Guardians can have a lot of fun with their friends, but they are quite serious about their duties and responsibilities. Guardians take pride in being dependable and trustworthy; if there’s a job to be done, they can be counted on to put their shoulder to the wheel. Guardians also believe in law and order, and sometimes worry that respect for authority, even a fundamental sense of right and wrong, is being lost. Perhaps this is why Guardians honor customs and traditions so strongly — they are familiar patterns that help bring stability to our modern, fast-paced world.
Practical and down-to-earth, Guardians believe in following the rules and cooperating with others. They are not very comfortable winging it or blazing new trails; working steadily within the system is the Guardian way, for in the long run loyalty, discipline, and teamwork get the job done right. Guardians are meticulous about schedules and have a sharp eye for proper procedures. They are cautious about change, even though they know that change can be healthy for an institution. Better to go slowly, they say, and look before you leap.
Guardians make up as much as 40 to 45 percent of the population, and a good thing, because they usually end up doing all the indispensable but thankless jobs everyone else takes for granted.
On the job, you seem to innately understand how to create smooth, working processes in your environment. You can excel at directing others to fulfill their duties. In your ideal workplace, you and your colleagues would know what is expected of you and be predictably rewarded for meeting these expectations.
To prepare:
- Review the results of your leadership style inventories. Save a copy of your results for future reference. In addition, you are encouraged to complete additional assessments.
- What aspects of your results surprised you? What aspects of your results were as you might have expected?
- Think about the leadership example(s) you identified in the Discussion, your assessment results, and the information presented in this week’s Learning Resources. Have they helped you to form a more comprehensive view of yourself as a leader? What insights have arisen with regard to:
o How you, personally, evaluate leadership effectiveness
o Your own leadership style, preferences, and strengths
o Potential challenges or areas in which you need to strengthen your leadership skills and competencies
- Begin to create a plan for maximizing your strengths as a leader and neutralizing your weaknesses.
