Guardian
Guardians are usually unselfish and approachable, with a focus on work that requires skill and great attention to detail. They're thoughtful, steady, and reliable. Things don’t accidentally fall through the cracks in a Guardian’s world—they like structure and precision, and tend to be perfectionists.
Highlights: Helpful Steady Diligent Detail-oriented
Maximize your business potential by tapping into people’s natural strengths.
The Guardian Reference Profile—like all Reference Profiles—has many unique strengths and characteristics. Understanding the differences in your people can help you build a company that achieves the results you’re after. The same way you’d build a world-class sports team, knowing how your people think and work helps you optimize for success.
Characteristics of the Guardian
Guardians are naturally unselfish and approachable; they want to avoid risk and seek harmony above all else. They typically try to protect something—such as data privacy or financial records. For a more detailed and accurate reading of your behavioral pattern and how it pertains to your unique business situation, schedule a consultation.
Natural Strengths
Helpful
Steady
Diligent
Detail-oriented
Common Drivers
Reassurance
Time to trust others
Freedom from changing priorities
Freedom from risk of error
Blind Spots
May avoid conflict
Can be sensitive to criticism
May struggle with ambiguity
Resistant to change without clarity
The Guardian on a team
Guardians are natural team players. They’re known to be helpful, approachable, and skilled at detailed work. They thrive in and help contribute to a culture of accuracy. Teams are often designed by default rather than intention. A strategic, data-driven approach to building teams is what helps organizations win.
Business strategy and the Guardian
Before you know whether someone is the right person for the job, you need total clarity and alignment on the results you’re after. What’s the goal or desired outcome? When we ask questions like this, we get a better understanding of the need to align people strategically for specific results.
When you put people in the right roles, you avoid turnover, toxicity, disengagement, and lost productivity. In the case of the Guardian, they naturally gravitate toward strategic activities that seek to build process and structure to produce accurate work.
Managing the Guardian
Often managers try to manage everyone the same way—and that’s usually the way they like to be managed. But this approach can backfire. People like to be managed differently—and it may not always be in a way that comes naturally to you. Even beyond the individual needs, teams require different leadership styles. You wouldn’t manage a sales team the same way you’d manage a team of developers.
When working with Guardians, remember that they’re patient, steady, pensive, and precise. They have a high tolerance for repetitive work and can take time to warm up to new people. Guardians respect and seek direction. When managing this profile, consider some of the following suggestions:
Be supportive and help to remove blockers.
Offer step-by-step training resources.
Provide direction and a plan to guide their efforts.
Allow them time to think through decisions.
Let them work heads-down on projects that require detail-orientation.
Provide a stable working environment.
Explore talent optimization.
Companies that struggle to build high-performing teams are often missing critical people data. With our tools, expertise, experiance, and talent optimization, you can stop guessing at how to get the most from your people— and better align your people to deliver on the results you’re after.