Leading Explorers Through the Holidays: A Guide to Self-Care

How to help your hands-on team members recharge through action instead of reflection

Image from 16personalities.com

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As a leader, you’ve likely heard all the standard advice for helping your team manage holiday stress: encourage them to take regular breaks, plan ahead to prevent overwhelm, practice mindfulness, and maintain a work-life balance.

While these mindfulness and planning-focused approaches work well for some, you may have noticed they fall flat with certain team members – particularly those who seem to thrive on active engagement and spontaneous problem-solving.

If you’ve got Explorer personality types on your team, there’s a good reason these conventional wellness strategies don’t resonate – and it’s not that they’re resistant to self-care. They simply need a different approach to maintaining their well-being during busy periods.

Today, we’ll look at how Explorers approach workplace wellness and, most importantly, how to support each Explorer personality type – ISTPs (Virtuosos), ISFPs (Adventurers), ESTPs (Entrepreneurs), and ESFPs (Entertainers) – in ways that actually work for them.

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But first – how do you know if you work with an Explorer? Here are some signs to watch out for. 👇

How to Spot an Explorer Team Member:

• Demonstrates remarkable skill at handling unexpected problems when they arise

• Can improvise effective solutions using whatever resources are at hand

• Prefers showing rather than telling when explaining concepts

• Excels in crisis situations where immediate action is needed

• Tends to have hobbies involving hands-on skills or physical activity

• Learns best through direct experience rather than theoretical discussion

• Is drawn to roles requiring quick reflexes or practical problem-solving

Still not sure about a team member’s personality type? Use our free type-guesser tool to guesstimate it.

Read on to learn how to approach self-care for Explorer personality types. 👇

Helping Explorers Thrive During Holiday Stress

Explorers experience the world through their immediate experiences – they’re masters of living in the present moment and responding to what’s directly in front of them. This means their approach to wellness needs to be grounded in tangible, immediate experiences rather than abstract concepts or future planning.

Traditional holiday wellness advice can sometimes focus on advance planning, setting boundaries, and creating self-care schedules. However, this approach can actually increase stress for Explorers, who find their balance through spontaneous adaptation and hands-on engagement. When you try to help an Explorer plan their way to wellness, you’re essentially asking them to operate against their natural grain.

The key to supporting Explorer wellness during the holidays lies in a different approach: