Custodian
“Power means nothing if you don't protect what matters.”
Understanding the Custodian
You feel responsible for the stability of the things you care about. You want systems to be fair, but also effective, and you are often willing to carry more weight than others to make that happen. You take leadership seriously and you rarely abandon your commitments. People rely on you because you create order and follow through even when you are tired or stressed. You feel most satisfied when what you build is strong enough to last.
Dominant Driver
White is the drive toward principled coherence and fair structure. It shows up in people who naturally organize plans, clarify expectations, and try to make sure everyone is treated consistently. At its best, White creates spaces where others feel safe, respected, and able to rely on shared agreements—whether that’s a project, a household, or a friend group. At its hardest moments, this drive can turn into anxiety about disorder, over-responsibility for other people’s behavior, or resentment when others ignore the rules you’re trying to uphold.
Auxiliary Driver
Black is the drive toward agency and effective achievement. It shows up in people who notice power dynamics, think in terms of trade-offs, and are willing to do what it takes to move from wishing to actually getting results. This might be the person who negotiates, sets clear personal goals, or quietly builds leverage instead of waiting for permission. At its hardest moments, Black can become suspicious, guarded, or calculating, afraid of being weak or dependent and struggling to fully trust that others will have their back.
Auxiliary Driver
Green is the drive toward connection and organic growth. It shows up in people who think about how things and people fit together over time, who notice the emotional atmosphere in a room, and who care about whether a path feels alive rather than just impressive. This might be the person who tends to friendships like a garden, who values slow, steady progress, or who keeps an eye on whether everyone is actually okay beneath the surface. At its hardest moments, Green can avoid necessary conflict, stay too long in familiar situations, or bend itself around others until it’s not sure what it really wants anymore.
Strengths & Weaknesses
✓Strengths
- •Provides the kind of leadership people actually trust—steady, principled, and accountable
- •Uses authority to protect the vulnerable rather than serve your own ego
- •Builds things that last: teams, systems, traditions that survive your absence
- •Knows when to enforce the rules and when to bend them for a greater good
⚠Weaknesses
- •Becomes controlling under stress, micromanaging because 'no one else will do it right'
- •Struggles to delegate anything meaningful—you'd rather be overworked than risk someone else failing
- •Can assume your way is obviously correct, dismissing alternatives without really hearing them
- •Carries so much responsibility that burnout feels inevitable, but you won't ask for help
Path to Growth
Your sense of duty can tighten into control. You might catch yourself redoing someone's work 'the right way,' or feeling that if you don't handle it, it won't get done properly. Over time, you become the bottleneck—exhausted but unable to let go. Growth means sharing power on purpose. Let others make decisions, even imperfect ones. Watch them learn. A system is strongest not when you hold all the weight, but when others can carry it too. Delegation isn't abandonment—it's how institutions outlast individuals.
Career Paths
The Upholder: Nonprofit director, public administrator, community leader
The Executive Steward: COO, operations manager, institutional guardian
The Resource Keeper: Sustainability lead, estate manager, foundation trustee
Relationship Dynamics
You bring steadiness, reliability, and a strong instinct to protect the partnership. You take responsibility seriously—sometimes too seriously. Partners may experience you as dependable but occasionally overbearing, stepping in before being asked. Healthy relationships for you thrive when leadership is shared, when you allow others to hold responsibility too, and when you trust that mutual care doesn’t require your constant oversight.
Personal Growth Plan
Practice releasing control in small, manageable ways—delegate tasks, ask for opinions first, let others take the lead. Notice when you shoulder responsibilities out of habit rather than necessity. Reflect on which duties are genuinely yours, and which you adopted to avoid the discomfort of trusting others. Build systems that function even when you’re not the one enforcing them.
Communication Style
You speak with authority grounded in duty and clarity. People feel your seriousness and often defer to your judgment. To grow, consciously invite collaboration: ask open-ended questions, check assumptions, and signal that you value shared decision-making. When you pair your natural authority with genuine partnership, your influence becomes both stabilizing and deeply empowering.