Sunday, March 27, 2011

Hello Medivh! #1 - Interview with Boradinn from Acid Burn




Hey there!

I am pleased to announce that I had the opportunity to interview the highly successful guild leader Boradinn from the guild Acid Burn on Medivh. The is the first of hopefully many "Hello Medivh" editions of love to the guild leader where I will be "talking shop" with different guild leaders on my server. I really appreciate the time that Boradinn gave up to record this and I hope you enjoy! My goal is to give everyone different perspectives involving guild management. My apologies for my microphone issues at first. I'm a little too low but it gets corrected about 3 minutes into the interview. Also my push to talk noises are absolute fail but hey Enjoy!!
- Krrang (Alchanon - Medivh)

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Episode 3 Qualities of a Successful Guild Leader 5-1




Show notes #3
5. Be Empathetic
You have to be a person that is in touch with the guild. This involves talking to each and every guild member whenever possible. Don’t miss an opportunity to say hello how’s it going? In a whisper.
You need to feel when people are getting a little ticket when they are left out or realize when the guild is growing to fast or getting kind stale and could use some new people.
Be in touch with how people are feeling. You need to be able to put out fires and more importantly sense when the fires are starting. People have a right to fume and complain to each other behind your back but you’d better not be naive about it.
You need to feel if the guild is getting annoyed with a certain member or officer or if they are not inspired by the guild goals or lack of goals that you have set.
You are setting goals right?
When you recruit notice how the people are answering your questions. If you get a bad vibe do not let them in or feel like it’s your job to change them. This is one place where you don’t have to deal with turds!

4. Delegate
You will not survive if you try to do it all yourself. You'll have to for the first few weeks but then you're going to need officers. (More on officers in a later show)
All the daily and weekly tasks need to be delegated to officers. Such as:
• Bank
• DKP
• Setting up raids
• Recruiting
• Promotions
• Auctioning stuff from the bank
• Reaserch strats/bosses
• Website creating
• Forum moderating
• Running guild events
You cannot do it all-Have lots of officers.

3. Leadership
Are you a follower? If so do not be a guild leader.
-As guild leader you are in charge of the well being of the guild-period. You need to keep that thing DRAMA FREE, growing, harmonious, fun , progressing and at the same time not being an overbearing, selfish dictator. Say, "It's our guild." Now don't miss an opportunity to kick an asshole from the guild. That's what they want you to do.
Leadership can be summed up in one word-communication.
Do you find it hard to tell people what to do and do they listen to you? If the answer is no don't be a guild leader.
-Leadership can be improved. I do believe that good communicators are natural leaders but you can always work on improving communication an thus becoming a better leader.-1-10 Really does sum up 99% of what it takes to be effective as a leader of a guild.

2. Social (People) Skills
Are you a people person or do you find it annoying when people are always talking to you?
-To be a guild leader you must find it an opportunity when people are talking to you.
These are YOUR people. They want and need to be inspired by you! So do that every chance you get. You need to be charismatic and caring. Talk to them, make them all feel special. Put them in positions where they can succeed and make your guild THRIVE. Keep recruiting-if someone leaves recruit two more people. Encourage people to talk and get to know each other. It's THE MOST important thing.
A guild that plays together stays together.
You HAVE to create a guild culture of supporting friendship. With this accomplished anything is possible.

1. Caring and Encouraging
Be caring and love your guild. Ask anyone to name their favorite teacher and they will 9/10 tell you because he or she cared and encouraged me to do more than they thought was possible.
That's every person in your guild too. Get to know them and find out their good qualities. Dwell on the good and not the bad.
If all of the above doesn't sound appealing then don't become an officer or a guild leader.

Conclusions
Guilds can provide you with tires of struggle, fatigue, depression, doubt and anger. However, it's all with it when they eventually come together under your command and become something special! Whether it's taking down the final boss or helping as a group on some grand guild event.
I promise you that the feeling of your guild's success will make all of that effort seem worthwhile.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Episode 2 - Must have qualities of a guild leader 10-6


Qualities of a Successful Guild Leader (from least to most important)
.



What you want ultimately is to be loved by your people. You want to be trusted, respected and adored.

10. Be willing to shell out money
9. Selfless
8. Determined
7. Willing to put the time in
6. Organized


10. Be willing to shell out money
You are going to need two things to run a guild over the long run that will cost money.
A. A great looking website like wowguilds.ca offers. Guildlaunch or guildportal have free and less robust features but a full featured website with forums is an absolute must for a successful guild.
B. A ventrilo server with a minimum of a capacity of 25. 50 would be recommended but you can always upgrade later on down the road.
Being able to communicate with your guildies off line and voice to voice is one of the best ways to form lasting relationships and truly get to know them beyond what guild chat can offer.

9. Be Selfless
Running guild is all about your members and not about you.
Plan on not playing the game as much and instead managing what you’ve started. Especially at first you want to cultivate that all important guild culture.
If you are not willing to sacrifice your time for your guild, this is the wrong job for you. Being a guild leader is the hugest of huge commitments.
I remember always seeing a guild leader sitting in a particular place all the time. I’d walk by and there he was sitting on his mount in the same spot not doing anything, I always wondered what the heck that guy was doing. Now I understand.

8. Be determined
There have been 2 times that I can remember saying screw all this stuff, it’s not worth it. That is usually when people that I’ve spent countless hours talking to and helping just up and quit to join another guild.
This is going to happen. Repeat this…this is going to happen.
You gotta keep it going especially at the beginning of starting a guild.
I have a rule when someone leaves you go recruit two people.
These relationshitps that are severed like that can really hurt sometimes. It could hurt your raid team or just your feelings, so make sure you are emotionally stable so you don’t fall victim to just saying screw it!
Running a guild is without question the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

7. Willingness to put time in
If you’re thinking how many hours per week does it take? That depends on several things:
A. Your officers
B. Your goals
Probably 1-3 hours per day. You have to be able to play nearly everyday no question.
Remember you can’t burn yourself out.
If you burn yourself out it’s over – especially at the beginning.
Plan on spending a lot of time chatting to people via text or on ventrilo.
You must build personal relationships with people or they will leave you in a heartbeat. You must invest in them so that they will invest in your guild.
You will also have to spend lots of time updating your website and making it pro looking. You do not want to recruit people and direct them to an unattractive website.
You will be in charge of planning events, scheduling instance runs, raids or other affairs.
Emailing guild mates in game or responding to forum posts.
You’ll be recruiting new guild members.
Getting new members is one challange, keeping them around is another far more difficult endeavor.
It’s non stop because there isn’t specific hours doing the day when people play. It’s 24-7 all day every day.
Without all of this stuff especially in the beginning your guild will fail.
Remember with a guild with 50-200 members this can be like a small to medium corporation. Are you ready for all that?
I’ve seen guilds with 200 members fold overnight. This comes from pure lack of leadership. And expanding too fast.
How do I become an effective leader? You’re listening to it. Do these 10 things and you’ll be doing exactly what it takes to have a healthy happy successful guild that can accomplish anything that you want.

6. Be organized
You are going to be whispered within 5 sec of logging in sometimes by multiple people all wanting something. (this is a worst case thing be it isn’t uncommon)
I recommend you have a planner for your guild that is separate from your RL planner. If you want to be effective as a guild leader your have to know what you are going to do with your time. Bank organization, setting up raids, recruiting, helping someone set up ventrilo, 5 mans,…
It may not be fun all the time but you have to have a written plan for everything, with geals for the month and week. If you spend all your time in heroics you’ll neglect lots of areas of the guild.
You’re going to have to have written policies, raid rules, loot systems, prewritten in advance of even starting the guild.