This week’s MMO Manager insight is somewhat reversed from the usual. Instead of MMO lessons applying to business, here’s a business post that applies beautifully to the world of MMO guild management.
Dumb Little Man’s “50 ways a manager can get employees to quit” post lists several ways a mis-managing manager can manage to alienate those he or she works with, and many of these apply to the world of WoW. There are a few key lessons any guild leader can learn from this list, notably in the form of don’ts:
- Giving people the wrong sort of reward (usually none at all)
- Talk more than you listen
- Reprimand people in front of the whole group
- Disproportionately rewarding those who are fun personalities but shoddy players
- Disproportionately rewarding females over males or otherwise showing favouritism
- Ignore complaints
- Give advice on topics where you aren’t the expert
- Hold irrelevant, long, over-frequent meetings
- Insist people do pointless tasks
This leads into some dos:
- Do treat everyone from an equal footing…
- …but be sure to recognise merit.
- Do listen to others and acknowledge that they may know more than you
- Do communicate that you’ve received feedback, and make internal processes (officer discussions) clear to everyone
- Do recognise when people go the extra mile for you
- Do take interest in your guildies and take action when needed
Obvious? Probably, but it’s always worth stepping back and checking you’ve not let little idiosyncrasies or habits slip in. Always prefer your favourite tank? Giving specific rewards to officers but not the proles? Ignoring feedback and finding yourself in the middle of long waits while officers discuss issues but members have no idea what’s being discussed? Maybe it’s time to patch up a few of those management skills.