Sir, I Respectfully Disagree
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.”
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August 8th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Good post!
I have one officer that tells me periodically that he wishes to be demoted, as he feels he does not contribute enough as an officer.
Now, this guy is a gem! He is the one voice of reason in officer chat. He can, with one sentence, put something we are discussing in perspective. That, my friends, is invaluable! I tell him that the officer core needs him, and thats why I do not agree that he get demoted.
August 8th, 2008 at 5:34 pm
Mister Generous with His Time can be a pain in the ass when his motivation is to be popular. I’ve dealt with this kind of officer twice and both times lead to an officer core with too much groupthink.
Every officer group needs at least 1 person who sees things differently, and that 1 person needs to be carefully listened to. Often, that 1 dissenting opinion makes everyone else think a bit harder about the decisions they make, and even when the dissenter ultimately is disagreed with, the discussion can lead to a good refinement of policies.
August 8th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
I play WoW only intermittently, and I haven’t actually paid for my own account yet because I have a few life priorities that I know I’ll never finish if I pay for the account now (that will be my reward for accomplishing these things), but I have to admit that I’ve learned tons about team management (putting them together and making them work) from this post. Who knew I’d get so much life experience from gaming?
Thanks!
August 8th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Your views and pointers Auzara, as usual, are very well tough out and clear.
Reading trough both of your posts (your’s and Mr.Andrew’s) made me share your concerns on how guilds are lead! What goals they have and how different those goals can be.
How important the right person is for the right Job. Again, as usual, I have the vehement need to say two more things!
You are the right person for your job!
/target Mr.Andrew /cast Thank you!
August 8th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
Auz hates me :(.
August 9th, 2008 at 3:45 am
You couldn’t stress enough the importance of creating an officer team of different personality types. I’ve seen it so many times in real life - you really don’t accomplish miracles in party with people who’re just like you. You’re more likely to waste your time either chatting or arguing, trying to take positions and compete.
Form a team where everyone has a unique roll and will bring a certain aspect of leadership to the party - and things will go much easier. The vision of 1+1=3 only will work out if the 1 and 1 are not identical.
I think some players (perhaps out of a bit of youth and lack of experience) are a bit afraid of people that are a bit different. They simply cannot see the “gold” in the absent minded professor or the one who shares to much in your team. I really hope this excellent post will help them open their eyes.
August 9th, 2008 at 9:28 am
Hello you weirdling.
Is a good solid post here. Me, I ain’t no officer and ain’t ever lookin’ ta be one. But I sure likes having quality officers running me guild and the ones me teammates is in. And what defines quality is gonna vary depending on if is a guild fer funs, a guild to raid some, a guild wanting repectable progression, or a guild ta lead the way ta Sunwell and beyond. As is often the case, the WI article tried to provide one short answer to all these situations, and that just don’t work too good.
I’d say another problem with generosity is, even when done well and fer proper motivations, a too-generous officer can burn hisself out helping everybody all the time, and then he’s no good to nobodies.
Is it purple? I’s bettin’ on purple. Ya can tell me in a IM, hun, I won’t tell nobodies.
August 9th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Mighty fine stuff here, Auz…mighty fine!
Interestingly, I’ve been all of those things, at one time or another. Sometimes it works, sometimes not: The officer is not the only variable in the equation. And of course, the key word is “variable”: An officer must be able to adapt to different people and differing circumstances.
Flexibility is the key.
August 9th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
I love this post, because it is so true that there is no one-size-fits-all description of a perfect officer. The best guilds have a team of leaders, and the best teams are those with different personalities that somehow manage to work together for the greater good.
Also, people are by their very nature transient and flawed. They are moody, they are busy, they are distracted one day and focused the next. The person you are dealing with at any given moment is really just a snapshot of their larger selves, and the best you can hope for is someone who makes a damn pretty picture more days than not.
Keep up the great work, and the great blog,
Onyx
August 10th, 2008 at 11:40 am
I think the WoWinsider article is far more accurate for good officer traits. The people you described as officers are kinda unbalanced, and it sounds like your guild survives (or thrives) in spite of their flaws, not because of them.
Worst is the one who shares too much information. The fact that other people get sucked into the vortex doesn’t make it ok.
-Cambios
Blogging about Online Gaming and Virtual Worlds:
http://www.muckbeast.com
August 11th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
I agree with your comments but I do think there are some fundamental qualities needed to successfully lead a guild.
I recently wrote this in my blog. “(Being a GM) requires the right combination of hard work, desire, vision, charisma, and decisiveness that few people have.”
When I wrote it I had a Progression Raid guild in mind but I think most of these qualities are needed in some form for almost all guilds.
Hard Work - Some more then others, but for any guild with adults that has organized events like raids, this is a requirement. If you can’t quit the work in then you cant lead effectively.
Desire - I’ve seen several people asked to take leadership positions do so grudgingly. All of them have burned out quickly and stopped playing the game for a little while. One of the biggest mistakes I see is forcing an officer position on the MT. Granted the MT by its very nature has to do a little bit of leading since he is the focal point of the raid, but he doesn’t have to raid lead or deal with all of the other guild issues,
Vision - If you don’t know where you want the guild to go or how to get there then your goinging to be at a stand still. You have to know what you want your guild to be.
Charisma - This is the most important charicteristic needed in my opinion. In my opinion this doesn’t mean every one likes you. It means that everyone respects you to some extent and is willing to listen to you. People acheave this differently but if your not respected then you can’t lead the guild anywhere. Some are assholes, some are friendly, but the result is the same.
Decisiveness - I’ve seen to many guild leaders that can’t make a decission. They can’t tell a good applicant no because we just don’t have the space. They can’t make a quick choice on where to raid tonight because we don’t have the right group for the planned raid. They can’t make quick loot choices holding up the raid for more time then is necessary.
One last thing. I also agree that your guild officers should have different perspectives. Using my last guild as an example when we were working on Vashj we had large differences of opinion on how we should approach those nights. Some officers thought that we should limit our attempts so that we don’t burn members out. Myself and other officers felt that we should put more attempts into so that we learned the fight and didn’t forget it. In the end it was probably a balance of these to positions that lead us to downing her. Differences of perspective help to balance a message in a way that makes it accessable to all.
August 11th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
[...] If you still need a good reason to become a regular reader, you need look no further than her respectful disagreement with a WoW Insider article3. In her article, Auzara effectively demonstrates how WI’s [...]
August 12th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
[...] the Goods? Auzara from Chick GM gives you advice on how to pick officers for your [...]
August 12th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Muckbeast is right about one thing … sharing too much information is probably the worst guild leader sin. Confiding in your members is a surefire guild killer, for the GMs that do it the question is not if the guild will die but when.
August 12th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
[...] read a great article over at the excellent Chick GM about officer leadership styles and what makes a good officer. It made me think about what I valued in GMs and officers, and what I learned as [...]
August 13th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
I think the post is fantastic and that it’s silly for people to nitpick it when the point was NOT to. Everyone’s got their own situation so there’s no way to be more “accurate,” there’s no “formula” - there’s just the people that can adjust and be creative and the people who can’t, despite whatever “trends” people may see. Great leaders think on their feet and work with what they have, imho.
Anyway, great post.
August 13th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
“Muckbeast is right about one thing … sharing too much information is probably the worst guild leader sin. Confiding in your members is a surefire guild killer, for the GMs that do it the question is not if the guild will die but when.”
I thoroughly disagree with this idea. When your members can view you as a real person instead of just an authority figure, your guild builds up a great deal of loyalty and dedication to one another. The degree to which an officer shares personal information can come into question, but what is there to be embarrassed about? How will information hurt you? To use the example given, what harm could possibly come from someone knowing what color your officer’s dildo is?
Such sharing shows your members that you trust them, and good people will reciprocate in some fashion. You may not learn their secrets in return, but trust does a lot for people.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:34 am
It’s orange. LEGENDARY.
August 15th, 2008 at 11:45 am
[...] I know, and they know, that the job’s not gonna be that simple. I’m gonna take Auzara’s words to heart though; I figured out after reading her post that my problem as a guildleader in my [...]
August 25th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
[...] including quotes on what they’ll do to you if you don’t stop. To bad you can’t back-talk them too.Sir, I Respectfully Disagree | ChickGMA well-put and humorous rebuttal to two of WoW Insider’s posts about what traits make a [...]
August 25th, 2008 at 9:02 pm
[...] Sir, I Respectfully Disagree | ChickGMA well-put and humorous rebuttal to two of WoW Insider’s posts about what traits invent a good guild officer and which ones to avoid. [...]
August 25th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
[...] Sir, I Respectfully Disagree | ChickGMA well-put and humorous rebuttal to two of WoW Insider’s posts about what traits make a good guild officer and which ones to avoid. [...]
August 25th, 2008 at 9:04 pm
[...] including quotes on what they’ll do to you if you don’t stop. To bad you can’t back-talk them too.Sir, I Respectfully Disagree | ChickGMA well-put and humorous rebuttal to two of WoW Insider’s posts about what traits make a [...]
August 25th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
[...] Sir, I Respectfully Disagree | ChickGMA well-put and humorous rebuttal to two of WoW Insider’s posts about what traits make a good guild officer and which ones to avoid. [...]
August 25th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
[...] Sir, I Respectfully Disagree | ChickGMA well-put and humorous rebuttal to two of WoW Insider’s posts about what traits make a good guild officer and which ones to avoid. [...]
August 26th, 2008 at 1:53 am
It took you a wall of text, and more, to come to the conclusion that there are no hard and fast rules that apply to qualities and charactristics of guild officers. Thank you, Captain Obvious, for your self-indulgant and redundant rant. Nice to see someone who enjoys the sound of their own voice.
August 26th, 2008 at 3:30 am
I always love how people that know nothing about leadership get together to lead a guild and act like they got it all figured out. Whoo hoo! You’re a leader that’s able to hold together a group of video game players for 4 months…success! I’m sure you’ll look back at the end of your life and say, “I really was a great leader!”
If you want to know what makes a good leader then read a book on leadership. There are plenty of good one’s out there (Good to Great for instance). But writing articles and comments like you know what you’re talking about is a waste of everyone’s time.
If you want to waste your time talking about things you don’t know about go talk about politics. You’d be in good company there.
August 26th, 2008 at 10:10 am
[...] Sir, I Respectfully Disagree | ChickGMA well-put and humorous rebuttal to two of WoW Insider’s posts about what traits make a good guild officer and which ones to avoid. [...]
August 26th, 2008 at 10:38 am
chickgma, I think you are missing the point. Mr. Andrew’s article is not a list of absolute do’s and do not’s, but it’s a guideline for identifying good or bad leadership, it’s a direction something to aim at.
Your disagreement with Officer quarters seems to be based upon a list of rare exceptions to a rule. Of course exceptions exist, while there are a few share-too-much people that are genuinely nice there easily are 10 times more drama-queens and attention-whores. There are people that genuinely want to lead but just need some direction, but even more are looking for a status symbol to feel good about themselves. While there’s the occasional kid in a wheelchair, there are 500 times more people with unhealthy wow addiction.
Obviously the amount of people out there that have all these officer qualities are rare, and most of us have or at some point have a negative officer quality, people are inperfect etc. High standards should be something we work for and strive for, let’s not throw away something just because it’s too hard.
August 26th, 2008 at 10:40 am
wow, I’m amazed at the negative comments. Whatever - the obvious tends to get overlooked a lot. No one forced you to read the whole thing. Gabe - the only ones who have any right to judge whether a leader is any good, are the ones being led. And tbh sounds like she’s doing a great job.
Having said that… great article
there’s just one thing I respectfully don’t entirely agree with. A certain degree of generosity is necessary in a good officer - in my old guild the GM was entirely motivated by what he wanted and what he thought. He absolutely refused to listen to the 3 active officers when he got an idea stuck in his head, he arranged raiding with the deliberate aim of gearing up his own toons rather than based on the needs of the guild, etc. And yet because he kept all that in the hidden officer forum (he worked with all the officers irl, so they all stuck together however frustrated they were) and the 3 active officers were so great, the vast majority of the guild still believes him to be a nice, reasonable guy who gives as much to the guild as he can. A while back he forced one of the active officers out of the guild (the one who disagreed with him most and was always ready to argue), another burnt out, and the third doesn’t have the motivation to argue with him any more, I think. So now the guild is almost dead 
despite them promoting people who don’t work with them for the first time (ofc only after it became apparent that the guild was having problems) and one of the officers who rarely did anything starting to get involved. It’s such a shame… best guild I was ever in.
August 26th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Ok, maybe I’m a month late, but just found this and wanted to say, “Well written blog.” While I disagree with some of your points, I’ve come away with the understanding that disagreeing is kinda the focus. IF there were one plan that worked for both Mr Andrews and with your guild then we could all be happy and never worry about diversity. Someone suggested reading a “leadership” book. I would suggest reading two or maybe even more. I’m sure if you do, then you’ll find they very often disagree. Mr. Generosity can be a problem if he’s not letting the up-and-comers learn their own toon just like Ms Shares Too Much can make runs miserable with incessant cat stories. The point though, at least the point I see, is that it takes this myriad of personalities to keep the machine running. That being said, I’m a fan of anyone that disagrees with WI’s drudgery.
August 27th, 2008 at 10:25 am
You can’t learn to plow by reading books.
August 28th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
I agree with your officer traits rant but argue that an officer always has to have the best interests of both his guild and class in mind. Without that they will be no good or even a negative impact.
Feel free to check out my wow blog at World of Warcraft Blogger and pass on any suggestions you may have. If you like it I would love to be added to your blogroll
Samownall
September 1st, 2008 at 9:55 pm
[...] up is Auz from the excellent blog ChickGM.com. She respectfully disagreed — albeit vehemently! — about my columns from early in the year about what to look for [...]
September 1st, 2008 at 10:30 pm
[...] up is Auz from the excellent blog ChickGM.com. She respectfully disagreed — albeit vehemently! — about my columns from early in the year about what to look for [...]
September 1st, 2008 at 10:31 pm
[...] up is Auz from the excellent blog ChickGM.com. She respectfully disagreed — albeit vehemently! — about my columns from early in the year about what to look for [...]
September 1st, 2008 at 10:37 pm
[...] up is Auz from the excellent blog ChickGM.com. She respectfully disagreed — albeit vehemently! — about my columns from early in the year about what to look for [...]
September 1st, 2008 at 11:39 pm
[...] I’d like to address them one by one. First up is Auz from the excellent blog ChickGM.com. She respectfully disagreed — albeit vehemently! — about my columns from early in the year about what to look for in a [...]