It is generally accepted that we don't quit hard jobs, we quit terrible bosses. And with terrible bosses comes terrible leadership.
All of the complaints my close friends have about their job comes from how their leadership or bosses are behaving. So we're going to look at an example of bad leadership and what you should do as a leader in order to get the best results.
Today's example comes from a game called Hell Let Loose. Hell Let Loose is a semi-realistic WWII shooter that allows you to play across many different battlefields during that conflict.
For us our story starts with a friend and me. We had jumped into one of our favorite servers for Hell Let Loose. We both weren't feeling up to running a squad that day so we jumped into one of the unlocked squads.
Our Squad Leader or SL started out as being rather communicative. This is an important feature as SLs are the connection between the Commander and other squads. Yes you can talk to those in your general area but coordination is all funneled through the SLs.
The match starts off alright. The SL asks for various roles to be filled and we start pushing in through a small French town. The SL decided we were going to push the enemy on our left hand flank while the rest of the team held the church we had just captured.
As we pushed forward we found that there was a large enemy presence in the area we were looking to occupy. This is when things started to turn. The SL was talking, yes, but he was talking a lot. To me he sounded panicked. Something I don't really care for in a leader.
Everything was being said in a tone that was rushed and really portrayed the SL as not knowing what he was doing or going on. I will give him the benefit of the doubt at this point. I have been an SL and the voice communications can get very hectic with multiple people talking over each other.
But we eventually found out that this was just the style of our current SL. The first problem we encountered was a repeatedly crushed push on that left hand side. We tried two or three times to advance but then only tried to push there.
My friend, who was our anti-tank man, informed the SL that he had seen a tank on that flank. He and I considered it general procedure to relay enemy positions and resources like tanks to the commander and other SLs in order to keep everyone informed. It also helps get appropriate resources to the area and keeps people from walking into an ambush.
Our SL, who was not paying attention it seemed, hears this and goes "Thank you for the call out, AT can you take care of that for me?"
Our SL essentially told my friend "Thanks for informing me of a problem now go fix the problem you found." Whether that SL informed command is a mystery. But wait! There's more!
After this the SL kept telling everyone what to do. Not where to go, but what they should do and how they should do it.
He called each of us to multiple different locations and tried to get us to play how he would play. It had stepped out of a leadership role and was trying to control even the smallest of actions of the squad members.
He threw us against that left flank over and over again. And when we actually made some head way he punished one of our squad members for literally doing the job his role was made for.
Get comfortable this is going to get a little in-depth. We had a machine-gunner in the squad. In Hell Let Loose light machine-guns work like real life ones. This means firing from the shoulder is unlikely and you can merely spray bullets in a general direction from the hip.
Where the machine-gun's accuracy comes from is being rested on something and becoming an entrenched position. Our machine-gunner had found a perfect spot. There was cover to keep him safe, a wide open field with almost 180 degree coverage from the position, and there were enemies there.
Our Machine-gunner could stay there and stop any push from that side of our advance. However this placed him about 70 plus meters away from our SL. And he didn't like that too much. He told the machine-gunner to return to the squad.
The machine-gunner explained his position and that he was doing his job as a machine-gunner. the SL said " MG return to the squad or I will kick you some the squad."
Not a minute later and the machine-gunner was kicked and the squad locked so no one could get in without the SL's permission.
Shortly after this, my friend and I left the squad. The squad tried to push that last flank until the very end of the match and eventually was only the SL and two other people.
This was by far the worst SL I have had in the game to date. But what can we do to avoid becoming this bad of a leader?
We first have to understand the concept of leadership. The leader is there to coordinate people's effort and provide them with the tools they need to succeed if they can. You have to trust that the people under you are going to do their job and know what that job is.
The leader is given a goal or sets a goal and the team goes out and tries to achieve it. This is best done when you, the leader, are calm and communicative. You shouldn't over communicate. Tell them what they need to know and let them have the free will to do what they need to.
Do not micromanage them. Everyone gets nervous or irritable when someone is watching over their shoulder all the time. Not micromanaging shows them that you trust them and you are doing your job. You and your team need to focus on your job not other people's jobs.
For example my friend and I were playing in Hell Let Loose and Command had ordered our squad to defend one of the capture points. we were with another squad on defense and we held that point for a good forty minutes. We held off tank attacks, infantry pushes, and bombing runs.
The assault squads kept trying to take the next point but they could not. We ultimately lost that match but that point we were defending was not captured. My friend and I considered that a success. We didn't fail our job by losing the match. We kept our point but the assault squads didn't do their job well enough.
During that whole event not once did the Commander tell us what to do beyond defend and the two squads let the squad members do what they needed to. But we still lost.
The point is the more you focus on what someone else is doing, the less attention you are putting towards your own task. This is especially problematic for a leader since their duties general fall in an entirely different category than the people they lead.
Read your job description and do it.
Think about it.
Sincerely,
The Irreverent Gentleman
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