replacing-guild-leader
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The Guild Counsel: The guild leader's gone - now what?
Every guild needs a good leadership structure in order to succeed, and much of it revolves around the guild leader. The leader helps establish the vision, tone, and atmosphere for the guild, screens potential members, and establishes goals for the guild to work toward. But there is a growing number of in-game powers that a leader has as well, making it even more important for him to be online and active. So when a guild leader suddenly becomes inactive, the guild comes to a virtual halt, and it can lead to a guild's downfall. And unlike most other guild problems, this one can't always be solved internally. Let's look at the issue of MIA guild leaders and why studios should sit up and take notice.
Officers' Quarters: Suffocating in a leadership vacuum
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available now from No Starch Press. A few months ago, I wrote a column about replacing a guild leader who disappeared without naming a successor. This week, the problem is slightly different: The guild leader named a successor who turned out to be a poor replacement, and the remaining officers have all but disappeared. In light of this leadership vacuum, a member of the guild wonders whether he should step up and bluntly ask for the top rank. Hello Scott, For close to a year now I've been part of a large social/raiding guild with a very healthy and active player base. In WotLK everything was fine, raiding went great and the guild chat was always full with friendly players so basically the guild was at its best and a great home for everyone. Probably this was very much thanks to the capabilities of our guild leader ... She was liked by many and formed the heart of our guild easily. One day I logged in to hear from some officers that the guild leader was going on a long break to sort out real life issues. Only a few people knew how long this would take and they refused to share this information with the rest of us to respect her privacy. Before she left, one officer was appointed to lead the guild in the meanwhile. Problem was that this was a very unreliable player (he used to disappear for months without notice because he suddenly grew bored of the game) and before he hadn't been an officer and was only given the role because he was the only one to volunteer.
Officers' Quarters: How to replace an absentee guild leader
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook, available now from No Starch Press. A few weeks ago, I wrote a column about the high rate of burnout among officers and guild leaders in particular. Lately I've been hearing about a lot of situations where guild leaders have stepped down or outright vanished. Not all such decisions are the result of burnout, of course. Sometimes, real-life obligations get in the way. Regardless of the reason, losing a guild leader can be absolutely devastating to a guild. If the community was already on the rocks, the disappearance of a guild leader can be the last straw. How can the remaining officers make the transition to new leadership with their guild intact?
