Being a proper leader?

This is something a want to tackle on. How can you be a firm, decisive team leader without being bossy?

It's like a hit and miss for me right now.

Thanks in advance.

Did you read that guide I linked for you in the other thread? Read it and you will know. I know it's a lengthy read but it's worth every second of your time.

Make your teammates feel like they the important ones. That you need them. That you appreciate what they can do and what they bring.

WARNING: I bold names.

If you let them know what they're getting into before they join the team, that helps a great deal. You'll get more people that are willing to follow your lead that way.

Once they're teamed, just give a quick reminder about what's going on before stuff starts, and then just play. If you have to be on someone's rear telling them every little thing, you probably don't want them on the team, and most people don't like being given advice as they're playing.

Compliment players when they're doing something good. That will make anything negative sound more like constructive criticism rather than just slamming their play.

Having fun >>>> Being serious. If you're not having fun, chances are no one else is either.

The biggest thing you can do as a good leader is understand how the game works. This isn't something you can pick up in five minutes reading about, and it's not something you tend to fully grasp researching in-depth how the game works. If you want to get a good understanding of how the game tends to flow, you'll need to team with a lot of people. This sounds backwards, of course, since you need to team to be a proper leader, but you can't be a proper leader without a team. A vicious cycle!

A few things I've noticed over the years which may or may not apply in any particular team you lead:

• People like to be led. A great many people play this game so they can turn their brains off and have fun doing it. If you go AFK (away from keyboard), there's a pretty good chance the team will just loiter and wait for you to return. Veteran players who have characters that can solo entire team missions tend to organize themselves pretty well, but in situations where you're actually leading (usually in content that requires a level of coordination), all eyes are on you.
• Some players just don't get it. No amount of explanation or reiteration will get through to them. Sometimes they're just ignorant (and I use that in the context of "they ignore things") and probably won't notice if you kick them from the team, though everyone else will rejoice. Other times, they may be new players or, as touchy as the subject is, may have a disability. Use your discretion on a case to case basis, but bear in mind that sometimes players really do need someone to be patient with them.
• Occasionally, even overpowered teams get hesitant and won't engage the enemy until they see other people engaging the enemy. This often leads to sitcom-esque awkward moments where people are standing around saying "so who's gonna aggro?" The best thing to do in this situation is to charge in and aggro stuff. Your team will follow you. And then you destroy the enemy and do it all over again. If you're alert, you probably won't even take much damage.
• Consideration of your teammates' preferences and abilities is important. Part of this is where encyclopedic knowledge of the game comes in handy, but part of it is just common sense. If you like fighting large groups of enemies two levels above you, that's great, but the person you're sidekicking who has Dual-Origin Enhancements might not feel the same way. People also have their likes and dislikes for enemy groups, and for different reasons. If you're not sure how a mission will be perceived, just ask the team how they feel about fighting whoever's next on the list.
• On the flip-side of that last one, some teammates will throw consideration out the window (I'm looking at you, every single stealther who rushes to the end of the mission before everyone has entered the map). This applies to things besides rushing to the objective; it's practically any time someone abandons the group. As a leader you should keep them in line. If a person persists in refusing to actually play with the team they're on, it's easier to remove them than to clean up the messes they make.
• If you have room for more people, use the /search slash command to find more people. Between every mission, just check and see if anyone's available. As people come and go, you'll get a fresh rotation of players and things will continue to be fun and interesting until you pass the baton and head out yourself.
• In some rare cases, you will need to brief your team on a plan of action. This requires you to be familiar with the content and your teammates' abilities, so make sure you know what you're getting into ahead of time. It's worth noting, however, that most situations in the game can be taken on with the simple "if you have powers, use them" approach. It's only once in a great while you'll need to outline what needs to get done.

Honestly 90% of the time my actions as leader are restricted to finding teammates and setting the mission. The majority of players in the game know how to play their characters and don't need any leadership beyond pointing them in the direction of an enemy.

I run with my map open (and moved from the default position, obviously) so that I can keep an eye on where team members are but even then I tend not to say/do anything unless the team is struggling. If someone wants to peel off and solo a bit I don't mind as long as they can handle it.

In the level 50 TFs there are parts which offer various strategy I'll generally announce what we're doing, sometimes with a "anyone have a preference?" beforehand and only go into detail if someone asks or if I know we have a first-timer.

Guide to awesome leadership:

1. Invite people
2. Get mission
3. Point people at dudes
4. CHARGE!
5. Repeat 1-4 until all dudes are dead

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dispari I don't know why Dink thinks she's not as sexy as Jay was. In 5 posts she's already upstaged his entire career.

You don't really need to be "firm and decisive". You're not a manager affecting peoples careers. You're not a general leading troops into battle.

This is a game. People play it to have fun. Therefore, a "good leader" is someone who increases the amount of fun people are having. What does this mean? Well, the people who enjoy organizing a team and keeping them moving are already out doing that. Those aren't the people who joined your team. The people who joined your team are the ones who DON'T enjoy organizing a team and getting everyone moving in the same direction. They joined someone else's team so someone else can handle the 'drudgery' for them.

Let's also keep in mind, the people who don't like running a team could also be soloing - but they chose not to. Instead, they joined your team. So you need to maintain the 'teaminess' of teaming.

• A team has more than one person - the more, the better.
  You need to keep the team 'team-sized'. You don't have to have 8 people but, if you drop below 5 or 6, you need to find more.
• When you're on a team, someone else decides what you do next.
  You need to know what you're going to do next. Do you have missions ready? Maybe an Ouroboros arc? Does someone on the team have a mission they want to do?
• Keep it moving.
  No one needs a team if all they want to do is sit around and wait for something to happen. If they joined your team, they want to DO stuff.

You don't really need to "lead" in this game unless it's against something requiring coordination like Cathedral of Pain, Statesman/Recluse TF, Hamidon Raid, etc.

Generally, just invite people, set the mission, head to mission works.
If people are straggling, ask them if they're afk or if anything is the matter.
If people get bored, offer to do story arcs, maybe Ouroboros or a TF.
If someone in your group is going off all the time (I do this all the time on my Kat/Regen ) then you can call them to order or tell them privately to stick with the group.

If people start arguing with each other, try to defuse it as best you can.

I saw you recruiting for a team in Cap au Diable so I'm going to make the assumption you're red side. One thing to keep in mind about villains (specially the villainous archetypes) is that they're self sufficient. Most of my teams (I'm a redside only player) end up splitting without us even noticing. Those tend to be the smoothest team, as we're tackling +8 with usually 3, 4, or 5 (pre level 50 or IOs even) without a hitch. Like many posters have said, whether I'm the leader or someone else is, the only thing the star holder does is get missions or set missions if someone else already has some.

Reminds me of a story, when I was doing the Operative Renault Strike Force. It was 8 of us, 2 brutes, 3 widows, a stalker, a tanker, and myself on my Dominator. We were in the environment-friendly Arachnos base (never turning on the lights must save a lot of power!) and the tanker had died at some point because we had split. When he commented that people should be following him (I was the leader of the team) I corrected him and let him know that in the Rogue Isles, the team follows whoever is moving faster and survives the alpha strike. The others in the team pretty much pitched in and said they don't follow someone arbitrarily just because of their AT, maybe that's how it works in Paragon City but not here.

The tanker didn't get argumentative and made sure he was being followed by at least two others from that point on and we finished the SF without any problems. Granted, we didn't get split intentionally in the Arachnos base, but that is what happened. There was a brute who was keeping a good pace and that's who most of the team ended up following at the time. Not to mention it's hard to see in those eternally dark bases and the brute was keeping close.

Some of my characters

I guess it's my turn to share.

From experience, I learned that:



- People generally are susceptible to being ordered around... I know this sounds a little bossy on my part, but I noticed that good leaders usually know how to balance their authority and friendliness.

- People tend to get scatter-brained when no one is in charge. A part of the leader's job is to keep people on the same page.

- A leader lets his teammates shine in their own ways. If your teammate is a tank, let him be a tank and don't do the tanking yourself if you're the healer.

- A leader is a good communicator and sends clear and concise messages to his teammates.

Some very good advice so far. Thanks.

All I want from the leader is to tell me what the team is doing before I get invited, and to set the mish in a timely manner. Anything else is gravy. You wanna tell me a plan, or poll the team on what to do next, fine, but as long as you have something for me to do 95% of the time, I am happy.

When I'm leading, I tell people that team splits are fine as long as you can handle yourself, your aggro is your problem, and that if you die, don't cry. I figure they can glean from those statements that if they need support or feel squishy, they can stick with the team. I've never had a complaint.

This game is easy, simple and straightforward. People really don't need to be told much.

I didn't read all of the other posts, but here are a few very basic pointers. I only ever really lead radio and tip PUGs, so most of this applies to that.

All of my guidelines extend from one principle: nothing kills a team faster than dead time. I mean this literally and figuratively. If you wipe a lot, or you waste a lot of time, you are going to have trouble keeping together.

- Guideline 1: Give clear communication on what the next task is. As soon as you exit one mission, be setting up the next. If you are unable to set the mission up right away, say that in team chat. If more than 3 minutes goes by and no communication has been attempted, you are going to start losing people.

- Guideline 2: Roll on 6. What this means is that if your team is full, the mission begins when 6 team members are ready to start. The remaining 2 can catch up. Use a little judgment here: if all 8 team members are moving toward the door, you can (and should) give them a little time to get together. But if someone is not even on the same overworld map, do not make the entire team wait for that one person to catch up.

- Guideline 3: Recruit new members while the rest of the team is fighting. You can use the /search function to help you. Don't wait to get back in the overworld to recruit (although you can still broadcast there to help you out).

- Guideline 4: Related to Guideline 1, if you or someone else need to enhance or take a break, tell the team and say "Go ahead and start without me." Do not make people wait on you.

- Guideline 5: Do not criticize people passive aggressively. For example, do not say something like "That's funny, I thought we invited a Kinetics toon, but it looks we ended up with a Blaster." If you are going to ask someone to play differently, be polite (even if you are frustrated) but direct. Snarkiness almost always backfires, and, worse, people on the team who might have agreed with your point won't want to get involved if it turns personal.

- Guideline 6: Set reasonable goals. This usually means on radio missions that you keep the settings on +0. Wiping over and over will wipe your team out. Rule of thumb: after the second wipe out, 3 members drop.

- Guideline 7: Hitting /kick is like declaring bankruptcy. You can do it every so often, but it stays on your record for 7 years. of course, you can /kick people who have simply been afk too long.

omg, you again with this leader thing... dude...

hope that helps

Sometimes I declare myself Guild Leader and demand that my SGmates give me stacks of cloth and pay guild tax or I will dock their DKP. They usually humor me until I get distracted by a shiny badge.