I have been a piss-poor blogger this month. I’ve been a poor guild leader, and you can guess how real life commitments have gone. To avoid the risk of being the officer who shared too much, I will just say it was unavoidable and unexpected. To those of you who sent kind messages to let me know I was missed, it was very touching and definitely brightened some bad days.

Despite my inadequacies as a leader this month, my guild has done well without me. They’ve killed a new boss, recruited new people, lost two members and gone on mostly as normal. Why have they done well without me? Don’t I spend my days writing about good leadership and how that has a positive impact on guilds? If I’m really all that good at what I do shouldn’t they have struggled in my absence?

They did well for two reasons.

• I have an amazingly strong and dedicated officer core
• While the event that took me away was unexpected, the possibility of such an event was foreseeable, so we had prepared for the possibility of my extended absence.

I returned to raiding two nights ago, and I’m slowly working my way back into the game and leadership of the guild. While I was away there were some things that popped up that and as I settle back into leadership I’ll have my hands full for a bit, but it dawned on me that if I hadn’t been able to return this guild would have kept on ticking without me.

In some ways that makes me a little sad, knowing that while I helped build it and create it, my guild is now it’s own entity and no longer requires me. On the other hand, I’m very proud. I’ve put in place a plan and gathered people who are so strong and believe in the goals of the guild that even without my help, it continues to thrive. I imagine this is a similar emotion to that of a parent watching their child move out into the world alone.

Okay Auz, touching moment, I’m glad you’re back ya know cause here I am reading what you’re writing, but what does all this mushy stuff with your guild have to do with me?

I’m glad you asked imaginary reader in my head. It has to do with you because it dawned on me, while I was sitting there contemplating the nature of my guild and the situation that pulled me away from it, how many unexpected things have happened to myself and the people I’ve been guilded with over the time the guild has existed. It dawned on me that the unexpected, happens often enough that you should be prepared.

In the business world, I was once employed by a brokerage company. It was there that I learned a great many of the tools I use today in my guild leading. One of the lessons I learned is that when a small business owner dies, the best indicator you can use to determine the future of the business they owned is “Did they leave a business succession plan?” I don’t know the statistics, but the ones I made up on the spot say that 90% of all small business whose owners did not plan out what should happen to the business when they die, fail shortly after the owners death.

Now death is one of those final things, and honestly there are more important things to plan in the event of your death than the future of your guild. (Like who gets your framed first issue of Nintendo Power) However, what if your main tank gets moved to night shift? What if you have to move to Wyoming (I still don’t have a reader from there so I’m pretty sure they don’t have the internet)? What if your recruitment officer has a baby and has to quit playing video games. (Yeah I know she should teach it to drool on the 2 key (chain heal) and be a resto shaman/hunter) Fortunately most things that would take someone away from the virtual world give you a small amount of time to plan for them, but I’m here to tell you from first hand experience that isn’t always the case.

The easiest solution to unexpected absences, is officer redundancy. Guilds all have commonalities that have to be accomplished that take effort outside of play time; recruitment, new member initiation, dispute resolution, in some cases loot distribution, any information tracking the guild requires, website or contact information maintenance. Regardless of how your leadership structure divides these responsibilities or what other responsibilities your guild leadership may have, it’s a good idea to make sure at least two of your officers are trained and able to handle any one responsibility.

A second tip is keep and eye out for leadership potential and develop it where you can. Earlier I mentioned I have two members who manage our WWS reports and auctioning off our raid goodies for cash. I also have another member who leads off night runs of ZA. These members have proven to me that they are responsible and willing to put time into our guild, and should I need to grab another officer they are a good starting point. My guild already trusts them and has found them dependable in their roles. These potential leaders a fertile crop from which the next generation of our guilds leaders may spawn and in allowing them room and culturing the leadership they have shown our guild also reaps the benefits of their existing leadership.

A third tip is establish your hierarchy. It’s ugly but the number one thing I’ve seen tear a guild’s leadership apart is the struggle for dominance. Leadership is established in two ways it is both bequeathed and earned. As a leader I may choose a new officer and place them in a position of authority and responsibility, but from there they have to earn the rest. They earn a guilds trust by proving dependable and reasonable. In a guild where the leadership struggles against itself it’s often because officers and leaders undermine each other in an attempt to garner more of the guild’s trust than the others. When one leader of a guild is removed, the balance that is already in place shifts as others take on new responsibilities to fill the void. By firmly establishing spheres on influence and trust between your officers and any potential new recruit to a leadership role you can help prevent this from happening.

While the need for a written plan of succession that appears in the business world does not appear in the virtual world, I encourage virtual leaders to take a moment and contemplate what would you like to happen to your guild if you weren’t there? And what would you do if another person you count on wasn’t there? By contemplating these things and even talking about them with your officers in advance you may be able to take the sting out of an unexpected event that might otherwise prove damaging to your guild.

I apologize for the unorganized nature of this post and lack of pictures (Sorry Matt). Much like leadership I am easing myself back into blogging and my other writing. Based on the results of the poll and my recent easing back into my former life, Tales from the Tabletop will become a feature of this blog rather than it’s own blog. Expect to see that begin to appear as a new feature soon.

I was on a rant with (maybe at)  Matticus about WowInsider (Matt gets all my WI rants since he has allied himself with the devil). Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good resource and if they called me up and said “Yo Auz write for us” I’d be there, but some things really really irk me. My rant with Matt after I got past the poor proofreading (yeah I have typos but no one pays me for this, I think they should be more professional) rant that started me going, came back to one post that Scott Andrews, author of Officer’s Quarters wrote. I apologize in advance for the rant-y nature of this post, but this rant has sat buried inside me since January and Matt gave me permission/encouragement to let it all out.

I read this post (it’s actually two posts) and I VEHEMENTLY disagreed. I’m not sure I can stress VEHEMENTLY enough. Maybe bold-ing it and adding a striking font color will work?

VEHEMENTLY!

Silliness aside, Mr. Andrews writes a good series, but if I agreed with everything he said there would be no need for me to write, I could just put up a big link to his series and be done with it. Really Mr. Andrews’ post and my VEHEMENT disagreement with it is part of what convinced me that there was room for me to share my opinions in a guild leadership focused blog, so you have Mr. Andrews to thank or curse for my blog.

For those of you too lazy or too enthralled by the bright colors on my site to read what Mr. Andrews wrote, I’ll sum it up for you.

Mr. Andrews made a two part post covering the “right stuff” for an officer and the “wrong stuff” for an officer. Stuff translates to personality traits and/or qualities.

His “right stuff” list:

• Maturity
• Generosity
• Good Communication Skills
• Emotional Intelligence
• Game Knowledge

His “Wrong Stuff” List:

• The Player Who Really, Really Wants to Be an Officer
• The Player Who Plays for Unhealthy Amounts of Time
• The Player Who Shares Way Too Much Personal Information
• The Player Who Never Plays Sober

Now on the surface I could see how this could be good advice. I can really see why you don’t want a feral druid* who doesn’t understand what threat, babbling incoherently while he drools on his keyboard and tugs at your arm every 30 seconds saying “I wanna be an officer” to be an officer.

*I picked feral druid because they do after all, tank with their face.

But truly I have beef. I have large amounts of grade A sirloin beef. Below is my list of beef:

• The traits your officers need depends largely on the goals and focus of your guild,
• My officers have different personalities and character traits
• Some of the bad things can be good
• Some One of the good things is bad

So in an attempt to provide structure to this rant, I’ll tackle my beef on topic at a time.

Traits are dependent on the needs of your guild: I lead a progression focused raiding guild. I don’t lead a solely progression focused guild, my guild struggles very hard to straddle the line between progression and people. Some of my posts are largely impacted by this bias, for example, my analysis on the struggle of raiding guilds or my perspectives on taking back previous members. All of my posts are somewhat impacted by this bias, but I try my best to make my posts accessible to the general GM, as far as my experience will allow me. Often you’ll hear me state that you know your guild better than I do and my solutions may not work for you.

I’ve been in several types of guilds in the 10 years I’ve played online guilds. Heck, I lead one guild with the same name and same basic principles as the guild I currently lead, that was VASTLY different from the guild I currently lead. What makes a good officer in one guild may not translate into another guild, in fact it rarely does. On my server there is a guild of 15 people who have many alts and raid casually and there is a guild with 247 alliance accounts and an equally large number of whorde horde accounts who have many alts and raid casually. There is no way the officers for those two guilds share the same experience.

So my advice is don’t take other people’s lists at all. Put that away and make your own lists:

• Take your ideal guildmate, someone who goes above and beyond and think about the traits they have.
• Take the responsibilities and needs you see the potential officer filling and think about the traits that would make a person successful at accomplishing these things.
• Think about the things that are simply not acceptable for your guild or things you wouldn’t want other people to emulate.
• Take a look at your existing leadership structure (Hint: If you’re starting a new guild, this is you) and think about what strengths and weaknesses this structure has. Make a list of traits that will help shore up the weaknesses and play well against your strengths (Example: I’m a soft spoken, My Co-GM is louder. In raids I calm people down when they are upset, and he fires them up to kill a boss)
• Finally take a look at your guild and see how those things match up and find the best fit. You aren’t going to find someone perfect. I am not perfect, I have yet to meet someone who is (though I’ve met a few that think they are). My officers aren’t perfect, and you know what, I like them better for their imperfection.

My officers have different traits - and it’s a good thing. If there was such a thing as a master list of traits that an officer needed then guilds would have very similar officers. Even stipulating that guilds have different needs officers within guilds would be very similar. That simply isn’t what I’ve seen in my online play. Different characteristics and personalities make for a strong leadership core.

I have an officer who:

• Has been in the military and tells it exactly like it is (much to my occasional dismay).
• Is an absent minded professor, very gregarious not likely to remember what he promised he’d do.
• I think of as “dad” he’ll take you aside and gently reprimand you or listen calmly while you pour out your heart.
• Is anal retentive and remembers every detail about everything. people who speak to him often walk away overwhelmed by the amount information he provided them.
• Shares too much, but in a way that often finds my members sharing too much right back at her.

My point is, my officer core is strong because these different personalities play against each other and with each other to hash our our battle plans. (The anal retentive one gentle reminding my absent minded professor of what he has forgotten, etc). Also my members can relate to at least one of these different personalities when they have something to discuss. It’s a hodgepodge, it’s a mess, but it’s my hodgepodge mess and my guild wouldn’t be the same without it.

Some of the bad things can be good - or at least not deal breakers.

I mentioned my officer who shares way too much personal information. - She’s personable and charming. Yes I do know what color her dildo is, but you know she also knows about mine. (No I won’t tell you.) She has a way of talking to people and accurately reading people’s comfort levels. When people are feeling overwhelmed or had a bad day, guess who they talk to? They can tell her anything, they trust her because they know so much about her. Is it always a good thing? Certainly not, without her high emotional intelligence and ability to read people it would be detrimental.

Why does the player who plays unhealthy amounts of time play so much? - I know one person who’s in a wheelchair and on disability because they are fighting cancer, they have a healthy disposition and if you didn’t really get close to them. they would never tell you why they were on so much. WoW is their social outlet; it is their way of smelling the flowers. Certainly someone in a similar circumstance could use WoW in an unhealthy way or take our their bitterness about being trapped in their wheelchair fighting cancer on their in game socialization. What about the stay at home mom who’s kids are growing up, but still need their mom more than she can provide if she were working? There are many people who may play more than you but not for unhealthy reasons. If you can find one of them they can make for great officers with the time to accomplish more than you can and the high accessibility to members.

The person who really, really wants to be an officer - This is another why question. Some people know they have something to give that the guild needs and they care enough about the guild to want to give it. Some talents you can share with a guild without being an officer. To give you an example I have two players that came to me wanting to share their time and talents. One volunteered their time to run our WWS reports and another volunteered to take over auction housing our raid items and investing gold in items they saw fluctuating on the Auction House. Neither one of these guys is an officer, but both did take initiative to come to me and offer their services. Some talents require being a part of the planning process or authority to carry out. For example a role leader needs the authority to approach someone who is under performing to share their knowledge with assurance that they won’t be blown off. Some people think officership is just fun and power, but those are generally people who haven’t been officers before. Always consider the motivation, before you blow off someone that approaches you about being an officer, Ask them why they want to be one and what they have to offer.

Always drunk - I’m going to agree here, this is pretty much not going to work. Though in the interest of argument, some people use my absent minded professor as a venting source because they are relatively sure he won’t remember or take significant action. Perhaps this could be stretched into some argument, but that’s not a limb I really feel the need to climb.

One of good things is bad - I have one really really major disagreement here, though the list is mostly a good starting ground.

Generosity - Now granted Mr. Andrews gets Auz points for focusing on time and not items. But overly generous officers can coddle their members and foster dependence. I’m all for helping my teammates, but help them help themselves. When I picked up a druid (Hai Rita) that I loved from moonkin to resto because I saw great resto potential in her, I didn’t sit down with her and teach her spell rotations and stuff. I asked her to make a gear plan and then I reviewed it with her, I made a list of web resources that had great druid information on them and emailed it to her. I put the work on her. Not because I’m lazy or mean, but because it made her independent. She needed to think for herself and she needed the skill to make herself great. I was never more proud of her then when she came to me to talk about an article she had read and why she disagreed with it. That druid now owns her class, I didn’t give it to her, I only pointed the way. If I were more generous with my time I could have coddled her and done everything for her. She might still be a great druid but she would be dependent on me for how she thinks about the druid class and how it heals. She’s much stronger having earned it on her own and having made her own decisions. Moral of the story, she’s stronger because I gave her less time. In addition to that, a leader’s job is never over. It’s okay to be generous, but unchecked a guild will eat through all of your available time and ask for seconds, instead of generous I’ll take smart time management skills. Decide how much time you can give as an leader and then use that time wisely.

I don’t have such giant beef with the others as I do with generosity except to say they aren’t all necessarily required. My 15 year old brother (Hi Brudar!) lead a guild in WoW called the “Lollipop Kids.” To be in this guild you had to be a dwarf or gnome. They never raided. They never even hit max level. But you know what? He and his friends had a lot of fun. I love my little brother but he’s not terribly mature (what, Jim, you aren’t =P) or able to theorycraft on the ins or outs of his class. His emotional intelligence and communication skills are slightly above average for a 15 year old boy. He was the perfect GM for his guild. They flourished under his leadership and had a blast together, right until they decided that gaming on an xbox was way cooler than on the computer.

Long post, short - Don’t create strict rules or boxes for your leadership. Some of the best leadership is done outside of conventional thinking and wisdom. To quote myself; “If you do what everyone else is doing, you’ll end up where everyone else is.”

Welcome Carlie to the Chick family. Today Carlie was born after a difficult pregnancy. She’s healthy, beautiful and well worth the wait. Her mother, my cousin, is one of the most patient, gentle and loving women I’ve ever known. Little Carlie, if you grow up to be half the woman your mother is, the world will be a much brighter and wonderful place for having you in it. Happy Birthday!

In less personal news, my D&D crew is amused by the journal my character keeps and has suggested that I publish it. I think it’s a marvelous idea, though I know we will always be more amused by our D&D sessions than others will. Now I just have to decide where to publish it. So would you guys be interested in that or would you rather I make it it’s own blog. Use the poll on the right to let me know.

A week ago, the venerated Bear Butt made a post reacting to a blogger speaking about raid guilds struggling this summer. He mentioned in it that he’d like to hear my reactions. Bear’s post can be found here. The Officer’s Quarters post he was reacting to can be found here. Neither are necessary to understand this entry, but both are good reads. Both Bear Butt and Officer’s Quarters speak about two issues, the death of raiding guilds and taking back old members. I’m only going to focus on raiding guild death for this post, as I’ve covered returning members in a previous post.

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Why are raiding guilds falling apart? We’ve all seen it. I don’t think a single server has escaped the death of a well respected raiding guild, but why is it happening? Have these guilds all been simultaneously mismanaged into oblivion? Are aliens shooting discontent gamer radiation down to the Earth? Is WoW dying? Nope, well maybe, but I leaning towards more mundane causes.

I believe current raiding guild deaths are being caused by a combination of three factors.

• It’s summer
• There is a looming expansion
• There is a significant difficulty and gear gap between Hyjal/Black Temple and Sunwell Plateau

It’s summer - The typical hardcore raiding demographic is college kids. (Statistics gathered by a rigorous process of thinking back on the hardcore raiders I’ve known over the past years) Summer for college kids generally means a job, moving back in with their family, maybe sharing a car, basically less control over their own schedules and availability. Outside of that, summer is the time of barbecues, vacations, day trips to the beach or an amusement park, reconnecting with old friends, etc. In my own guild this has affected us:

• one of our two main tanks is currently on a 3 week vacation to France,
• one of our enhancement shaman just came back from Italy.
• One of my favorite priests has to pick up his sister from work at EXACTLY the start time of our raids.
• The list goes on and on.

In addition to that, some people are working hard to re-arrange their schedules to avoid having it interact with raid time. When raids don’t run silky smooth they may start to question why they’ve made that effort, or feel bitter towards their teammates who haven’t.

There is a looming expansion - With the flood of information about Wrath available, many players have their eyes on the future. They realize that in a few months the purple gear they are wearing will be replaced. For those that raid primarily for gear, they look around and realize they are in a hamster wheel, gear will always be replaced they’ll never “finish.” This can be disconcerting and cause people to wonder why they play or at least why they raid. Even for the less gear focused, they may be looking around wondering what aspects of the game they are missing by focusing on raiding.

Sunwell is hard yo! - Sunwell is significantly harder than Black Temple and Hyjal. The fights are more complex and leave less room for error. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s also. in my opinion, designed gear wise for people who have been farming Illidan for at least 6 weeks, more time than that, if the loot gods look upon your guild with disfavor. So when a raiding guild first sets foot in Sunwell they are either; woefully undergeared or fat and lazy from 6 or more weeks of just farming old content.

All of these challenges taken individually are painful, yet manageable. With their collision though, most guilds don’t have the strength or energy to master them. But fear ye not! I am not here to depress you with bad news of your impending doom. I have suggestions.

First, be it known that my guild, where you mostly hear me spout off a list of positive suggestions and ideas, is not immune to this phenomena. We have struggled. We have not progressed as quickly through raid content as I know we can. We are affected by these things too, and my suggestions are not the end all be all of leading your guild through this time period. They are just one GMs list of stuff that works or doesn’t work. With that lengthy preamble here are my suggestions:

• Turn these challenges into positives
• Publically acknowledge your struggles
• Draw on your strengths
• Ask for help

Turn these challenges into positives - I know I just talked about how all these things suck, but the fact is they are also all AWESOME. It’s summer time, the sun is shining, girls are in bikinis and life is generally good. Capitalize on the good mood that summer brings and capture that in your raids. People’s schedules are erratic, use that as a reason to let people try something new. If that’s respeccing a hybrid or bringing in a well geared alt, at this point in the game most people are very open to doing old content from a new perspective. There’s an expansion looming, people are excited about new class abilities, Death Knights and new raid zones. They are excited about the game again! This can help shake of the dulldromes, but remind them while they have their eyes on the future, the reason most raiders learn about our classes and gear up is to experience the raid content. The time period in which to experience TBC raid content is running out, let’s make the best of that time by focusing our raid time to make sure we get those experiences. Sunwell is hard, but that’s what we play for. I don’t know about you, but I get bored when I’m not challenged. Sunwell is a challenge and a half and it keeps me on my toes. It’s heightened my skills as a healer, raid leader and guild leader. I don’t know about the others, but deep down that’s why I play. Life is complex and situations aren’t always what we chose, but all of these challenges have locked within them the potential to be something that grows and strengths your guild in addition to the challenge they provide. You can’t will them away, but you can capitalize on that.

Publically acknowledge your struggles - Your guild looks to it’s leaders the most when things are rough. Don’t hide the fact that the summer and other factors have rocked your world. It may seem counterintuitive but by acknowledging these struggles you improve morale. You send a message to your guild that you are aware of the challenges and working to make them better. You can also help people articulate what they are feeling but don’t know how to express. Sometimes people feel a general sense of discontentment, but don’t always know why. By helping them identify why they are discontent, you can help them find a solution. Finally, but publically acknowledging your struggles, you get your guild focused on them which can lead to some brilliant solutions you didn’t think of. Some of the best solutions my guild has had, weren’t my idea. I’m not here to have all the great ideas, I’m here to make sure the great ideas turn into great solutions.

Draw on your strengths - This may seem like fairly obvious advice, but you’d be surprised how many people miss it. Your guild has different strengths and weaknesses than mine. It has to, it has different people in it. When you’re looking for solutions, it’s great to talk to other people, but remember you’re looking for a solution for your guild. Think about your guild’s strengths and find ways to capitalize on those strengths. If you have an amazing graphical artist, then maybe have them draw diagrams of bosses you’re struggling on. If you have a guild full of friend ranks maybe help organize them into a support crew that helps farm consumables for the raiders and in return hand out some of those yellow and green epic gems you have piling up for their pvp gear.

Ask for help - The worst thing that can happen to a struggling raid guild is leader burn out. When the guild is dissatisfied that creates a lot of pressure on you. It also generally makes some of your members feel helpless to change the dissatisfaction that surrounds them. By asking for help you do two things, you take the pressure off of you and you empower your member. Not ever member feels this way, but sometimes just knowing they are doing something to contribute makes a raider feel content. Don’t be afraid to ask for help on the routine things in order to free you up to focus on the things only you can do. Do make sure to give people thank yous and credit when they’ve agreed to help you.

I’ve said before that what defines you as a leader isn’t always keeping your guild running smoothly, it’s what you do when your guild isn’t running smoothly. I hope these things will give you food for thought, or help you in some ways. If you are the leader of a struggling raiding guild; take a deep breath, remember you aren’t alone in facing these challenges, know that these challenges will pass and your guild will be stronger for it.

A few posts back I had a commenter request that I post an example gear plan like I proposed in an earlier post. I thought about it decided it was a good idea, and promptly forgot to do it. I went over my blog notes, (Yes I keep notes about what I’d like to blog about; don’t blame me, blame Matticus.) and decided I should to this quickly before I forgot. Let me say two things that will both be probably be promptly ignored.

• I am not posting this gear plan as a list of gear that you should be trying to get as a raiding priest.
• I do not care to debate with anyone the virtues of this item verses that item for raiding holy priests, nor my spec, etc.

Both of these points stem from the same basic reason, I probably don’t heal the way you do. I’m a very specialized role that is specific to the needs of my guild and myself. I do not wholesale recommend my spec or gearing choices to anyone that’s not functioning in the exact same role that I am 100% of the time. If you would like to discuss the finer points of healing with me, I highly suggest coming over to PlusHeal.com and chatting with the numerous intelligent people there and I about what’s on your mind.

Without further ado, here is my gear plan.

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My Armory

Updated: 7.1.08

Major Upgrades
Hands of Eternal Light - Sunwell (craftable)
Boots of Absolution - Sunwell
Memento of Tyrande - Illidan - BT

Nice to have
Amulet of Flowing Life - Trash (JC pattern) - Sunwell
Shroud of Redeemed Souls - Twins - Sunwell

Wouldn’t Let it Rot/Sidegrade
Cuffs of Absolution - Offspec in case I want to avoid breaking my set bonus later.
Tome of Diabolic Remedy - I get more out of my spirit trinkets, but I might play with around with this some.
Crystal Spire of Karabor - Illidan - BT
Archon’s Gavel- I’m a staff girl and this is good for others but I’d be tempted if it was going to rot.
Haste:

• Shawl of Wonderment- Twins - Sunwell
• Robe of Eternal Light- Trash drop - Sunwell
• Blessed Band of Karabor- Trash drop - BT
• Dark Blessing- ZA - Zul’jin
• Book of Highborne Hymns - Twins - Sunwell