Leadership is a two-way street.. relearned

A couple of events this week have reminded me of a lesson learned long ago; but one that is easy to forget. Elistanus' T2 Sucks post finally nudged me over that hill in order to share I think. :P

On Tuesday I was running with Seab in a rag tag warband that was outnumbered as much as 3:1 at times. Seab did a good job in trying to mix things up along the way but no matter what we tried to do Destro was upon us before we could finish our task. Now funny thing is that while we had the usual armchair quarterbacks and such most of the folks in the wb did a good job listening to Seab for a couple of hours. I think most everyone recognized that we were outmatched in numbers and everyone did a great job in just trying to get anything done at all.

Seabhran was a bit hard on himself after he left that night but the thing that I noticed is the bulk of the folks in the warband continued on instead of rage quitting after he left. These guys were into it; they realized the nature of the situation but were willing to drive on and get done what could be done... no matter the outcome.

Now if the group had not followed behind Seabhran as well as they did how long would he have stuck in leading the group? It was a tough night and I would venture to say that it wouldn't have been as long as it was that night. This is where the two-way street comes in.

Players that take the initiative to lead during extinuating circumstances deserve our respect and more importantly our support along the way. We may not be able to control the battlefield at all times but we can maintain each other's morale and make sure that nobody is taking on more responsibility than need be. Leaders need support just like everyone else in this. This is true of non-Gaiscioch family members as well.

I know that patience can be in short supply at times but Leader's typically have to exercise an inordinate amount of patience in order to rally troops to a cause. In turn we should show anyone that's leading a bit of patience because alot of things go into the decision making process; and because we want them to come back the next time as well.

We may not win every fight out there but we can do our best to keep everyone coming back to the fight!

"Old Ironsides never die... we just get our barrel bored out and come back for more punishment."

Well said. I'm sure many of those weary, bedraggled leaders out there fighting the good fight will appreciate your kind and motivational words. Hear hear.

I told ya Hal is a great guy! =) Haw Haw Haw... These words go in the same way of the nice conversation we had after the 4 hours of blood, courage and defeat we had some days ago at T2. I learned some precious lessons during the action, and with that conversation, that night. I don't need to say I agree with every word he said.

Well, I would say that the "great" guys and gals are the folks that are out there leading our sometimes ragtag groups and warbands.:P I spent a decent amount of time in the early days of the game leading groups that rarely approached full warband size. That was frustrating in and of itself and certainly burned me out on it so long ago. So I guess the deep reasoning behind this post is to say that in coming back to the game I find the Gaiscioch Family a breath of fresh air and I truly appreciate those that take the time to organize and lead the various events. This makes the game what it should have been for me so long ago. "Toujours Pret"