Principled Supporters

I have been doing a lot of thinking about how the guild views me as the guild leader. How decisions I make are taken by guild members and officers is something I spend time thinking about because it’s important that I can understand how people react to certain situations and different adjustments that are made as time goes on and the guild evolves.

Often I get feedback about my blogs from different folks and one common feedback is the old ‘was that blog about me?’ or maybe about someone else. Sometimes stuff happens that gives me an idea of something I want to blog about but rarely is a blog post totally inspired by one individual. It is much more common that I write a blog to explain what has happened, what I did about it and why I decided to do what I did. Also, what people can expect in future if we see similar occurrences.

What I’m interested in discussing today is the idea of a ‘yes man’ and actually more importantly to me in the case of guild leading, the people who will go out of their way to be a ‘no man?’ Or whatever the argumentative opposite to a ‘yes man’ actually is 😀

This subject all boils down to the fact that any community leader needs public yes men all around but private ‘principled supporters’ who are people who are ready to offer a counter opinion in private, or sometimes in public provided it’s within a healthy environment where emotional attachment can be left aside during helpful constructive criticism point giving. These ‘principled supporters’ are right to air their thoughts and opinions but they must also be dedicated to the cause which means public showing of strength and unity with the leadership.

There is no right or wrong personality with regards to this subject but it’s interesting to look inwardly and have a think what type of person we are. I had a discussion about this subject with my good friend and supervisor last night who is a Saudi national. We concluded that while it is important to feel the courage and self-confidence to be able to voice our own opinion about what we are asked to do, we also must remember that when push comes to shove, the buck stops with the supervisor in the case of day-to-day management of an aircraft servicing schedule.

Similar to the guild, the big boss of my company ain’t gonna ask me why our aircraft wasn’t ready for its flight test today, he’s gonna ask the aircraft supervisor who is delegating the tasks and not the guy who was testing the landing gear the night before.

Similarly, if my supervisor asks me to replace an equipment conditioning pipe and I have the brainwave that it will kill 2 birds with 1 stone to just leak check the pipe during ground engine runs instead of checking for leaks with cool air as detailed ‘by the book’, he might agree that this way is quicker but the safe way is to do the cold air leak check just to be sure the pipe isn’t leaking before blowing roasting hot engine bleed air through a potentially misaligned pipe.

This is just an example but it illustrates how differing opinions are welcome and listened to, and often acted upon but not always in keeping with the plans a leader has overall.

Another example could be that my supervisor asks me to delay fitting a panel on the jet which has a lot of complex equipment inside the compartment. I could just delay fitting the panel and go for the higher priority task but I notice the electrical tradesmen preparing to connect up all the cables inside the panel compartment. I could suggest to the supervisor that I go ahead and fit that panel right away before the leckies carry on and make my life difficult to fit the panel later due to the mass of tightly packed cables which would be in the way and slow me down considerably since I need to get my hand inside to access bolts to hold the panel in place. This is an example of a suggestion made from a different angle of approach possibly unconsidered and it’s conceivable the supervisor might have reasons to stick to the previous plan but just as easily he could adjust his plan of action and cut time of the original scheduled.

These examples are totally unrelated to guild activity, largely because being in the guild is totally voluntary and actually nobody needs to do anything unless they want to since nobody is being paid for their efforts. However, the specific tasks are not important, the people interaction skills and overall environment awareness are of crucial importance in all situations where you are asked individually or as a collective to follow the directives of a leader.

It takes a good degree of maturity to be able to be given a task, think about what the task entails and consider alternatives while also recognising that the guy dishing out the task has good reason for it. They might ask for feedback or they might not, either way you must be ready to carry it out to the end and provide a good result.

Some people just go right ahead and get on with the job, no questions asked. Some seem unable to carry out a task without questioning every aspect of it. Some think deeply about the task and offer thoughts, opinions and concerns as they arise only while recognising that the end result is the ultimate goal and not the debate in-between.

A yes man is every leader’s dream but long-term evolution isn’t provided by the yes man. The obedient, ever-ready follower is as noble as they come. A guild needs obedient followers because the guild leader needs to be trusted that his vision of the guild is final and hard workers who get stuck into tasks are highly valued commodities in any organisation.

The person who argues about every task is in danger of being viewed as an opposition to the establishment. If you can’t trust your leadership then maybe you need to change your company, or form your own company. In WoW’s case, if you don’t trust your guild leader then you need to change guilds or learn to trust a bit more.

What I need as a guild leader are people with balls! People who have the brass bollocks to stick up for me in public, shout in favour of their leader while using their brain power to consider all that is being planned and feel free in their own minds to point out possible unconsidered angles and potential undesirable outcomes that may have been overlooked while always being prepared to just get the head down, get on with the job and hopefully the guild leader has had enough vision to pull off the situation to a successful conclusion.

There are guys in this guild from each category and it is my intention to get people thinking, no more than that. There are people in this guild who I value greatly because they are able to voice their dissenting thoughts but at the end of the day, never fight so hard that they cut off their own noses because deep down, they trust their GM. Most likely out of respect because of certain decisions made previously that seemed dubious at first and turned out to be correct. Could be because I have upset all the odds and managed to create a successful community here despite the endless potential pitfalls. Could be that the guild leadership gets respect for fighting for a balance of gameplay in the guild which is very difficult to achieve. Might just be because the same guy made the guild almost 5 years ago so simply he must know his shit?

Some accuse certain officers of being ‘yes men’ or ‘GM’s pet’ bla bla but don’t let those people fool anyone, I have no favourites, well maybe Shethehunter but that’s different 😀
Maybe Shannie the lovable lil bugger but hey, just because an officer shows outward support for the GM, doesn’t mean the officer doesn’t brawl with me often about decisions.

Just look at Spyrot! He’s been called a yes man by a few sillies but trust me, that bastard has a fiery dagger and he ain’t scared to use it on his GM when he feels the occasion needs it. Wenya? She’s a blithering maniac when I upset her apple cart! No chance is she gonna let me just waltz around doing whatever I want without hearing about it. Jibbas? I’m sure that swine has it in for me, almost never agrees with me but the thing is, all these guys really just care an awful lot. They care that the guild needs to be heading in the right direction and often pass viewpoints that are at odds with me. That’s alright and I listen but when the push comes to shove, they know it’s Bigticket who runs the shit and I’m sure it’s clear to the guys that I mean well and I do consider my decisions before making knee-jerk reactions even though sometimes it doesn’t look that way.

As I have stated before, I don’t always have the luxury of time and deliberation, sometimes I must simply be ruthless, decisive and act bluntly in the good stead of the guild because we are an excellent fellowship which deserves decisive action to preserve our status as such.

So, principled supporters are the ideal guild members it seems. It’s not easy but with social awareness and maturity some make it look really easy.

*grabs breath, this was long*

/Salute