Loading ...My dirty, little secret: The Leadership Bible
I’ve got a confession to make.
A lot of what I talk about I didn’t come up with. Which isn’t to say, that I’m copy-pasting someone else’s work, but it is to say that there’s a lot of places that I draw inspiration from. One in particular that I love is Steve Chandler’s book, “100 Ways to Motivate Others”
I can’t say enough about this book and how it’s reaffirmed what’s worked for me in the past as well as helped me feel confident that I’m making the right choices along the way as I tank and lead my way through WoW. Which really is the best part of this book, it’s an excellent combination of leadership common sense alongside gems of wisdom that will shape how you play and speak about the game with others.
A leader’s work is never done
This post isn’t really about pushing some book I read, but instead letting you in on the secret to tanking/leading success. Never stop trying to learn about it. It’s when you stop looking for answers and new perspectives that you stop learning and improving.
Let’s take a look at one of the simple gems of wisdom this book has to offer. (as well as give you something useful to take home with you)
Rule #26: Hire the Motivated
Or to flip this on it’s head, be motivated if you want to be hired aka recruited. If you’re looking for a new guild, analyze yourself and ask yourself, “Do I look like a motivated player?” Things that tell me you’re a motivated player especially if you haven’t been level 80 for very long:
- You have all epic gems.
- You have the expensive enchants.
- You have all of your Emblem of Conquest gear.
- You’ve killed not only the VoA bosses, but also Sartharion and Malygos.
- You make no excuses on your app like “I can’t find a group for X because pugs suck.”
- You offer to tank alt runs of lower raid content than my guild is doing so people can get gear and get to know you.
- You have crafted items.
- You have multiple sets of gear and you explain when you’d use them.
- You tell me you are willing to respec to accommodate the needs of the raid/guild.
- You don’t bash your last guild even if they really were horrible players or horrible people in general. Guilds don’t care about your last guild, but they do care that you really want to be in their guild.
- You write long answers with good spelling and grammar to any application questions.
- You link your Armory, explain your spec and explain anything that might look a little odd. (Without making excuses)
It’s really, really easy to recruit someone like this. It’s so rare that I read an app and get the impression that the person is motivated, but when I do see such an app, it really makes me want to make room for them in the guild even if we’re full on their class. The beautiful thing about motivated people is they motivate others. It’s positively contagious.
That looks like a lot of work
Bingo.
It’s not enough to just say, “I’m Motivated!” You have to actually be motivated. You have to go down that list and actually do it. However, you’ll be amazed at the guilds you’ll be able to get into if you actually become a motivated player. Even if you aren’t looking for a guild, you’ll be amazed by the impact you can make on your current guild by becoming a motivated player.
November 29th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Great post Vene, thank you!
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November 29th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Again another pearl. thxs for the hard work vene, keep on going. ^^
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November 29th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
Good post, I sorta find myself in this position. I’m a guild/raid-leader of a newly formed guild on a pretty crappy realm, and the by far hardest thing is to motivate my raiders and myself to keep pushing instead of drooling at “The best” and thinking that the top content is just for “pros”.
+1 rep for being up front with the book
Know far too many bloggers who’d just try to sneak the link in.
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November 29th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
I dislike people who are too lazy to not use proper punctuation and capitalization, or make at least a half assed attempt to spell things right and use decent grammar. I am far from a perfect speller and my grammar is not amazing but I like it when people make an effort to type respectably, and its easy to tell when they do. Now as for motivation, I agree with you for the most part, however, there are certain things that I myself don’t really agree with, one is the all epic gems things, I don’t expect to see epic gems in things that are blue or that you plan on replacing soon, like the badge belt if you plan on getting the ulduar crafted one, however, I hate it when I see blue gems in things that you won’t replace for a long time, same goes for enchants, all your gear should be enchanted but there is no reason to get mongoose/blood draining and a blue weapon, or on like the axe of the senjin protector if you plan on getting the sword from H ToC, my point is, you shouldn’t go out of your way to spend lots and lots of gold on things that won’t last you a week, but if you plan on them lasting you for a while it is inexcusable to not have them enchanted/gemmed to the best of your abilities. I agree, however, with the offering to tank alt runs, my warrior has almost a 2.8k gear score, and I always tank naxx 10/uld 10 for my friends and guilds alts, and sometimes even pug them when I am bored, same goes for sarth, and occasionally malygos. The one thing I am very bad with is the crafted gear XD, that is my one weak point, I loathe to admit it but I don’t like spending 3000 gold on crafted pieces of gear, even though I should.
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Veneretio reply on November 29, 2009 10:04 pm:
I don’t expect all epic gems either, but making yourself easy to recruit is not the same as making yourself adequate. When I see the best gems and enchants on a low level epic or even more so, on a blue piece, I’m impressed.
It proves to me that you’re not like everyone else.
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Talisman reply on November 29, 2009 10:38 pm:
Spelling and grammar is a big one for me, when someone has terrible spelling and grammar on a guild application it gives a bad first impression, it makes the application more of a struggle to read, and it demonstrates either a low level of literacy or complete lack of care (or both).
A lot of people are lucky I’m not the GM, because my policy would be if u want to type like ur sending a txt msg to ur highskool friends im not even giong to bother reading ur dam app.
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November 29th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
I myself take a more middle road between Pachi and Veneretio. I see both sides of the epic gemming/enchanting, but I favor Veneretio a tad more because of the fact that the loot gods haven’t really smiled upon me.
I tend to get the best enchants and gems I can buy without making myself a destitute beggar for all my gear unless its something I am absolutely 150% sure I will be replacing before my next run (that has yet to happen, but I’ll stick to my words if it ever does)
I’m currently running 25 Ulduar/10 ToC with my guild, but will always sign up for Naxx 10 when needed and happily tank heroics with our lesser geared members to help them out… why wouldn’t I, it gives us a larger pool of raiders to move on to bigger and better content with, and it makes me feel good to be helping. Win win situation, all is good in the world.
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November 30th, 2009 at 12:31 am
Great post Vene… akin to “how win friends and influence people”… a Bible imo
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November 30th, 2009 at 1:43 am
Must be a decent book having tipps like “dont hire unmotivated people”.. prolly worth every buck … not! Gems of wisdom COUGH COUGH COUGH.. no really whadda load of common sense…
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Veneretio reply on November 30, 2009 3:03 am:
Recruiting motivated guildmates should be common sense too. Instead, what do most guilds do? They look at your gear and then they ask the same questions all the time that apps already know the answers to like “what’s your ideal dps rotation?” Yes, the titles are obvious, but the insight into how to accomplish what the points are suggesting isn’t.
A lot of what I talk about here is common sense too, but time and time again examining the obvious leads to something unusual and insightful that you hadn’t considered before.
Is every point in the book going to blow you away? No, but then not every post here is going to blow you away either. Does that make this site not worth visiting as a result? I sure hope not.
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Steele reply on November 30, 2009 7:41 am:
Well i cant recall any other post on this site that wasnt worth my time. This is the only non-political blog i read so i surely wont quit over what i feel a random post (despite you being my hero in terms of tanking wow), just wanted to give a feedback from someone not too happy about this kind of tanking tips
let me drop some words about motivation so i dont appear for criticism only, trying to contribute: one might say that the amount of motivation decides how much effort you are ready to make to reach a goal. now people say that its also possible to motivate SOMEONE, to lower or increase the amount of effort he is willing to spend, as to say: to manipulate his will. Thus there are motivation lessons at work and at school, whereever you are needed to make an effort that you could well live without (the effort, not the result). Now i well believe that there are more or less reasons to do a thing and motivation can mean adding more reasons pro or contra. On the other side nobody can be motivated as not through his own will which is often overlooked when someone decides you need to be motivated for whatever (shooting afghans or drinking the thirteenth beer with your friends). None of this touches this post though, as it is about how you LOOK motivated (unmotivated guy goes to venes page - learns how to look motivated - applies at venes guild - win :D)
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Xeromoo reply on November 30, 2009 8:16 am:
We make ATTEMPTS to motivate people at work/school and in other parts of our lives. But essentially, people are either self motivated (and that is the motivation that shines) or motivated to a degree by an outside source, or simply apathetic and not motivated at all… It is really hard (impossible?) to change people… But guiding them a little can be good! =D
I try to motivate my children with $10 per A on their report card (unless you get any C’s - then you are SOL). Not because they are failures if they get a C, but because I want to push them to strive for something better. Put forth an effort.
In my workplace, I am paid a salary because I work hard - long hours and such without the need of a per-hour or commission type pay. Now, there are plenty of jobs where that is the only way that makes sense to compensate people. However, here at my office, there are people who will make less than me, because they are paid per (hour/case - whatever) as they need that external motivator to push them along. It is AMAZING how motivated I see people get a couple days before we do payroll!
At a job interview, you are seeing people generally ACT as motivated as they know how to (providing they realize they should - amazingly some don’t). Just like, if you are trying to get into a well known progression guild, it would be smart to epic out all your gem slots EVEN IF you think you may be replacing that gear soon. So, even realizing that they may be doing more than usual before putting their armory link in the application…. Who are you going to pick? The one who made that effort or the one who wouldn’t even take the time/spend the gold to get ready for their “interview”???
So… there ya go - my $0.02.
Thanks Vene for a great blog!
Bhig reply on December 1, 2009 3:29 pm:
@ Steele
Best saying in the world.
Common sense isn’t common. If it was no one would need to be told about it.
Frankly Vene has brought up something very interesting and valid. In many people’s books, WoW is firstly about dedication and motivation. I can’t begin to count the number of “random” recruits that have passed through my guild proclaiming they’re motivated, dedicated and up for anything, only to find out they really are only interested in milk runs for gear. The instant you tell them that the group is full they have a massive QQ and log.
But I digress a little.
A highly unmotivate person could come to this site, learn how to LOOK motivated and apply to Vene’s guild. BUT, in order to look motivated just see how much work they will need to put in. Plenty of epic gems, top enchants, crafted gems, achievements. That’s actually a lot of dedication to put in right there if they choose to do that.
Then on their actual application they need to talk about their spec and multiple gear sets…. Talking (even semi-knowledgably) about a spec infers some time and effort spec to read up and learn about the specs, likewise for gear sets, even a fishing set (Kalu’ak fishing pole, STV fishing gear)!!!
I will give it to you that this is not STRICTLY a tanking post. But it has a lot to do with tanking. Vene mentioned in previous blogs about how a really good tank should have the best gems and enchants they can afford, even if they have sub-par gear. It is this time, dedication and motivation that will inspire others.
After reading Vene’s post about best gems and chants I realised it wasworth following the advice. I promptly went out and made sure myself and my raid group had the best enchants and gems we could get. Not only did it help out in the raids, but it also motivated people to maintain their commitment.
To quote a line from Starship Troopers, I expect the best, but I give the best.
Shivan reply on December 2, 2009 10:46 am:
if you are not involved in either the recruiting side of a guild or looking to join a new guild then this post might not be relevant to your situation but as a former raid leader and an active member in my guilds recruitment efforts I can tell you that it pays off to look for the ones that go the extra mile versus grabbing any warm body that is apping to your guild.
November 30th, 2009 at 8:07 am
You know, when we ran a recruitment forum we didn’t actually have any guidelines to what people should write in it. We thought that imagination was the best way to differentiate people and were utterly dismayed at the people who posted the same guff you see on guild applications all over the Internet.
Posting a UI.
Describing keybindings.
DPS rotations.
Content cleared.
Previous guilds.
The only people I ended up recruiting were the ones who actually had some quirky personality traits, or who just invested some time prattling on and making an impression. I can get the gear/achievement information I need from the armoury, so don’t tell me it in an application.
Tell me why you’d be great to have around, instead.
I also like asking someone who’s in a strange spec or using odd pieces why they’re doing so. They may not be right, but it at least shows they’re thinking about their spec and doing things for specific reasons as opposed to blandly copying someone or something else.
You can give someone gear.
You can’t give someone personality.
That’s why we recruit on personality first, and gear second.
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Lindentree reply on December 3, 2009 5:51 pm:
/agree .
Still a noob, but I’m in a casual raiding guild (on a medium-pop server) that has ToC10 on farm and is working on heroic, and we have one recruiting rule: “we’re not recruiting.” The way you get an invite to the guild is by making friends with someone the guild already trusts, especially the core raiding group. This recruiting strategy is based on two assumptions: one, that competent people enjoy the company of other competent people; and two, that competent people can improve the competency of their friends. For the most part it works. It also makes for a friendly atmosphere and keeps people from exploding on wipes.
Of course it is a casual guild, so this strategy would obviously not work for a hardcore guild.
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November 30th, 2009 at 9:58 am
In my former guild I was a leader/MT and in charge of promoting guild raids and reviewing applicants. Now I am just a raider in my current guild but get to vote on new applicants. Keep in mind this is all from the prospective of an end game raiding guild. Not a top 100 world guild that most people have no chance in hell of getting into, but a top 10-20 server raiding guild. The kind of guilds that most average raiders have a shot of getting into if they are good and properly motivated.
When reviewing and applicant I first read what they have written. After reading their answers (as vene said) you can get a feel if they even bothered to take filling the app out seriously.
Did they use 1 word answers or complete sentences?
Did they half ass it cause they name dropped a current member?
Did they make a crap load of excuses in multiple answers?
Did they come off as an elitest ass-hat, who is a god like being?
Then I head over to the armory and check out several things:
Gear
- Epic Gems
- High End Enchants
- Maxed out Badge gear in slots they do not have raid drops.
- Crafted items where applicable over weaker Badge or lower lvl raid drops.
Spec
- Does it make sense? That’s really the most important thing. It could be any variation out there as long as it makes sense.
Achievements
- Looking for completion of all Wrath content. Not really hard modes (though those are nice) but that this person took the time to complete the content available in the current expansion and was able to take away some raiding experience from those encounters.
Reputation
- I look at current factions as well as old. If I see a person with max reps with a lot of faction (at the very least the current expansion), it shows me they are willing to put forth effort on their own.
Someone applying to be a raider who has not even started Sons of Hodir screams LAZY!
Between the personality shown in their answers and the answers provided from the armory you can get a pretty clear picture of who this person is and how they will preform.
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November 30th, 2009 at 11:25 am
Recruit the leader. Our guild is a small and growing guild of experienced players; we currently have a problem recruiting new players on what is a realm with a relatively small Horde player base. Having poor luck with finding an acceptable “stray” player looking for a guild, I have had recent success talking to recruiters from other small guilds with similar ideals. So to get back to Vene’s theme, if you are a guild looking to recruit, try looking for not just a motivated player, but a small motivated guild to join forces with. You can tell a lot about players by the guild they are in along with the gear they wear, and the player recruiting for the guild is the best person to start with.
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December 2nd, 2009 at 7:50 am
vene i would recomend the art of war, by tsun tzu, im not sure if you spell it like that, (english is not my native lenguage)
on the matter i would like to point out the following perspective, motivated players are hard to find for one of two reasons; 1, they have been playing so long that they feel as if they are the game, by this i mean the are closed minded people, the best runs i have ever had in instances and raids have been with noobs, yes we died like 10 times, until they got the hang of it and we discovered new things, paths and ways of doing the same crap over and over, there is nothing more challenging for a tank then to teach noobs, im a noob lover, lol, but seriously, i have come to realize that noobs are the most motivated players, and they are willing to learn and to make mistakes, for me, theres no better player than one which is willing to make mistakes. 2, its very hard to properly form a chain of command with closed minded people, and thats a must in raids and instances, haven’t you all realized that the game has become a one person battle, even in pvp, every person is looking out for themselves and for me thats just sad, the game is build around the idea of teamwork, no one thinks like that anymore, and thats just sad if you think about it.
however going back to subject, great post, and it looks like a great book.
and yes motivation is key for anything (not just WOW but life) and finding gamers like that is hard.
PS: sorry for my spelling or grammar, as i said before, english is not my main lenguage.
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December 3rd, 2009 at 12:52 pm
I don’t raid lead (anymore), but I think I might pick up that book anyway; sounds very interesting
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December 19th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
One thing missing from this post is about how motivated the guild leader/officers may or may not be themselves, as well as how well they can lead their guild. Being motivated as a player in a guild that is neither officer/leader can be unmotiveting itself, because lack of good leadership.
I know that I have experienced lead members not taking the reigns to address issues when they need to be addressed and issues become problems later in time. Not to say it isn’t every member’s duty to help out in the guild, but the lead members are supposed to be vigilent about keeping order and motivating others to want to stay with them(the guild.)
I am not saying you must give gear away or carry a player along to grab gear because the whine or complain about not getting into raids. Just have the time to maybe talk a player through tanking a new instance or wipe on a heroic a few times if it ends up helping them become the player you want them to become. I see all too often a wipe or even two will discourage anyone from continuing a run. BC raids and Heroics before badge gear/pvp gear was rampant had people wiping and not even noticing it. Having patience is a virtue.
I have just “blathered” on about a little of something/nothing, but in my actual point; this was supposed to be about leadership, but in reading the post it seems the focus went into a follower applying to a guild and what they should do. Possibly, we could pull out that the expectations of the applicants is a leadership role(yes), honestly not only having motivated players, but also supportive and motivated leaders can inspire the same in their guild mates.
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December 21st, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Good reference, thanks.
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