When it comes to leading a guild, it can be a hard process. You have to have rules, you have to have vision, and you also have to have flexibility. But not only that, you have to have flexible people in your leadership roles. Typically our guild has ran as a sort of Monarchy, as in, Kurby (my spouse) and I run it, and we make the majority of the decisions to steer the guild in the direction of our goals. While we aren’t a true Monarchy, we have officers that we have picked to represent our goals also, and we often consult the officers before we make any decision. We also try to discuss our goals with the guild, and we value their input. However, we do sometimes make decisions that some folks don’t agree with.
But most of all, we do try to be flexible. When I first met Kurby, and was a member of his guild, he had a large officer team, but…in general, he did everything, an he didn’t change anything (including the guild site) from the previous leadership. He was (and sometimes still is) a control freak, though he’s gotten somewhat better. This was a problem, because though there was a guild charter, it wasn’t exactly current..and therefore didn’t really mean anything. His goals for the guild, didn’t really mesh with some of the other folks’ goals and it often left him frustrated come raid time. Once I became officer, I asked him why he didn’t delegate to the other officers more often (this was before we started dating…in fact, guild and raid talk is how we got to chatting outside of raid time!) and..well…at that time he didn’t really know how to delegate. I offered to help by taking over the guild bank and revamping the guild site. Both were things I’d done in previous guilds where I’d been an officer so they were things I was interested in doing. Eventually over the course of a year or so, he started delegating things out to other people.
full size Tauren on baby-spiced Stag = Funny!
The most important thing we learned through this process, was the stepping stones for building the guild we are now in, that we lead together. Though I wear the Guild Leader tag, and I do make some decisions without him, most decisions we discuss and decide on as a team. The inability to be flexible can hurt a guild more than anything else, including the dreaded drama. Officers must also be flexible, sometimes taking on more responsibility than they were originally asked at time, in order to keep things running smoothly. Policy sometimes has to be changed to fit the needs of the guild. And, well, quite frankly, shit happens, and you can’t control it…if you are not flexible, you can’t adjust and keep things in order.
What kind of guild leadership do you prefer? Monarchy? Dictatorship? Republic?