When asked whether we approach life from a glass-half-full or a glass-half-empty perspective, many (me included) will probably choose the former. For one, it makes us look good and socially acceptable when we declare that we are always optimists.

Now, if I were to drill down and ask you about your career, and what we presume to be the present state of affairs, would we answer in the affirmative, or would we display a strong glass-half-empty perspective, detailing all the things that are wrong today with our beloved profession?

While I am not claiming a glass-half-full perspective here (I am more of a combination of realist and pragmatist), I also know that asking the proverbial “What is wrong with X?” does not allow us to provide answers to the better question of “What is right with X?”

Having been too long on the wrong side, I have come to appreciate and apply the principles of appreciative inquiry and a strengths-based approach in my work with students and clients.

Taking this approach does not mean that one completely ignores weaknesses or systemic factors gone wrong; rather, it means that we focus much more on the good — the strengths — in individuals. As a result, they can bloom and thrive, and consequently find the necessary self-encouragement to work on those weak areas without fear or shame.

So I ask the question that started this column, now in a different way: what is right with you? What are your strengths?

A strength is a good and beneficial attribute or quality of a person. Your strengths are literally your assets; they enrich your life and that of others around you. So being able to identify and articulate them is fundamental to charting a useful career path for you. We are each as unique as our strengths, and being able to identify what those are for each of us is critical, because our unique combination might just be what an employer is looking for (where that employer may be you, if you want to go the entrepreneurial route).

For a deeper dive into your strengths, and how you show up as a leader in those unique strengths, there is no better tool that I have found to date than the CliftonStrengths Assessment, a validated strengths assessment tool from Gallup — the global analytics and advice firm that administers this assessment to individuals and organizations worldwide.

I recommend the CliftonStrengths assessment (formerly StrengthsFinder), along with the VIA character survey (formerly Values in Action character survey).

Realism is favoring practicality and accepting the physical facts of life. Pragmatism is holding the view that practical consequences are the criteria of knowledge, meaning and value. The two actually overlap in meaning. I would add that pragmatism has an additional layer: accept only that which makes a difference to your decisions and actions. Do not agonize or quibble over qualities or variations that are simply distinctions but that make no practical difference to your decisions or actions.