Because I am such an ambitious Guild Leader, I always wish the guild is seen as successful and selfishly as a player who wants to raid at a high level, it also means I am always looking for the best Raid Leadership in order to furnish the guild with respectable progress. The trouble is that we have a very delicate balance within the guild of casualness and also determination to become better, those differences lead to occasional clashes of opinions. My previous determination to accept a strong Raid Leader in the past at the expense of guild harmony caused a huge collapse and while I still would love to see such focused and organised raid leadership again, he was far from ideal in a lot of ways. He upset a lot of people but that’s how progression raiding is, players can’t take being dropped from a team too personally. A guy must call the shots on who plays and when, it’s not an easy thing to do.
What I want, is a Dambusters superstar to really emerge and love the guild, love all aspects of leading a progression raid team and enjoying the fact that the GM will support (and critique as necessary) but all for the greater good of the guild’s image and happiness of it’s members. Daltzilla is on the path but he will admit his own imperfections and that he has a lot to learn as a raid leader and student of the game in general. I will make no apology for constantly looking to improve the raid leadership and that may come with replacing Daltzilla with another at some point if the guild requires a change there. What I really would rather tho, is that Daltzilla grows and grows like Spyrot did but without feeling that he outgrows the guild which is an absolute fallacy. A dedicated raid leader can do great things here and without the admin side which comes with the guild leadership. Leaning on me is not a failure, it’s a virtue and I can do a lot of things to make life easier so I want to be used and helpful. Officers in this guild should be using my example of being a servant first and not someone to serve. Officers here sometimes struggle with the notion that they have a little power and it has been known to change players. I never change, my leadership style is the same as it was when I founded the guild on 26th July 2009 and i know that because my personality is all over it. I expect respect, banter and friendly attitudes towards myself and others in the guild and around the wider community. When I see people behaving well and playing their game with enjoyment then it impresses me and they will progress up the ranks of the guild in due course.
I am currently looking for people to show me why they can become officers and serve their fellow guild members while providing their own style of leadership within the framework I provide. People like Shethehunter exemplify impeccable behaviour and total dedication to the guild. She has a long track record of trustworthiness and She has been a custodian of the guild for a number of months and a valued officer for years.
Regarding raiding and social balance, it’s a difficult thing to achieve while the pendulum of balance remains at the social side and if the guild tries to reign in the raiders’ flamboyance. I intend to ensure we allow raiders to be opinionated around the guild within reason and for friendly discussion to be allowed to develop. I don’t want to see people getting butthurt because they feel inferior or because they weren’t able to contribute to a heavily raid-centric discussion. Raiders like to min-max and they like to talk about how best to do so, any debate about the game within the guild chat is healthy in my opinion so I want to encourage it.
I have had conversations with experienced guild members who understandably insist that the guild must remain casual in it’s raiding desire. They fear a recurrence of raider-created drama from the past. I think there’s more to the point than that and I would suggest that as long as we don’t have an ego maniac in charge of raiding in the guild then we should be able to shape a behaviour pattern that remains compatible with the overall guild. In order to achieve that, I must ensure that raid leaders respect my direction and visions at all times and having had plenty of experience watching raid leaders of the past, I know exactly the signs to watch out for that they may be getting a bit too big for the role. During raids, I will subordinate myself but between raids the guild leader’s advice should be taken seriously. One example which has been a point of note for me for years in this guild is that certain raiders who behave inappropriately, especially (but not exclusively) in the guild chat must be brought to task. During Damsy’s reign as raid leader, he insisted that he would deal with such incidents involving ‘his’ raiders himself. I have since learned that a raid leader must be willing to accept that if a raider behaves inappropriately and I witness it then I have every right to deal with it myself. if during a raid, then as long as it’s kept within the raid itself then the raid leader will of course be expected to deal with it.
What we want is for everyone to treat everyone with respect and not get shirty with people. I had a problem because I apologised and left a failing mythic+ Court of Farondis run where nobody knew what they were doing, the damage was hopeless and we had wiped a bunch of times before even getting to the first boss. As the healer being asked to do the impossible, I decided the group should cut it’s losses and quit. Members of that group were friends in real life and they decided to band together and chastise me for leaving the group in the guild chat! I tried to explain and got a barrage of nonsense in reply so i eventually kicked a guy who took it too far. That incident created the spark for a power hungry pair of raid leadership partners who I trusted, to build up a storm against me and they then took the entire raid roster and formed a new guild…..which of course is now utterly dead.
Moral of the story, Raid Leaders whom I ‘hire’ will take my position within the guild seriously, not only paying lip service but actually with their actions to back me up as I will always back them up when required.
I have no such concerns about Daltzilla who is a loyal supporter of the guild and my leadership therein. I hope we can grow together and bring some heroic progression success to the guild as soon as we are ready. I am not in the business of stifling a team by holding them to only heroics, if they clear heroics then the next natural step is mythics so we shall see how things go without me pushing so hard that I willingly accept faults in the character of a raid leader. Never again!
/Salute
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