World of Warcraft™

Just thought I'd give some aspiring guild/raid leaders a short list of resources that relate directly and indirectly to developing leadership skills:

1. From good to GREAT - This book is a must have for anyone dedicating themselves to leading any endeavor, be it a weekly raid to coaching a soccer team to starting up a multinational corporation. The author and his team took a list of Fortune 500 companies, broke them down in terms of market value and growth over a period of extended years, and found some very humbling traits that each of the 11 organizations they identified held in common. Top priority book.

2. The Art of War - Yes, it's cliche, but there's a reason why this book continues to circulate when most other "war strategy" guides seem to vanish into thin air. Sun Tzu was on to something when he flatly stated "Know thy enemy and know thyself, and in a thousand battles you will never be defeated". This book is filled with pearls of wisdom for any good leader, provided you can apply the lessons in the right context. Keep in mind, the author was a military general thousands of years ago. Go with it.

3. How to Win Friends and Influence People - This is a turn of the twentieth century manual written by Dale Carnegie, considered by many to be one of the forefathers of our present "self-help" phenomenon that fills up our bookshelves. This guy wasn't doing it as a quick fix for income, however. This guy was already wealthy when he wrote this book, and he wrote it as an answer to a steady demand of people asking him "how?" His carefully compiled answer boils down to one basic theme: you have to be sincere. If you get nothing else about recruiting out of this book, you should at least get that.

This is a good list and though I doubt a majority of guild masters would be willing to take the time to read material unrelated to Raiding or PvP.

Well, someone out there might be interested and learn something new from these. Who knows?

To add to Yoban's book pile...

Books on how to educate/motivate people often give a great pointers:
150 Ways to Increase Intrinsic Motivation in the Classroom (Raffini).
Laying Down the Law (Dr. Ruth Peters).

For anyone, anywhere, in any position who wants to see their team succeed:
The 360* Leader (John C. Maxwell).

Leadership and Self Deception by the Arbinger Institute: Teaches you how "drama" between people starts and how to deal with it.

"How Good Do You Want to Be?" by Nick Saban, when he was head football coach at LSU.

A lot of times, people who are outside the world of sports shun the messages offered by coaches like Saban, who have a LIFETIME of leadership experience. A football team is a LOT like a guild, because you have to effectively manage personalities from extreme differences in background... we're talking race, income level, geography... you name it.

What you can learn from Saban in this book is how to stay process-oriented in your efforts to improve as a team and how to allow your teammates to assume ownership over some of the things you do, without losing control of the team.

What's more... these are techniques which are effective on the very generation most of us find difficult to lead sometimes... the younger folks in their late teens and early 20's.

It is a VERY practical guide to transforming your team structure and leadership style.

In my opinion, though it might alienate some of you who are put off by sports... it is a MUCH more valuable read than "Art of War," which can be overly vague and impractical. Guild leadership is team-building. You want to build a team? Go to the best team-builder in college sports: Saban.

3. How to Win Friends and Influence People - This is a turn of the twentieth century manual written by Dale Carnegie, considered by many to be one of the forefathers of our present "self-help" phenomenon that fills up our bookshelves. This guy wasn't doing it as a quick fix for income, however. This guy was already wealthy when he wrote this book, and he wrote it as an answer to a steady demand of people asking him "how?" His carefully compiled answer boils down to one basic theme: you have to be sincere. If you get nothing else about recruiting out of this book, you should at least get that

Amazing book, absolutely wonderful.

Depending on the leaders age, I might suggest "7 habits of highly Effective People" or for those teenagers "7 Habits of a Highly Effective Teenager" (written by the aboves son)

Meyer, J. (1996). Company Command - The Bottom Line. Alexandria, VA: Byrrd Enterprises Inc. ISBN 0080410510.

A valuable handbook and desk reference for small unit leaders. Although some of the advice is very force-specific, the majority of the book is object lessons in what to expect and how to avoid common mistakes through forward planning and awareness. Also touches on how to cope with the chain of command above you and still get something useful done.

While not intended to guide people in leadership, if you pay attention during a read through of Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card you'll pick up a number of incredibly useful tidbits on leading. If you're into science fiction or even just like reading books about the nature of people you'll probably enjoy the book thoroughly as well.

The main characters in the book are children being taught to be the greatest leaders (and soldiers) in history - Card pulls this off amazingly well. :D

While I have read the books suggested above, they all, and plenty of other such leadership books all assume you're in business with the ability to implement change once a change is recognized as an option.

In WOW guild masters do not have the ability to DO much at all. Heck, Bliz doesn't even have a booklet or web page dedicated to GM access only where tips and tools might be located.

Leadership styles and techniques apply to a business environment, not necessarily in a game environment. Don't mistakenly swap leadership when the reader might better mean communications.

WOW is a complex game of many layers and threads played by players bringing complex needs and wants. Leadership has nothing to do with establishing norms and communicating them in a way that makes sense to all, and thusly not only accepted, but followed.

Unfortunately Bliz has a world renown knack at creating a wonderful game environment - but lacks in allowing those playing the game to work well in a guild environment - all due to the lack of Guild Master tools and options of which the ability to communicate is severely crippled. (look at the cap on sending messages to the guild members, the short few lines allowed in MOTD and the Calendar, no official guild web pages etc.)

There's room to grow, and I anticipate seeing wonderful changes coming, some day, for Guilds and Guild Masters of those guilds.

I completely disagree with the poster above. There is opportunity for leadership in WoW. It's the guild master's vision for his or her guild. It's selecting members for that guild. It's implementing policies and then how the GM follows through with those policies. It's dealing with the drama as it arises. In the case of raid guilds, it's also setting standards, creating a roster, and managing resources. There are many, many, examples of how a guild master displays leadership every day in this game.

Another great book that I've been reading: "The Leadership Challenge" by Kouzes and Posner.

The Prince- by Niccolo Machiavelli Is possibly the best book on leadership ever written.

Power- by Robert Greene Is a close second.


The Art of War is more a book of how to conduct war or business strategy in a very general sense and I'd argue that any "leadership" pointers are for the most part indirect.

Other indirect books include:

Mind Manipulation- by Dr. Haha Lung

The Anabasis of Alexander- by Arrian

Meditations- by Marcus Aurelius

There are many others... Keep in mind that the major pre-requisite to running a guild is being able to get a handle on other peoples personalities and understand at what level you need to deal with each as an individual. If you have good personnel management skills all other things can and should be delegated and with a small amount of supervision should fall into place.

Machiavelli?

Mind Manipulation?

Well, as most governments can attest to, its better when your slaves don't know they're slaves.

I really disagree with you Tomoras.

While I have read the books suggested above, they all, and plenty of other such leadership books all assume you're in business with the ability to implement change once a change is recognized as an option.

If you are a guild leader that is unable to implement change once you recognize that change is not only an option but possibly NEEDED, then you should not be a guild leader or leader of any kind.

Leadership styles and techniques apply to a business environment, not necessarily in a game environment.......
WOW is a complex game of many layers and threads played by players bringing complex needs and wants. Leadership has nothing to do with establishing norms and communicating them in a way that makes sense to all, and thusly not only accepted, but followed.

Leadership has everything to do with establishing norms and communicating them in a way that makes sense to all so that they can be accepted and followed. I'm curious to know what exactly you think leadership IS if it is NOT these things. While there are many facets of leadership these are very important aspects.

A leader of a guild, a company, a team of any kind... should be able to clearly and concisely outline the goals for that team. They should be able to establish rules, ideals, a sense of order and community. They should be able to express to everyone that is currently a part of that team, and those who are not, exactly what to expect from their leader in regards to maintaining the goals, rules, and order of the community and team.

I have members in my guild with an incredible variety of temperaments, goals, wants, needs, etc. It is my job as leader to clearly outline how my guild operates under a variety of situations. I clearly explain my role as leader and the type of environment people can expect. If a leader cannot and does not communicate to their team any of these things, then OF COURSE nothing can be accepted and followed. Every individual consistently comes up against obstacles during their playing experience and in real life. If members are not aware of how a guild and its leadership will handle issues/problems or the running of the guild, then how could they possibly operate as a team member. If you apply to a guild, you do so because you (hopefully) have become aware of their procedures, their rules, their style of play, etc. You join them because they seem to have goals that match your own. If you were not communicated with and consistently given reinforcement about the leadership of the guild as a team, then you would not apply, join, or ever be able to find a group with which to match goals.

Cardnialsyn, I absolutely agree:

Meditations- by Marcus Aurelius

There are many others... Keep in mind that the major pre-requisite to running a guild is being able to get a handle on other peoples personalities and understand at what level you need to deal with each as an individual. If you have good personnel management skills all other things can and should be delegated and with a small amount of supervision should fall into place.

...and also, fabulous book!!!

The Meditations is also known as The Emperor's Handbook. I keep it on my desk...

The bit of Marcus I always remind everyone of is:

"No matter what anyone else may do or say, I must be good. It is as if gold or an emerald or purple dye were perpetually telling itself, "I must be an emerald and keep my color.""

It basically says, "Stay true to yourself."

Also, another great one to keep yourself in the mindset of being a fair and wise leader is "The Republic" by Plato.

"Who Moved My Cheese"

Very good insight on personality types, change management etc. Quick read.