How to be a good leader

[Garanwyn]

@princess1

The ONLY thing we can probably all agree on is … the right alliance for YOU offers the most satisfying gaming experience!

I agree with this

I’m actually happy when a new potental member decides up-front that the way we work isn’t a good fit. Much better to make the break early, than to have both us and them invest a lot of time and effort and then discover the mismatch later.

I agree with @NPNKY that there’s no need to be bellicose about expressing requirements. But I agree with @General_Confusion that a statement of expectations shouldn’t leave a new member in doubt.

For example:

• We have a war plan that we follow, and it’s really important that everyone uses their flags unless real life makes it impossible

• Titans are a team sport, and we expect at least 4 hits on the titan from everyone if it passes the 12h mark

The harder-core you are, the more explicit I think you need to be about using words like “mandatory.” It will turn some people off–but they wouldn’t be right for you anyway.

[princess1]

Summoned up beautifully!

[JonahTheBard]

@princess1

Summoned up beautifully!

@Garanwyn

I agree with @NPNKY that there’s no need to be bellicose about expressing requirements. But I agree with @General_Confusion that a statement of expectations shouldn’t leave a new member in doubt.

I agree with @princess1 agreeing with @garanwyn agreeing with @General_Confusion and @NPNKY

[General_Confusion]

What an agreeable lot we are. Wait…what forum am I on?

[princess1]

@princess1

Summoned up beautifully!

LOL I should post this in the You Know You’ve Been Playing E & P Too Much when …

You can no longer say “summed” because auto correct will immediately think you meant to say “summoned”.

[JonahTheBard]

I didn’t even register that!!

[princess1]

Probably for the same reason … it looks perfectly alright to us

[miteddy]

Thanks everyone for all your excellent ideas and comments. They are all food for thought and all practical. We are down to 22 members at the moment so I will start a thread in the Alliance Recruitment section. Wish me luck!

[General_Confusion]

Good luck on your recruiting!

[Nakita]

@miteddy there you go!! Best of luck , I’m sure that you would do great. Happy recruiting.

[DoctorStrange]

Recruiting is almost the toughest part of being a leader. Having a vision of what kind of alliance you want to have and trying to get a group of strangers together to accomplish that can be tough. i was lucky enough to have some life friends join with me so the foundation of good coleaders was established early. learning as much as we could in the game was our second priority because you cant lead a horse when you dont even know where the water is, if its fresh, how to purify it

set and age range/maturity level of players we and take your time making sure to make each person feels welcome upon entering. putting 30 personalities together can be tough and all it takes is one toxic of that thirty to crash a kingdom.

Make sure you and your coleaders are on the same page at all times. they are your life blood and rivalry in the top ranks will definitely ruin your alliance.

Know that even as leader this game changes each month as rosters grow and new heroes are released. metas change, new people become problems, old problem heroes fade. keep up with the meta changes to increase your chances to win wars.

the alliance that wars together grows together, and there are plenty of guides from great players here to help people actually wanting to learn, to understand how all functions of the game work. even some of the not so fair ones.

[Sternman]

Question regarding the member levels. When I created my alliance I automatically promoted the people that joined me from the moribund alliance immediately. New members that participate actively for a month are promoted one level and then again after another month.

Is there a strong reason to leave people at Elder rather than co-Leader? We all agree on the “rules”, we state them in the chat each time someone joins and we have what appears to be complete backing for the rules and when to kick people (only way to get kicked is to opt into war and not use flags).

My ego is not tied up in the power of leadership and I am happy that others feel empowered. Just wondering if there is a reason why this strategy could be wrong (potentially we could be 1 leader and 29 co-leaders).

[General_Confusion]

I think you need to get to know them well enough to know there will not be drama. I’ve hear of people who were promoted too soon, got into a snit with some of the members, kicked them and then left the alliance.

I use a three month window to elder (if they hit the titan the required number of times, and participate in wars) unless I know them from elsewhere…

[Sternman]

Thank you, that is a good point. Good news is that I haven’t run into the problem yet so it hadn’t occurred to me.

[Garnet_Velvet]

Numerous Co-Leaders vs only 2 or 3…

It all depends on what kind of alliance you want to have and what role your Co-Leaders are expected to play.

I’ve experienced both kinds of alliances (even both in one alliance!). Now as Leader of my own, my alliance has opted (via voting) for having a max of 3 Co-Leaders (but currently we have just 2). Here is the reasoning behind this:

In an alliance with numerous Co-Leaders the title losses its meaning. You can’t have ½ of an alliance (or more) in charge of actually leading it. Too many cooks in the kitchen as the saying goes… The role gets diluted & seems to become one of cheerleader/ mentor rather than one of direction & decision making as it is traditionally known for. New (and often many of the older) members are unsure who to take leadership from , resulting that, in such a clan, all of the leadership falls solely on the shoulders of the Leader.

In an easy going, rarely kicking kind of alliance, where there isn’t much decision making needed, this may work very well – as not as much is required or expected from the clan leader.

Or

In the kind of alliance where the leader has a firm vision for their alliance and set ideas on how to get there. In such, a leader often doesn’t want anyone else involved with the decision making. Such a leader would need complete buy in from all of their alliance members in order to make it work - a high level, accomplished player can sometimes succeed in this.

Both of these are good examples of alliances were having numerous Co-Leaders works.

This wouldn’t work in certain other kinds of alliances, like my own for example:

It is a very complicated kind of alliance. We maintain a tight balancing act between competitive & social; a top 400 alliance with no interest in top 100 but with top 100 players. We have a formula that is working for us. I couldn’t do it without my 2 clearly defined Co-Leaders. We have a close-knit leadership team. Having the right Co-Leaders is also important in keeping this alliance’s course & staying in touch with its pulse. In this kind of clan titan calls are expected to be made shortly after each titan’s appearance & war questions are to be answered when asked. Being a very international alliance, I couldn’t do this on my own. Between the 3 of us we pretty much have round the clock coverage . When a Co-Leader makes a call (titan, war, even kicking) the alliance knows that it is a leadership call – with all 3 of us behind it. In addition, important alliance decisions have more buy in because clan members know that every important decision is made by the leadership team as a whole, not only by one person, resulting in more consistent decision making.

I have to admit, back when I was a Member in a previous alliance and had gotten promoted to Elder I felt pride in the promotion – but at the time there was one Co-Leader and only a few Elders. When I was promoted to Co-leader another 6 were as well… definitely didn’t feel the same pride in that title. Just didn’t mean as much when nearly a 1/3 of the clan had it too. The more that have it, the emptier the title… and so it really does all come down to what the titles of Elder and Co-Leader mean in your alliance, what the role of these players is to be.

[Sternman]

Thank you for the well explained rationale for why/how each can work.

Since we are not looking to be competitive as an alliance (more nuturing although not a full on training alliance) we have fewer “leadership” decisions to take. One rule and that is use flags in war IF opting in, two failures with no reason is a boot. Since the rule is clear we can all enforce it (after giving LOADS of chances for the failing member to give a reason).

We seem to have been fortunate in that no disruptive people have tried to come in and stir things up. Since there is a trial period before promotion we hope there is plenty of time for true colors to show.

It does boil back down to communicating expectations and acting accordingly. If consistently done the core that stays with the alliance should all have bought into the vision making for a happy alliance.

I was in two alliances before founding my own and both purported to be active with clear rules about titan hitting (no war rules). Yet the leaders failed to enforce the rules, co-leaders didn’t either and the alliances filled with deadwood. Immensely frustrating and took away from the joy of playing.

I guess it is perfectly acceptable to have an alliance of super casual, part time players as long as it is advertised as such.

[princess1]

I have an issue with using promotions/demotions as rewards and punishment. Our alliance has a leader/co-leaders, but no elders.

Our newer members are just as valuable as our seasoned players and we don’t feel there is a need to add the title “elder” to any player.

Our co-leaders are very active, very involved and very busy in the actual mechanics of the game and the alliance. There needs to be a trust factor with any player having the ability to remove another player.

I agree that once everyone has the same title, it simply loses any real meaning. In our alliance, the title MEMBER holds as much “status” as leader/co-leader without the actual “work” involved.

When a new player joins us, I always explain our rational for when (how) we promote, and our lack of an elder status. So far we’ve never had a player question our policy.

[Garnet_Velvet]

Good points Princess!

Although we do have Elders in our alliance… but not used as a reward. In our clan the title is to show the players with an increased level of Discord access & responsibility. This is earned not just arbitrarily assigned. Our Discord is very diversified, with information channels open to the general public. Our Elders get extra permissions in order to help with posting war & titan attendance, as well as greet anyone who arrives in our Welcome channel - A preventative measure in case one of the leadership members happens to not be available at the time. In times of recruiting it also always helps to have someone there to accept our new players!

It’s not a title we give often - we only have 3 Elders! I think we have a good balance for our needs.

But I have learned one thing since having formed the alliance - To be very cautious with promotions: because what do you do with titled players who are no longer as active as they used to be? We love our 3 Elders…but real life has gotten in the way of their E&P and now those titles are more honorary than anything else (they really did do much for our alliance in the past!). They haven’t done anything wrong or bad to deserve the punishment of demotion… and seeing as we don’t want to end up top heavy we aren’t willing to promote anyone else in the meantime… and so we do find ourselves in a wee bit of a political conundrum…

Any advice on that one would be greatly appreciated!

[princess1]

It’s certainly a sticky situation. Since you can talk them on discord, I’d be honest with them. Let them know you understand their changed circumstances, that you appreciate their past service and ask if they’d be willing to voluntarily step down from the title so another player could be promoted, thereby keeping the balance the alliance.

I’m sure you know them well enough to figure out which one you have the best chance of coming to an agreement with.

If they do agree, I’d ask if they’d be willing to say something on chat because you don’t want it look like you’ve taken the title away. Again, hopefully they’ll agree, and you can then thank them in the game chat.

Once you approached, and hopefully succeeded with one, you’ll have an easier time with the next one!

Perhaps it’s more steps than some other alliances are willing to take, but it’s a more gentle approach, without causing drama (everyone hates drama), allows the “demoted” players to save face, and again, hopefully, keeping them in the alliance.

[Altius_Virgule]

Here is how to NOT be a good leader. So minutes ago my alliance just won a war by 17 points. Here’s the thing, we should’ve lost because the other team had 3 flags left (we had 0). Guess who left those 3 flags on the field? Yep, their leader. Our alliance is eating popcorn and watching as that alliance’s membership has already seen 3 players leave in the time since the war ended. I would love to post more pics, but this is the best I can do and not show names.