Strengths dictionary

A guide to each of the strengths from our quiz and the strengths families.

3 minutes

After completing the Strengths quiz, you’ll receive a report about your results. This describes what your strengths mean and gives suggestions of how you can use them.
Use this strengths dictionary to learn a bit more about your strengths and those of other people or to help you talk about your strengths on your CV or at interviews.

There are 5 strengths families which are used:

  1. Valuing – how we approach the world and what’s important to us
  2. Communicating – how we give and receive information 
  3. Motivating – things that drive us to take action
  4. Relating – how we relate to other people 
  5. Thinking – what we pay attention to and how we make decisions

Each family has a set of related strengths.

1. Valuing

Curiosity ​​​​​​​

You’re naturally inquisitive and interested in everything. You love exploring and always want to find out new things.

Moral compass

You’re guided by a strong ethical code, always acting and making decisions depending on what you believe is right.

Responsible

You’re someone people can rely on and always keep your promises.

Pride

You take a lot of pride in your work and make sure that everything you do is of high quality.

Service

You love helping others and will often be found lending a hand.

2. Communicating

Debater

You see things differently to other people, so you’ll often try and point out an alternative point of view.

Explainer

You’re great at explaining things clearly so that people can understand them.

Writer

You love writing, anything from status updates to short stories, articles and essays.

3. Motivating

Competitive

You love to win and want to be the best at whatever you’re doing.

Hard Worker

You put a lot of effort into everything you do.

Improver

You’re always looking for better ways of doing things.

Motivator

Motivators inspire other people to make things happen.

Resilience

You take setbacks in your stride and cope well with any challenges that life throws at you.

4. Relating

Compassion

You really care about other people and you’ll do what you can to help them.

Emotional awareness

You’re very aware of the emotions and feelings of others.

Supportive

You like working with people so that they can learn to do new things for themselves.

Persuasion

You’re great at persuading other people to agree with you.

5. Thinking

Creativity

You love experimenting and finding new ways of doing things and have an artistic flair.

Decision Maker

You like making decisions and are good at doing so quickly and easily.

Detail

You’ve got an eye for detail so you can easily spot errors. You like making sure everything’s just right.

Orderly

You like following guidelines and doing things step by step.

Organiser

You’re very well-organised in everything you do.

Prevention

You think ahead, so that you can anticipate and prevent problems before they happen.

Problem Solver

You’re good at solving problems and enjoy working out tricky ones.