Training A New Raid Leader
By Ganesha, Circle of the Ronin, Malygos-US
A few weeks ago, my leadership team approached me and asked me to appoint several
people as official raid leaders. The one I was particularly concerned about was our new 25-
man leader. With the help of some folks on the Guild Relations forum, here’s what we the
process we followed and it worked out wonderfully.
For anyone else training a new raid leader, here’s what we did.
1) My executive officers approached me as the GM/ RL and asked that I appoint a particular
raid leader for 25 mans and a few others for 10 man raids. I agreed.
2) Prior to this, these individuals displayed an aptitude for raid leadership via our weekly
badge/ gear/ recruiting Kara runs. It gave them some nice practice for the big 25-man
stage.
3) I scheduled the raids (including a ZA primer for our leader) and made sure they were
drafted properly.
4) The new RL led us through ZA and did fine, but it exposed some of his weaknesses to
me before he led the 25-man raids.
5) I wrote him an in-game mail to both encourage him on points well done and to instruct
him on that which he could improve.
6) Game time. He started the invites for the 25-man raid. In vent, we have what we call the
“Ready Room” where all the officers and leaders post a phantom from which I coached him
the entire session.
7) I was very careful not to micro-manage his raid, but on the big things or where he
seemed unsure, I helped him behind the scenes and rarely said anything over the open
channel. This inspired a great deal of confidence from the raid members in his leadership.
8) I played “the heavy”. We had some chatterers that night and I took care of that for him
so he could focus on the mechanics of the raid.
9) We debriefed afterward and discussed what went well and how we could improve.
10) The officers met to discuss our attack on the next week’s raids. (Not too important,
I just wanted to make the steps an even 10, lol)
Result: We cleared our dungeons. Not without incident mind you. It had its struggles, but
our new RL got the job done. Everyone was very excited and encouraged, especially the
RL.
(c) The Guild Leadership Portal, 2008, All Rights Reserved
By Ganesha, Circle of the Ronin, Malygos-US
A few weeks ago, my leadership team approached me and asked me to appoint several
people as official raid leaders. The one I was particularly concerned about was our new 25-
man leader. With the help of some folks on the Guild Relations forum, here’s what we the
process we followed and it worked out wonderfully.
For anyone else training a new raid leader, here’s what we did.
1) My executive officers approached me as the GM/ RL and asked that I appoint a particular
raid leader for 25 mans and a few others for 10 man raids. I agreed.
2) Prior to this, these individuals displayed an aptitude for raid leadership via our weekly
badge/ gear/ recruiting Kara runs. It gave them some nice practice for the big 25-man
stage.
3) I scheduled the raids (including a ZA primer for our leader) and made sure they were
drafted properly.
4) The new RL led us through ZA and did fine, but it exposed some of his weaknesses to
me before he led the 25-man raids.
5) I wrote him an in-game mail to both encourage him on points well done and to instruct
him on that which he could improve.
6) Game time. He started the invites for the 25-man raid. In vent, we have what we call the
“Ready Room” where all the officers and leaders post a phantom from which I coached him
the entire session.
7) I was very careful not to micro-manage his raid, but on the big things or where he
seemed unsure, I helped him behind the scenes and rarely said anything over the open
channel. This inspired a great deal of confidence from the raid members in his leadership.
8) I played “the heavy”. We had some chatterers that night and I took care of that for him
so he could focus on the mechanics of the raid.
9) We debriefed afterward and discussed what went well and how we could improve.
10) The officers met to discuss our attack on the next week’s raids. (Not too important,
I just wanted to make the steps an even 10, lol)
Result: We cleared our dungeons. Not without incident mind you. It had its struggles, but
our new RL got the job done. Everyone was very excited and encouraged, especially the
RL.
(c) The Guild Leadership Portal, 2008, All Rights Reserved
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Our Disclaimer: Razail (GM Order of the Ancients, Malygos-US) and I (Ganesha, GM
Circle of the Ronin, Malygos-US) love leading. We've taken our leadership experience in
life and applied it to MMORPS. In the following articles, you'll read about how WE lead
our guilds. The concepts have yielded terrific results for us and we hope they will do the
same for you. By no means are we claiming our ideas are the only way, but they are
how we've learned to lead in-game and in-life. With that, taken for what you feel it's
worth, Enjoy!
Circle of the Ronin, Malygos-US) love leading. We've taken our leadership experience in
life and applied it to MMORPS. In the following articles, you'll read about how WE lead
our guilds. The concepts have yielded terrific results for us and we hope they will do the
same for you. By no means are we claiming our ideas are the only way, but they are
how we've learned to lead in-game and in-life. With that, taken for what you feel it's
worth, Enjoy!
| .....helping guild masters become better leaders in-game and in-life..... |
Fear, Love, and Power
The Group Dynamics of Leadership
By Ganesha, Circle of the Ronin, Malygos – US
In order to discuss these concepts of group dynamics and philosophy of leadership, some
categorization and definition of terms is in order:
Following are the categories I will discuss:
“Fear”
· Unhealthy fear
· Healthy fear/ deep respect
“Love” (categories)
· Blind love
· Servant’s love
“Power”
· Absolute power
· Limited power
“Fear”
An unhealthy fear in the context of group dynamics is often the result stringent leadership often
bordering on tyrannical leadership. A raid leader/ guild leader who makes it his practice to /gkick
people who make a mistake in a raid utilize this kind of fear to their advantage. (And yes, I know for a
fact these guilds are out there!) The members are scared to make any kind of error that may get them
removed from the guild. The attraction of these guilds seems to be due to the fact that they are
extremely efficient at completing game content and obtaining gear which, lets face it, is appealing to a
large number of players. Thus, people will succumb to this kind of leadership if they believe they will
be rewarded via gear and content.
A healthy fear or deep respect results from the guild leaders fostering a level of love for the
community via good will, service to its members, and indeed progression through the content of the
game. Members of this guild will often become “afraid”, albeit in a passive manner, to offend the
community by any sort of behavior outside the norms of the group. The result of this is that their
actions contribute greatly to the guild. It’s a bit of a strange dynamic because this is a result of a deep
love members have for their community.
“Love”
“Blind love” is the token boot-licker, lackey to the tyrannical leader who inspires only fear in his
members. Not a great deal has to be stated to demonstrate that this “love” is not healthy. It is a love
born out of fear.
Conversely, a “servant’s love” has the “healthy fear” element, but this fear is born out of love.
This member is the one who, because she has such a passion for the community, designs the web
site or takes on raid leadership, doing the hard research in order to make the guild successful. They
expend a great deal of energy to see the guild move forward out of this servant’s love.
“Power”
Lord Acton wisely asserts, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” In very few situations does a
person happen across a leadership position where an aspect of it allows for absolute power. A WoW
guild does. It is known as /gkick. As the guild master of CotR, I have the absolute autonomy to go
online at any time and remove any member I’d like. Most of my officers have /gdkick privileges, but
they don’t have the power to /gkick me. Thus, their power is not absolute.
However, this is a very, very dangerous position from which to lead. As Rhaina (Eitirigg-US)
asserts, “…..my approach is to use a very light hand on the /gkick and to hand back additional power
as fast as I can.” (1) As stated, so long as you quickly and efficiently move through content and gear
your people, the tyrannical /gkicker may survive. For the rest of us trying to build sustainable
communities, the absolute power of /gkick must be virtually ignored. Again, Rhaina wisely states, “…..
there is one thing you can do with it (/gkick), and that is to hand it back. You can lead without it.”
Indeed, a good guild leader will lead without it.
One way I’ve tried to give this power away is to give the /gkick power to other officers. Another
way, and I like this one, is to give your leadership team the power, albeit limited, to /gkick you if they
feel a change is needed. In other words, they could meet and “fire” me at any time. I serve at their
pleasure, not vise versa. This leads into the concept of “limited power”.
Guild leaders have what I would term “limited power” to influence behavior among its members
based on the leaders’ ability to demonstrate good will, provide aid, move the guild through content,
and eventually establish trust among the members of the community. The greater the level of trust
established, the greater the scope of this limited power. This ability to influence behavior in a limited
fashion includes but is not limited to, enforcing guild policy, reinforcing the guild’s culture, raising the
game play of others, etc.
The difficulty of this power is that is earned through a guild leader’s “healthy fear” and “servant’s
love” of her guild members. It is a power that must be given by the members to the leader and it is
extremely unwieldy, prone to be lost at even the smallest misstep by the guild master or officers.
Evol (Chupathingy, Akama-US) finds this kind of power actually no kind of power at all. He states,
I have no power to compel people to do something they don't want to do. They'll just sign off. If I try to
push it, they'll gquit, and I still haven't compelled them to do anything. (2)
While it is maintained that there honestly is a power or influence present here, Evol’s assertion is well
taken. At best, it is a very limited power. However, this is the “power” under which the best guild
leaders operate….a limited power where there is always an out for those taking the orders.
Conclusion
It seems like the bottom line in establishing this kind of relationship between guild members and
leaders is fostering a trust that allows all to operate in this realm of healthy fear, a servants love, and
in limited power. The path will be different for each guild, but it appears that generally this trust is
established via the media of good will, (just plain being kind), aid to members, (leveling and/ or
gearing, information, etc.), and progression through the content. The path to establishing trust
discussion will have to wait for another day, but here do understand that as a guild leader, your goal is
to establish trust so you can operate in this realm of limited power as discussed, avoiding the
absolute power mentioned, and leading out of a love that produces a healthy fear, a deep respect, for
your members who will reciprocate that love and commitment to you as the guild leader.
1 http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12661300131&sid=1&pageNo=6
2 http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12661300131&sid=1&pageNo=4
The Group Dynamics of Leadership
By Ganesha, Circle of the Ronin, Malygos – US
In order to discuss these concepts of group dynamics and philosophy of leadership, some
categorization and definition of terms is in order:
Following are the categories I will discuss:
“Fear”
· Unhealthy fear
· Healthy fear/ deep respect
“Love” (categories)
· Blind love
· Servant’s love
“Power”
· Absolute power
· Limited power
“Fear”
An unhealthy fear in the context of group dynamics is often the result stringent leadership often
bordering on tyrannical leadership. A raid leader/ guild leader who makes it his practice to /gkick
people who make a mistake in a raid utilize this kind of fear to their advantage. (And yes, I know for a
fact these guilds are out there!) The members are scared to make any kind of error that may get them
removed from the guild. The attraction of these guilds seems to be due to the fact that they are
extremely efficient at completing game content and obtaining gear which, lets face it, is appealing to a
large number of players. Thus, people will succumb to this kind of leadership if they believe they will
be rewarded via gear and content.
A healthy fear or deep respect results from the guild leaders fostering a level of love for the
community via good will, service to its members, and indeed progression through the content of the
game. Members of this guild will often become “afraid”, albeit in a passive manner, to offend the
community by any sort of behavior outside the norms of the group. The result of this is that their
actions contribute greatly to the guild. It’s a bit of a strange dynamic because this is a result of a deep
love members have for their community.
“Love”
“Blind love” is the token boot-licker, lackey to the tyrannical leader who inspires only fear in his
members. Not a great deal has to be stated to demonstrate that this “love” is not healthy. It is a love
born out of fear.
Conversely, a “servant’s love” has the “healthy fear” element, but this fear is born out of love.
This member is the one who, because she has such a passion for the community, designs the web
site or takes on raid leadership, doing the hard research in order to make the guild successful. They
expend a great deal of energy to see the guild move forward out of this servant’s love.
“Power”
Lord Acton wisely asserts, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” In very few situations does a
person happen across a leadership position where an aspect of it allows for absolute power. A WoW
guild does. It is known as /gkick. As the guild master of CotR, I have the absolute autonomy to go
online at any time and remove any member I’d like. Most of my officers have /gdkick privileges, but
they don’t have the power to /gkick me. Thus, their power is not absolute.
However, this is a very, very dangerous position from which to lead. As Rhaina (Eitirigg-US)
asserts, “…..my approach is to use a very light hand on the /gkick and to hand back additional power
as fast as I can.” (1) As stated, so long as you quickly and efficiently move through content and gear
your people, the tyrannical /gkicker may survive. For the rest of us trying to build sustainable
communities, the absolute power of /gkick must be virtually ignored. Again, Rhaina wisely states, “…..
there is one thing you can do with it (/gkick), and that is to hand it back. You can lead without it.”
Indeed, a good guild leader will lead without it.
One way I’ve tried to give this power away is to give the /gkick power to other officers. Another
way, and I like this one, is to give your leadership team the power, albeit limited, to /gkick you if they
feel a change is needed. In other words, they could meet and “fire” me at any time. I serve at their
pleasure, not vise versa. This leads into the concept of “limited power”.
Guild leaders have what I would term “limited power” to influence behavior among its members
based on the leaders’ ability to demonstrate good will, provide aid, move the guild through content,
and eventually establish trust among the members of the community. The greater the level of trust
established, the greater the scope of this limited power. This ability to influence behavior in a limited
fashion includes but is not limited to, enforcing guild policy, reinforcing the guild’s culture, raising the
game play of others, etc.
The difficulty of this power is that is earned through a guild leader’s “healthy fear” and “servant’s
love” of her guild members. It is a power that must be given by the members to the leader and it is
extremely unwieldy, prone to be lost at even the smallest misstep by the guild master or officers.
Evol (Chupathingy, Akama-US) finds this kind of power actually no kind of power at all. He states,
I have no power to compel people to do something they don't want to do. They'll just sign off. If I try to
push it, they'll gquit, and I still haven't compelled them to do anything. (2)
While it is maintained that there honestly is a power or influence present here, Evol’s assertion is well
taken. At best, it is a very limited power. However, this is the “power” under which the best guild
leaders operate….a limited power where there is always an out for those taking the orders.
Conclusion
It seems like the bottom line in establishing this kind of relationship between guild members and
leaders is fostering a trust that allows all to operate in this realm of healthy fear, a servants love, and
in limited power. The path will be different for each guild, but it appears that generally this trust is
established via the media of good will, (just plain being kind), aid to members, (leveling and/ or
gearing, information, etc.), and progression through the content. The path to establishing trust
discussion will have to wait for another day, but here do understand that as a guild leader, your goal is
to establish trust so you can operate in this realm of limited power as discussed, avoiding the
absolute power mentioned, and leading out of a love that produces a healthy fear, a deep respect, for
your members who will reciprocate that love and commitment to you as the guild leader.
1 http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12661300131&sid=1&pageNo=6
2 http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=12661300131&sid=1&pageNo=4