integrating Images & Metaphors in Your Coaching Practice

Integrating Images & Metaphors In Your Coaching Practice

Coaching Specialty:

Resource Topics:

Resource Content Type:

IOC Vision of Scientific Excellence Award Presentation and Positive Psychology and Coaching Past, Present, & Future

Coaching Specialty:

Resource Topics:

Resource Content Type:

Tomorrowmind: Coaching for the Whitewater World of Work

Tomorrowmind: Thriving at Work with Resilience, Creativity, and Connection―Now and in an Uncertain Future

Coaching Specialty:

Resource Topics:

Resource Content Type:

Integrating Images & Metaphors In Your Coaching Practice

Integrating Images & Metaphors in Your Coaching Practice

Coaching Specialty:

Resource Topics:

Resource Content Type:

The Suicide Funeral (or Memorial Service): Honoring Their Memory, Comforting Their Survivors

Coaching Specialty:

Resource Topics:

Resource Content Type:

After the Suicide Funeral: Wisdom on the Path to Posttraumatic Growth

Webinar: Posttraumatic Growth following Suicide Loss

Coaching Specialty:

Resource Topics:

Resource Content Type: