Leading Management and Managing Leadership - by Tazkram
Knowledge is the first step to success.
Have you ever wondered about the role of a guild leader and that of an officer? You’ve likely been in a plethora of guilds, each having their own way of dealing with leadership and management.
One of the first guilds you’ve likely set your foot in, not much unlike myself, was the guild where an officer role was granted those who showed loyalty. You were active, became a friend of the guild master and was promoted. If not, you may have seen this occur.
Or what about the guild that worked like a hierarchy? The guild leader and officers’ word being law. There are many ways to set up a guild, but in the end, but in the end many of these will suffer from a downfall, once the leadership vanishes. Understanding the role of leadership and management can be crucial, to see a guild succeed on the long run, and that understanding is what this text aims to further.
Leading and managing are qualities all can learn to possess. Plenty educations exist, which will attempt to better either of the two for real work purposes. Thus, it is important to emphasize, that while I will talk about each separately, the two are not exclusive for you nor me.
The role of leadership is to set a vision. Before someone made a guild, they had an idea of what they wanted. A military guild, an adventure guild or something different. Most go further than that and will also consider what makes their guild unique. You may even ask yourself, what will my guild do, and how will it differ from others? That is the vision.
You’ll think of different ways to achieve your goal, set up guild systems, like a D&D-esque rolling system, or a rank and progression system for which members pass through. When the guild is established, you will continue to introduce your unique systems to the guild members that join. You communicate, align and direct them. In other words, you make them understand the systems. This both through talking to them and experimenting with the systems.
The last important thing a leader does is inspire and motivate. For anything to work, it requires that someone does it. In a guild, you’re all there together as a hobby, nobody is paying you, and so motivation can be a key factor for a lasting guild. You may be able to motivate yourself to create complex RPG systems, but if you cannot motivate anyone else to do it, that system will likely end up failing, dramatically. Leadership in its essence is about establishing a vision, communicating it and motivating others to achieve it.
Management on the other hand, is what makes the wheels turn correctly. It is when you add an event in the calendar, when you lay out the rules of your /roll-system and when you speak with a member, who seem not to follow the procedures set in place.
The management role is the bread-and-butter of any guild and will ensure that it stays true to the goals and vision set by the leadership. It creates routines for everyone, predictability in how things are handled. Take a moment to think about that, as it is usually very much in the background of guild management.
What does the guild you are part of do, that you simply have come to expect from it? Does it have certain days with activities in a specific timeframe, or is it loose form where you simply join in at any time? Perhaps raid markers are used for DMing, or you have players who control NPCs of the story? Simple things like this is part of management, but this also includes OOC management.
If someone does or says something inappropriate, what do you expect the officers to do about it? Something, nothing?
Now, back to the meat of the question. The role of guild leaders and officers. Quite simply the role is as those mentioned above. The guild leader often takes the role of leadership, as they are most often the person who made the guild. Officers end up in managing roles, where they help the leader in achieving the vision of the guild. This either through OOC management or IC management (which can be DMing an event).
All this may appear self-evident to you, but I’ll press on and challenge this setup. If you want your guild to succeed, you will have to pick people who possess both leading and managing capabilities. Why? Should either the leadership or management vanish for one reason or another, the guild will end up collapsing. All my former guilds have collapsed, as I have always been a key factor in it.
Had I been successful in finding good officers, who both possessed leadership and management abilities, and been able to cultivate that, it would have turned out differently. Other guilds have succeeded in this aspect, where some have had a dozen different leaders, and that was because, they cultivated an atmosphere where both the guild leader and officer staff had the necessary capabilities. A well-run guild should strive for this or expect not to be well-run in the long-term. As key members drop out, so will the activity of the guild, until it is dormant and gone.