Officers' Quarters: Filling the void
by Scott Andrews 
Mar 17th 2008 at 11:00AM
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.
Sometimes, real life can catch up to your guild leader. It's a big job that definitely cuts into time that may be spent doing other things, especially if he or she has a family. When your leader resigns from the position, how does your guild fill that void of power? This week's e-mail comes from someone who wants to step up and assume leadership.
Dear Officers' Quarters.
My guild is jammed. We had some people quit because of RL issues over Christmas, which then saw an outflux of people because we couldn't raid for class balance. So now, we're reduced to doing Kara with 4 paladins, some dps and a singe priest. Our MT burnt out and GQuit and we've gone from exploring SSC to lost and confused.
The current GM is [. . .] quite frankly, tired of being in charge. There's another guy who's put up his hand for taking on the role, but isn't really doing anything about taking the load off, so I've volunteered if nothing happens soon.
I've never GMed before, so I'm in a bit of a quandary – there are so few resources available!
Firstly, I'm pretty sure (say, about 90%) that no one will have a problem with me taking over. I get along with most of the people I'd be delegating the everyday things to anyway, (they've already volunteered to do it under the current regime). I know where I want the guild to go. It's probably going to involve a merger or an alliance, so it's not like I'm going to be GM for long (unless I end up in charge of the whole shebang, eep!). With the GM's permission I've already started seeking guilds to look into this aspect.
My question is, if I do end up with the mantle, how do I ease the transition? I'm a very different person to our current GM. They're pretty relaxed and groovy. I'm more of a missile seeking the goal type. I'm a bit no-nonsense, let's get doing, which the guild is unused to, and I don't want to rub anyone up the wrong way. I also don't want to meander any longer!!
I've left this guild and come back already for the people, because they're what make the game fun. I don't want to leave them in the mire any longer!
It sounds like your guild is in a pretty bad spot, and it is fortunate that you and at least one other person want to take on the responsibilities of ultimate leadership. When a guild leader quits, it can mean doom for a guild if no one else wants to lead it. You certainly seem motivated to help your members accomplish their raiding goals, and you have a plan for doing it. All of that is certainly to your credit.
However, it sounds like you are making some big assumptions here. The first thing that stood out to me is that there is another person interested in the job. He may not be a "missile," but he may be the preferred choice of the membership. It doesn't sound like you've consulted anyone about it. "Getting along" with the members isn't necessarily enough. Of the two people seeking the position, does one of you have the former leader's blessing? That would make a big difference in how you are perceived.
Something else that concerns me is that you've already quit the guild once and then returned. What were your reasons for quitting? How did that go over? When a guild is struggling and people quit, leaving the remaining members to their fate, they aren't often looked upon kindly, even if they regret it later and rejoin. Are you certain that there isn't some lingering resentment about that?
Finally, I have some reservations about the direction you intend to take the guild. You plan either an alliance or a merger, and you seem fine with the fact that the merger might simply mean disbanding the guild and joining another one. You say you've had the leader's permission to begin making inquiries toward this end. However, is joining another guild an outcome that the members would favor?
Step back for a moment and look at your situation from another perspective. There may be members who see you in this light: Here's a member who left us at one point, but now has come back, and who wants to take over the guild in order to disband it and merge us with someone else. It's a grim viewpoint, and potentially somewhat exaggerated, but you must consider that there may be members who feel this way.
You wrote to me, "I know where I want the guild to go." But is that where everyone wants it to go? Before you simply assume leadership, touch base with the average members and find out. Would they have confidence in you as the guild leader? Do they want to merge, or would they prefer an alliance?
If there are two of you who want to become the guild leader, how about letting the members choose between you? It's an election year here in the U.S. -- why not hold your own? Present your respective visions of the guild's future and let the members decide who they think would be best for them.
I would guess that you'll probably lose some more members no matter who takes over in the end. But this way at least you'll know you tried to do what's best for the majority and have a chance to retain the larger portion of your current player base.
The only way to ease the transition of a new leader is to know ahead of time what your players want. If you aren't the person who can provide that, or you disagree fundamentally about the direction of the guild, you can't possibly succeed. Being the guild leader isn't about what you want. It's about what the guild wants!
/salute
Send Scott your guild-related questions, conundrums, ideas, and suggestions at scott.andrews@weblogsinc.com. You may find your question the subject of next week's Officers' Quarters!
Filed under: Guilds, Officers' Quarters (Guild Leadership)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
mattarin Mar 17th 2008 11:23AM
/gdisband
Lizardking63 Mar 17th 2008 11:35AM
Whoa...are we in the same guild? This story seems oh so familiar to me right now.
Minibro Mar 17th 2008 11:48AM
We had a meltdown qutie a bit like that in our guild, and came out of it much stronger than before. The key decision that enabled that was to put the "groovy" guy in as GM and make the "missile" guy raid leader. The raid leader was given control of raiding membership - if you wanted in, you needed him. Since that time, the social aspect of the guild is laid-back great (thanks, groovy guy), and the raids go like precision machinery (thanks, missile guy) - so well in fact that we've got 70's joining all over the place for the raids. It sounds like you've got the ingredients - why not try that recipe?
arcady0 Mar 17th 2008 2:33PM
I'll agree that guild leader and raid leader are best not the same person.
I've been guild leader of a guild since April of 07, and we've been casuals up until recently. Right at this moment we're going through the transition into 'casual raiding' and finding our footing.
Key is to delegate officers for raiding much as you would for other roles, and to make sure they understand that the casuals are still important members of the larger guild.
My upcomming plan is to going to result in a dual structure - a rank for casuals and a rank for raiders - identical in powers save that the raiders will have access to a different set of guild bank tabs.
As guild leader, I've purposefully taken a back seat on the raiding. I am a casual, and my raiders know this, and when I go with them on a raid I purposefully stop speaking from a position of authority let the raid leader boss me around - that shift credibility and allows that person to speak with a voice that others will listen to within the raiding environment.
Because we were casual for so long, we have developed a very strong internal culture that is also helping with this transition - we lack members who will 'ego-trip' will others start telling people what needs to be done. If someone takes charge of a situation, we've got a culture of assuming they're doing it for a good reason, and listening. And that is going a long way for us as we enter raids.
As far as filling in the shoes of a GM who left - I'd suggest something like what I've described. Back in my political science classes (my major as an undergrad) I took a class on the role of the presidency and another on city governments. A lot of politcal bodies around the world have two executive figures - one is there as the 'flag guy' who shows up at parades in the fancy costume, waves at the flag, shakes hands, and smiles for the camera. The other sits in the office and files paperworks, hires and fires people, writes a budget, and makes the tough deals.
As guild GM - be the guy in the funny costume. Delegate the tough deal to your raid leader, bank officer, recruiting officer, and events officer.
Mostly, your job is to keep those people unified, and act as cheerleader for the guild as a whole.
Get out your pom poms, and get to it. Let somebody else be quarterback. When a cheerleader tries to quarterback, things get messy.
Azrof Mar 17th 2008 11:45AM
A casual guild does not need to become a hardcore raiding guild without some serious discussions.
It sounds to me like the initial question could be broken down into parts:
1: A casual guild has atrophied to the point that it is no longer viable.
2: The current GM does not want the responsibility of making the guild work.
3: The person considering stepping up wants to merge with another guild, or is at lest studiously considering it.
4: Other points.
What that sounds like, to me, is a dysfunctional guild. Hardcore raiding is a whole different game than casual and I'd call "missile" raiding fairly close to Hardcore. If the guild is already so casual that it's bleeding members....
It sounds more like the person writing in needs to find a guild where he's better suited, rather than attempting to salvage a lame duck, otherwise he'll be risking his reputation, time and energy on something that the old guild's members might not be interested in.
Alternatively - disband the guild and reform it under a new charter with the new focus and merge/recruit from other small guilds in similar circumstances.
Rowtan Mar 17th 2008 12:03PM
I noticed he said that the current GL is "relaxed and groovy", and yet he wanted to change that - I run a (hopefully) "relaxed and groovy" guild myself, and most members like and appreciate that atmosphere. If someone came along and changed that, I suspect that, yes, one or two of the high level members would support it, but the vast majority would leave. People in my guild are there to relax and have fun, not to be dictated to. Some leave to go onto more hardcore raiding guilds which is fine - they often keep in contact or keep their lower level Alts with us - but most of us are there as a hobby, not a job.
My advice would be to sound out the rest of the guild members - arrange a convenient day/time for the vast majority of members to be around, and discuss where things should be going and how they want the guild to work - after all, this is about what the guild members want, not what YOU want. If you don't have members, you don't have a guild. If what they want is dramatically different from your ideas, then I would suggest someone else should be taking over.
I'd also like to point out that being a GL is fairly hard work - I'd reckon that a full day out of every week is taken up with it, from administering the bank/vault, sorting out promotions and any problems, regularly updating and monitoring the guild website and forum - and that's before you start answering questions or helping on quests. It might be worth any prospective GL's having a punt at trying all this for a while, just to see if they enjoy/want to do it!
Dieonesse Mar 17th 2008 12:05PM
There are quite a few red flags in this one for me.
1. Being a GM of a guild, casual or raiding, is a lot of hard work and takes an untold amount of dedication and patience. It takes its toll on your real life and in-game relationships, and you can't always be everyones buddy.
2. Mergers can work, but most often they dont. A merger should always be a LAST resort. A merger is basically giving up. If you enjoy playing with your guildies, just know that not all of them will follow you on a merger. You stand a chance of losing a majority of them. Especially if they don't care for the other guild or it's members. It can work, but chances are it's just the same as a guild disband, where a handful of the more dedicated players move onto another guild together.
3. I agree with everyone else that finding out what the guild as a whole wants, and needs from a guild is vital. How can you ensure that your members are happy and want to stay in guild, if you don't know what they need. Ask questions, talk to people.
4. Before trying to take over the reins of something this big, why not open the lines of communications. Talk to everyone. Find out what they think and who is willing to work with you and other officers to get things moving again. Get people talking again, get events planned, get people excited to be in the guild again.
Smurrf_ Mar 17th 2008 12:22PM
Fair warning when faced with a transition of leadership...especially when who the next GL should be isn't a clear cut done deal. Get the facts!
If you are a candidate for next GL...make sure you know what your guild wants. I repeat...make sure you know what your guild wants. If you want one thing, and your guild is happy with something else...might be a good time to see what else is out there. Certainly, you have the option of leaving an alt to hang out with the crowd, but there's other options if what you want is different from your guild. Make sure they understand what your vision is. Your guild is barely able to do heroic Black Morass, and you want to see Illidan dead by the time WotLK comes out? Fine and dandy...but you need to have a plan sorted out. Have you been talking with other guilds to see about alliances or mergers? Have you been training up new players & guildies? Have you (forgive me for this) been advert'ing in trade chat? Make sure that your guild is willing to do what it takes to get to that point. Raiding is a time-based endeavor. If your guild is simply not willing to be on time to raids, not willing to sign up, not willing to rotate out slots as necessary, not willing to read strats or improve their own play style...your guild isn't going anywhere. There has to be a certain amount of self-starting (or at least self-continuing) from raiding members before progression happens. If the guild isn't willing to do it, chances are, Illidan will be alive and well, and the only way you're going to see that matching pair of Glaives is by going and looking at EJ's news page.
If you are a guildmember, and you care about your guild AT ALL, if the time comes that your guild has to decide who to promote for that next GL spot, do your absolute best to find out everything you can about the potential replacement. What is their vision for the future? Are you happy with things staying status-quo, or are you itching to see Void Reaver, and maybe get a piece or two of T5? Do the candidates know and understand this? If an issue comes up in the future, where the player is voted in as GL, is he willing to step down if things just aren't working out? Or is he going to get pissed, kick everyone out, and server-transfer with the contents of the guild bank?
Case in pt: When I first started playing (in Sep '06), the guild I joined had a vote for new GL *that week*. As it turns out, the guild was a merger of two guilds, which were casual, friends & family guilds. A GL was chosen, and within short order, it went from a casual friends/family guild, to a casual friends/family guild that raided...to eventually a raiding guild. Unfortunately, due to his lack of leadership, general unwillingness to listen, and attrition as a result of the climate shift, the guild took a very long time to clear Karazhan...on the order of 8 mo. from release of TBC. I was promoted as an officer partway through this, and in very short order found out how rotten he'd made the underpinnings of the guild leadership. He drove off former high-profile leadership, whether they were council members, officers, or just outstanding class players, with the intent of forming the guild in his image. I finally quit in disgust, and have since found a much better home, but the guild is only now killing Gruul and making their first forays into T5 content - albeit through another guild alliance/merger.
Had the GL slot gone to another officer, it is much more likely that the guild would have remained a friends/family guild, and would have gone through much less in the way of drama...and might even have had much more success at raiding as a side benefit. But it is very safe to say that the people who voted the GL in, did not realize what they were getting out of the deal.
Arras Mar 17th 2008 12:31PM
My guild went through something similar - towards the end of the summer, a lot of people were burnt out, including the GM and his gf. Most people went on extended afks, some left and some just up and disappeared.
I stuck around and did my own thing, which ended up keeping the guild going through a pretty low period. The GM recognized this and promoted me to a sub-GM status, basically most of the power and most of the responsibility. Things have been picking up again, we're back in KZ (downed Nightbane this weekend! w00t) and people who left a while back are coming back and we might be able to hit up some 25 man content. Pretty big improvement considering we were in the single digits not all that long ago.
My advice to you: if you love your guild, if it makes you happy and you have friends there, it's worth it to tough it out. You don't need a title to take leadership, just step up and do it. People will recognize the effort and hard work more than they'll care about a title.
You don't need to change who you are when you get the GM title. If people want you to be GM, it's because of who are, not who you will be.
Stay the course, keep on keepin' on and you'll do fine. :)
Frank Smith Mar 17th 2008 12:47PM
if you want to raid ssc and beyond, go find a stable raid guild with a strong leader. i've seen this time and again where someone "inherits things." there's about a 1% chance you'll get back to where you were any time soon.
your emotional attachments... or raid progress. choose one :p
Coherent Mar 17th 2008 12:45PM
I wouldn't do it. I've tried heroic measures to save a guild before. True, I wasn't the GL, only an officer, but ever since then I've vowed never to go down with a sinking ship again. Far, far better to have the option to transition to a more successful guild remain open.
For this reason, I've actually turned DOWN the offer of an officership in my current guild. I am a strong and useful resource, and an officership was floated my way, but I was all "Gee thanks... but... I don't think so, not again."
Everyone feels the will to power, but sometimes those who have been there realize that the best power is the ability to walk away.
I'll help out as much as I can, but I'm never going to tie myself to the masthead with an albatross around my neck ever again.
Rich Mar 17th 2008 3:42PM
here is my $0.02.
Get a consensus from the guild of where they want to go. I have a feeling that you will find the majority of them will not want to follow your "Missle Program". If they did, they would have organized replacements and continued on. The ones that stuck around don't care and won't put the effort in for progression.
If that is the case, I would suggest finding out who else wants to progress like you in the guild. THEN, go shopping around for another guild that has the progression your looking for. Let them know you have some other people that would like to come along with you. Let the guild your applying to and the people who want to come, that they get in on their own merits and not cause of you.
If the majority of the people want to progress and were just being sheep waiting to be lead(unlikely), then go ahead with your plan.
I have a feeling you'll be shopping for a new guild.
Shumina Mar 17th 2008 9:01PM
With that kind of 180 planned for the guild, would it not be more prudent to just venture off and start your own guild? It's nice to have a guildbank with tabs all ready and ripe for using, but a change like that is going to result in a bleed out of still more members that are there for the "casual" play. It's what's expected.
I'd say strike out with the raiders that don't want the casual...then for an alliance WITH the old guild. That way the feel of the old guild doesn't have to die out for those that enjoy it.
LittleJen Mar 20th 2008 2:55AM
As it turns out I quit the guild and moved on to a similar feeling guild. Too many frustrations involved and a complete lack of caring from the members. I think there are maybe 2 people left in the guild, everyone seems to have moved on, some more successfully than others.
Greaterzog Mar 21st 2008 3:21PM
please listen to Scott and the posters on this one. We had a similar situation, and the guy who stepped in tried to push our casual raiding g into a hardcore one.
He failed and stealth /gquit, joining an top20 guild in our server (he at least had the decency not to ninja the bank).
In the process of all this he:
1) chased away half of our core healers in tanks because of his abrasive "missile" leadership style
2) invited a bunch of idiots into the guild (seriously, gchat doesn't go a day now without someone saying ~"why can't i go to ZA with u - i can't get into kara cuz i don't have the key, so what, i need epics to get epics?")
3) screwed up all the previous raiding teams we'd had
4) bitched incessantly about how no one was taking HIS decision more seriously
Besides this, he was clearly unhappy. The problem, essentially, was that he tried to force the guild to fit him, rather than finding a guild where he fit.