The back seat
And on the 6th day, I rest. (Sorta)
I don’t lead raids on the weekend. Some people can lead raids 7 days a week but I am not that person. I make myself available for one on one sessions with my raiders regarding raid performance, real life, personal interactions, gear plans, etc. But leading a group of 25 raiders, just drains me.
My guild, however, has become it’s own living breathing thing. With 148 accounts and 358 characters (only 38 of which are raiders) our guild has four hour raids five nights a week that are “official, ” and 5 Karas, 4 ZAs, 2 Mag/Gruul runs, and a smattering of pre-bc runs scattered in our off time. The runs are sometimes run by my officers, partner-in-crime and sometimes by random members that just stepped up and started running it. Sometimes they consist solely of members of my guild and some are a collection of people from various guilds.
Normally I avoid the ones my officers don’t lead. It’s hard for your guild not to look to you for leadership, and it can make the leader feel like they need approval for the things they would otherwise just do or say. This weekend however I decided to go to one. My baby druid is coming along nicely, and I thought she was ready for some 25 man content. It was interesting. I bit my tongue while some interesting healing assignments were made and watched my member as he made careful adjustments to his instructions. We ended up one shotting, High King, Gruul, and Mag with a group of alts and casual friends. He didn’t do everything I would have done, but we were successful. One time I was unable to contain my advice, so I whispered it to him rather than blurt it out. (Taking two very observant players off cube duty and instead having them watch nearby cubes as back up, if you were curious) He handled it with grace (namely listening to me =P)
I can’t say I was a perfect raider. I can say it was very interesting to be in the back seat, watching the raid from another perspective. It was also interesting to note how he established his authority, how he handled questions, how he put down rebellion and how the raid in general responded to general nuances of his personality. I’m thinking about using fraps to record myself in vent and the raiding effect. It would be interesting to see if I can recreate my observations and translate them to my own leadership skills. I can never hope to be unbiased, but maybe I’ll be able to learn something anyway.
On a side note, I’ve about had it with that little blue dragon. I’ve tried about all I know how to try from a leadership and strategy perspective. I’ve done indepth WWS analysis, made graphs, pictures, wordy explanations, set up captains, educated captains, worked on a one on one basis with those that are repeatedly not executing, recruited new raiders to replace the ones that are not executing, tried different strats, spoken to leaders of guilds that have killed him, spoken to members of guilds that have killed him, everything I know how to do. If we don’t kill him soon, I’m not really sure what to try next. We have the gear, strat, ability and desire, it seems we lack the focus and execution. All guilds have high points and low points, and we’ll get through this one too, it’s just frustrating to be in a low point.
May 19th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Stepping out of a leadership role after doing it for such a long time is quite difficult. As a former raid leader who is now just an ordinary member of a new guild, I bite my tongue constantly. A leader naturally wants to give the benefit of his/her experience, and that habit is a tough one to break out of. The experience can be quite frustrating.
Taking a back seat has been quite helpful for me however. I have been exposed to many leadership techniques that I never could have pulled off in my former guild. Being on the other end of instructions has also helped me to understand people’s reactions a bit better, so if I’m ever back in a leading role, I should be much more effective.
I can see a lot of advantages to the way I did things compared to what my current guild does, and I took those strengths for granted. My guild was very effective at making necessary changes quickly, whether those changes were in strategies, personnel, or guild policy. I’ve also seen my current guild do several things better than my old guild, such as retaining members, finding new members, distributing the spoils of raiding, and cultivating a stronger community.
I am unsure whether or not I ever want to be a leader again, but I would be much better at it now that I’ve taken a step back and watched how others do it.
May 20th, 2008 at 7:08 am
It is very, very difficult to ride in the back seat after being in the driver’s seat for a while. It took me several weeks to get acclimated to being “just” a raider after I stepped away from a guild master and raid leader position. Even now, I’m still not a rank-and-file guy - when the Paladin class lead is not at the raid (which he often is not, he has a busy class schedule), somebody’s gotta set PallyPower, hand out Judgment assignments, and manage the Paladins as a whole. Who’s gonna step up? Most of the time, it’s me - the GM has me on auto-promote in his raids to allow for such PallyPower management since I do it so much.
Once you’ve been in an official leadership position, you never really go back, despite your best efforts.
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