[Intelligent Discussions] Leadership

Hello, some of you may know me, some of you may not. It’s not that it really matters though. In response to the, “lack of activity” from me, I have decided to come back start making these intelligent threads just as many have done before. You may say, I am doing my own series of threads that promote intelligent discussions and hard thinking. I’ve been wanting to do this ever since our very own [MOD] Polleus has done. These threads won’t be a daily implementation, but I will have some threads.

Just to clarify, if you guys think that I am “copying” Polleus, or that I am trying “way too hard to be a mod” (some critique that I have received from many forumers after posting my threads) you guys really should look at the big picture. I am making these threads in order to help the forums become a regular gaming forum, to an intelligent, nurturing, and promoting community or even a family. If you do not share these same ideas, but instead want to think in a negative manner, just don’t read this. Post a “cool story bro” or a “tl;dr” and show your lack of intelligence. Just remember, I called this before anything actually happened.

This is a series of threads. These threads are really not “informative threads”, I prefer to call them “discussion threads”. If you don’t know proper English (which pertains to proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation), there are many websites that can help. I also know, from my past experience and from my research, that some internet browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome, have spell-check, grammar-check, and punctuation-check built into them. If not, here are some helpful links:

• Mozilla Firefox Spell Checker Add On: Click Here
• Google Chrome Spell Checker Tutorial: Click Here
• Internet Explorer Spell Checker ieSpell Add On: Click Here
• Opera GNU Aspell Add On: Click Here
• Safari Spell Checker Enabling Tutorial: Click Here

Due to a lot of discrimination a foreigner may experience in our community, mainly due to the fact that this is an English only forum, there are some decent online translators, such as Google Translator

Just to be clear, I bump the latest one every now and then until it becomes clear that nobody has anything new to contribute.

Well, without further ado, here is my thread that I bring to you today!

__________________________________________________



Leadership [Intelligent Discussion #7]


Topic: Is leadership something that we all need? Does it come naturally for all? Why do you think that some people can step up and be a leader, or is it just something that happens over time?



“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” -Peter F. Drucker

What I think leadership is, is basically a knowledge of how to steer others in the correct path, and to choose something that all members of a group or team can benefit from. For example, we have teams in our version of Cross Fire. Whether it being the forum moderation staff, or the leader of the community group [oL], or even the leader of a competitive team like vVv LifeLine.

Like everything else, I have a few things to say about leadership. Like in the above-shown picture with a caption of the penguins, everyone has to go first to set a trail. The army has scouts that are sent first, hikers have people who have gone before them to trail the path and deem it safe or unsafe, and, unfortunately, public games have baited players who go in first to survey the site before taking the site itself.

Without those, they would be blind mouse. Obviously, a competitive team needs to go without baiting, but if we think about it on an individualism aspect. If your performance in a match had nothing to do with anything [for example 0/34 in a scrim is alright in a scrim team, with the score being 18-16 at the end of the scrim, of course] people would bait the other, because it generally works. One player gets baited, calls where the snipers or campers are, and the team rushes in to eliminate them. Of course, extremely good teams don’t need bait, they can generally out-frag without needing an advantage.

But, that’s another story. Every team has a leader. We need somebody to guide us in a direction that they feel is best for us. Some modern examples of leaders are our parents, who have lead us through life if they were there for us, and if they were good parents. We have teachers, who educate us. They are the leaders of our education. We have police, fire-fighters, and EMS. They are the leaders of protecting our safety. To be honest, everything that happens generally has somebody who everybody can either give all of the credit to in the end, or a person who takes all the blame when fingers get pointed.

Leadership isn’t always a trait that everybody has. We always can’t be the best decision makers for others, and can’t always make it so they have a smooth path. We can’t do everything perfectly. We, hopefully, are all human, and we have flaws. But there are those who have leadership skills, and that is what I want to focus on today.

Everybody has leadership skills. It’s a matter of how good they are that puzzles everybody Anybody can pick up an idea every now and then, and find that spark that gives them the flare that they were seeking. It’s a matter of how long and how well they can keep that flare lit. That is the real problem.

Strong leadership skills generally add up to people who have faith in you and can have a basic trust in you. Weak leadership skills lead to breaking down of teams and groups, and possibly a bit of conflict in between the group. A strong leader is one who takes the interest of the group, the interest of the group members individually, and the interests of him or herself into consideration, and makes decisions based on that. Generally, not everybody reaches an unanimous consensus, so he or she may have to reason with the one or two people who disagree with him or her.

I don’t think that leadership just sprouts over a night, and everybody doesn’t get it. Leadership is based off of experience. If you have had a group previously, and you and others have deemed it successful, the chances of you continuing on as a leader increase. If you were a lousy leader, the chances of you being a good leader in the future just by sitting there are slim to none.

Let’s take history into consideration, voting. Politics are things that I generally don’t ramble on and on about, so I’ll keep this quick. Good leader, good, you get to stay. Bad leader? Bye bud, good luck with life. What I’m saying, is that a bad leader will get voted out if that option is available at all. A good leader will continue.

People, with the right initiative can stand up and become leaders. What I think, is that there really aren’t any pre-requisites. It’s something that anybody can try, but only a few select people can be successful at. Those people generally are selfless and care more about the macro, the team, than the micro, the leader.

A good leader puts the team before himself. The leader is merely one person in the team, no? The team consists of more lives and people than him. If he has to put the team before himself, we call that a valiant leader.

A team is only as good as it’s weakest link. If a team has a weak link. The leader has the role to make that weak link better. Eliminating the weak link is never good for a team unless necessary. Cuts to a scrim team are perfectly acceptable, don’t get me wrong. Eventually, everyone has a bad day and become a weak link. Whether they get better and redeem themselves, it’s their decision.

Overall, I think leaders are necessary, and without them, it would be just a free for all for supremacy and for complete and utter power. We need leaders, and I’m sure that they need us as well.

Thanks for reading,


HitK [formerly HiTenKaey and SirHi]