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ajqtrz
Chef - loquacious Old Dog
Back in my day I taught a course called Leadership and Communication. Here are some ideas around leadership. Five sources of influence, and Five styles of leadership.
Leadership is influence and influence is derived from:
1) Punishment If you have the authority to inflict pain of some kind -- directly by direct harm, or indirectly by public criticism, you have influence.
2) Reward. Ditto in the opposite way. Authority to reward either directly through some kind reward or indirectly through public praise.
3) Knowledge. Previous obvious why this is influential.
4) Position This implies number 1 and number 2 but also implies you speak for those who put you into the position.
5) Charisma. This is a reflection of you ability to understand the group, where they are and respond appropriately.
In thinking about this we should consider how they apply to leadership in Elvenar.
The ability to punish is not great. Thus, the influence we gain by threats, implied or otherwise, is small. Thus, threatening or even implying a threat, us more negative than positive and shouldn’t be used if possible.
Rewards are a little better and if they are done publicly a great asset group cohesion. From these two we get: “Punish in private and praise in public.”
If your fellowship has a lot of knowledge you don’t derive a lot of influence by knowing a lot more than everyone else. It's, therefore, not a teaching situation.
In the end, then, authority of the position of Mage or AM is very limited since there is not a lot of pressure you can put on people. Too much and they leave.
So how do you "heard the cats?" By using the right leadership style for your fellowship. And that's the last source of influence. You use the right leadership style because you understand your group of players and can choose the right type of influence as necessary.
When we look at the styles of leadership we can find one that fits our group.
The five leadership styles I've used are:
1) Commander. If the group doesn't know what it's doing and you have the ability to punish and reward, you can take charge. In this group decisions are handed down from on high. You can generally get away with this style if your players realize you have superior knowledge, they NEED this knowledge, and they are willing to let you take charge. This may not last but has it's place.
2) Persuasive. If the group is only moderately informed you use your superior knowledge to persuade them. This is especially effective when you actually know what's what, and your group realizes they do not. In this you generally do not need to threaten because you can explain and convince. This, too, may be a phase your fs goes through, especially if you have a lot of newer players.
3) Partner. Here you are a more or less equal to your members, though, because of the respect you have for you, you can make decisions. Make too many wrong ones though, and they will choose another leader. Here is where success must start coming about. Goals met equal more decision making ability without destroying the unity of the group. If you can master this you can easily, but only ocassionaly, remove players, even against their will. All you have to do is be able to show your group why you removed them and to have documented it. Remember, they are partners and thus your "say so" isn't usually enough..
4) Divisional. Here you hand off functions of leadership to others and let them do their thing. Mature groups can handle this, less mature ones, not. If you do hand off some aspect of your work though, be prepared to understand the one to whom you hand it off may do it differently than you, and even badly. Are you ready to help that person adjust and grow in the position while leaving the position in his/her hands completely? A Mage may pick the wrong leadership style and think his/her authority comes from being the Mage of the thing. The positional type of influence seldom works without support from the one(s) granting the authority. So be prepared to have things a bit rough as the person learns how to lead in their new position.
5) Country Club. Here everyone is equal and you pretty much let them all do their thing...with minimal direction because you’ve delivered the vision and trust they know how to do it. Of course, here you have to really watch. It's pretty easy for people to misunderstand what you want, and for your to misstate what it is. So it's a constant stream of communication, clarification and all that. In fact, in some ways this is the hardest style exactly because you are not only an equal among equals, some of those equals might think they are a bit above all the other equals.
Generally speaking, as a fellowship matures it comes to rely upon the last two styles of leadership. When "push comes to shove" an AM may have to use his/her position to shake things up, but there's a big price to pay when that occurs. When all is well, you can pretty easily hand off jobs to Mages and walk with them as they grow into the position.
Final tips.
First, because you really don't have any control of the group, everything should be as positive as you can make it. Praise in public, punish in private," is about as good advice as I can give.
Second, admit mistakes early. You are a leader and your shoulders should be broad. The more you admit your goofs the easier other can do it and when they do, they seldom make that mistake again.
Third, make sure everybody is on the same page. Clearly communicate early where your fs is going. If it's not going anywhere, that too, should be said. More than anything else, I think, players don't like surprises. So, suddenly announcing that next week is a Gold Rush week when you haven't said anything about being even a Silver Spire fellowship, might be a bit much, especially if you imply anyone who isn't on board with that, should be.
I'm sure others have other ideas, but hopefully, this will help us all.
AJ
Leadership is influence and influence is derived from:
1) Punishment If you have the authority to inflict pain of some kind -- directly by direct harm, or indirectly by public criticism, you have influence.
2) Reward. Ditto in the opposite way. Authority to reward either directly through some kind reward or indirectly through public praise.
3) Knowledge. Previous obvious why this is influential.
4) Position This implies number 1 and number 2 but also implies you speak for those who put you into the position.
5) Charisma. This is a reflection of you ability to understand the group, where they are and respond appropriately.
In thinking about this we should consider how they apply to leadership in Elvenar.
The ability to punish is not great. Thus, the influence we gain by threats, implied or otherwise, is small. Thus, threatening or even implying a threat, us more negative than positive and shouldn’t be used if possible.
Rewards are a little better and if they are done publicly a great asset group cohesion. From these two we get: “Punish in private and praise in public.”
If your fellowship has a lot of knowledge you don’t derive a lot of influence by knowing a lot more than everyone else. It's, therefore, not a teaching situation.
In the end, then, authority of the position of Mage or AM is very limited since there is not a lot of pressure you can put on people. Too much and they leave.
So how do you "heard the cats?" By using the right leadership style for your fellowship. And that's the last source of influence. You use the right leadership style because you understand your group of players and can choose the right type of influence as necessary.
When we look at the styles of leadership we can find one that fits our group.
The five leadership styles I've used are:
1) Commander. If the group doesn't know what it's doing and you have the ability to punish and reward, you can take charge. In this group decisions are handed down from on high. You can generally get away with this style if your players realize you have superior knowledge, they NEED this knowledge, and they are willing to let you take charge. This may not last but has it's place.
2) Persuasive. If the group is only moderately informed you use your superior knowledge to persuade them. This is especially effective when you actually know what's what, and your group realizes they do not. In this you generally do not need to threaten because you can explain and convince. This, too, may be a phase your fs goes through, especially if you have a lot of newer players.
3) Partner. Here you are a more or less equal to your members, though, because of the respect you have for you, you can make decisions. Make too many wrong ones though, and they will choose another leader. Here is where success must start coming about. Goals met equal more decision making ability without destroying the unity of the group. If you can master this you can easily, but only ocassionaly, remove players, even against their will. All you have to do is be able to show your group why you removed them and to have documented it. Remember, they are partners and thus your "say so" isn't usually enough..
4) Divisional. Here you hand off functions of leadership to others and let them do their thing. Mature groups can handle this, less mature ones, not. If you do hand off some aspect of your work though, be prepared to understand the one to whom you hand it off may do it differently than you, and even badly. Are you ready to help that person adjust and grow in the position while leaving the position in his/her hands completely? A Mage may pick the wrong leadership style and think his/her authority comes from being the Mage of the thing. The positional type of influence seldom works without support from the one(s) granting the authority. So be prepared to have things a bit rough as the person learns how to lead in their new position.
5) Country Club. Here everyone is equal and you pretty much let them all do their thing...with minimal direction because you’ve delivered the vision and trust they know how to do it. Of course, here you have to really watch. It's pretty easy for people to misunderstand what you want, and for your to misstate what it is. So it's a constant stream of communication, clarification and all that. In fact, in some ways this is the hardest style exactly because you are not only an equal among equals, some of those equals might think they are a bit above all the other equals.
Generally speaking, as a fellowship matures it comes to rely upon the last two styles of leadership. When "push comes to shove" an AM may have to use his/her position to shake things up, but there's a big price to pay when that occurs. When all is well, you can pretty easily hand off jobs to Mages and walk with them as they grow into the position.
Final tips.
First, because you really don't have any control of the group, everything should be as positive as you can make it. Praise in public, punish in private," is about as good advice as I can give.
Second, admit mistakes early. You are a leader and your shoulders should be broad. The more you admit your goofs the easier other can do it and when they do, they seldom make that mistake again.
Third, make sure everybody is on the same page. Clearly communicate early where your fs is going. If it's not going anywhere, that too, should be said. More than anything else, I think, players don't like surprises. So, suddenly announcing that next week is a Gold Rush week when you haven't said anything about being even a Silver Spire fellowship, might be a bit much, especially if you imply anyone who isn't on board with that, should be.
I'm sure others have other ideas, but hopefully, this will help us all.
AJ
