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

How to help these reliable team members maintain stability without sacrificing themselves

Image from 16personalities.com

Want to experience this post as a podcast? Paying subscribers can find the audio at the bottom of this post. Enjoy!

The busy holiday season can be tough on everyone, but chances are it will hit your Sentinel team members especially hard.

These reliable individuals often struggle silently during this period of increased chaos and disrupted routines. That’s because the very qualities that make them so invaluable to your team – like their dedication to order and consistency – can actually make them more susceptible to burnout during this hectic season.

In an effort to support your team, you might be tempted to apply one-size-fits-all wellness strategies, but these duty-focused team members require a different approach – one that works with their natural tendencies rather than against them.

Let’s explore how to spot Sentinel team members, understand their unique needs, and support their well-being in ways that actually work for their personality type. We’ll first look at Sentinels as a whole and then explore the nuances of each Sentinel personality type – ISTJs (Logisticians), ISFJs (Defenders), ESTJs (Executives), and ESFJs (Consuls).

Make sure you’re subscribed to fully participate.

But first – how do you know if you lead a Sentinel? Here are some signs to watch out for. 👇

How to Spot a Sentinel Team Member:

• Maintains detailed documentation of processes and procedures without being asked

• May arrive early or stay late to ensure everything is “just right”

• Expresses discomfort when rules or established procedures are bypassed

• Shows strong attachment to proven methods and resistance to unnecessary changes

• Reliably follows through on commitments, often going above and beyond

• Demonstrates visible distress when deadlines or quality standards are compromised

• Prefers clear, step-by-step instructions over open-ended directions

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

When you’re ready, continue reading for tips on how to approach self-care for Sentinel personality types. 👇

Helping Sentinels Thrive During Holiday Stress

The holiday season creates a perfect storm for these reliable team members. It’s a time when their greatest strengths can actually become hidden vulnerabilities.

As others begin taking time off and workloads shift, Sentinels often silently absorb additional responsibilities. They’ll rarely complain – instead, they’ll arrive earlier, stay later, and sacrifice their own well-being to keep things running smoothly. It’s this silent accumulation of stress that makes them particularly vulnerable during what should be a festive season.

To exacerbate the problem, most traditional workplace wellness programs get one big thing wrong when it comes to self-care for Sentinels: