After leading a guild in World of Warcraft for quite some time, I realised there is a lot in common between leading a guild and managing in work place. As I am getting more and more management responsibilities, I find that it is helpful sometimes to apply what I have learnt from leading a guild. I decided to put down it in words, and perhaps it might be interesting to revisit these in the future and see whether the lessons learnt are still valid.
Lesson #1 – Motivation
Motivation in WoW comes in many form. This is especially evident when in a raid. Different people raid for different reasons. Some raid because they find it fun, some raid for the loot, some raid for the comradeship, and some raid because they like the idea of working in a team to defeat the bosses. Knowing why each and every single guild member’s reasons to raid will give a guild leader a pretty good idea to motivate the guild member to turn up for the raid.
Getting guild members to turn up for raid is make even more difficult by the mere fact that the guild leader has no control over the members’ actions. The guild leader is not their boss who is the one doing their performance evaluation at the end of the year or paying them a monthly salary. As such, playing hard will not be a good idea to ‘force’ the guild members to come for raid. Motivation is the key. And knowing why the guild member raid will give the guild leader a pretty good idea on how to motivate this guild member.
In work place, it is slightly easier given the fact that the manager usually has some kind of authority over his subordinates. However, being too hard on the subordinates will sometimes create resentment, and subordinates may just do the bare minimum if they feel that they are being mistreated. I find that motivation works much better than actually imposing one’s authority on the subordinates.
It may be just a meal, or it may be just be a praise, knowing what drives one to work harder, better, and longer, usually gives me a pretty good idea on how to motivate someone. I also discover that for the same person, different motivation is required at different times. It could be just the promise of a free lunch this time, but the next time, it could be a challenge issued for him to get the system to work better.
Motivation works on myself too. Understanding what drives me allows me to motivate myself in various situations.
Thus conclude this lesson. I will write the next lesson when I feel like it.
