Leadership and Management

People


The people that you work with are some of the most important people in the galaxy. They are the ones who you interact with on a regular basis and it is important that you are able to work with all of them effectively and efficiently. As a leader you must set the example for others, in the way that you conduct yourself through your actions and general behavior. They must look up to you as someone that they can trust, someone they can follow and most importantly, someone that they can respect.

A Leader must be easily approachable by those around him or her, always willing to listen and willing to act upon what others have told him. Communication is a key aspect of a being a good leader, you must always be open to others, allow them to speak without interruption. There are many instances of people with good knowledge and ideas who are not heard by their leaders simply because those leaders will not listen.

If someone approaches you with an idea, and you agree with it, then praise them for their efforts and act upon that idea. Make sure that people know where the idea came from if they ask, don't make people think the idea was yours at the expense of someone within your organization. Praise is another important thing to remember, always be ready to praise someone for hard work and dedication to their duty.

Equally, you must be able to deal with problems that colleagues may cause. Do NOT make any of the details public, forbid others from doing it. Deal with the matter behind closed doors, there is no need to take an issue out into the open, it may only cause more problems and hurt morale. When dealing with such an issue, be sure to remember that communication and a willingness to listen to both sides of an argument is important. Once you have all the facts, deal with the issue. It is recommended that for ALL offenses, you talk to the offender(s), make sure that you emphasis exactly what has been done wrongly, highlight why it was wrong and how you expect them to conduct themselves in future. Inform your superiors of the situation, who was involved and how you have handled it. If you want to take the matter further, then is is recommended you leave the matter to them to sort out.

It is key that you keep morale and activity amongst those working for you, ultimately a happier workforce is a more productive workforce. So, remember that people like being praised and won't appreciate it if they don't believe their superior is on their side. Always make sure you are open with people, share ideas, listen to them; ultimately, this will make your employees feel a valuable part of the team - this is important, remember that even whilst in charge, you are still a part of a team and all of the team's views must be heard.

Delegation

Delegation is an important part of being a leader; you cannot do everything yourself, it just won't work and you'll burn out. Many promising new TX members never truly reach their potential simply because they are not given a chance to do so. If an employee shows promise, give them a little responsibility just to see how they react to it. Obviously be careful you don't give them too much responsibility at first, but if they continue to show potential, then continue, give them some more responsibility, perhaps they'll end up in your job one day. Try to develop their skills, help them in any way you can to reach their potential, you and the TX will benefit from a better employee.

When delegating, be sure that you are delegating the right task to the right person. Some people do not have the skills for certain tasks, however, they may be brilliant at a different task. Make sure that you give them the task they are good at rather than something that they are not so good at, and may enjoy less. Remember here, that morale is key. Also, look at previous operations/tasks, how did that employee perform? Did they do well or not so well? Always look back at history to see who has the key skills for specific tasks, perhaps its worth keeping some notes somewhere on each of your colleagues, just brief notes on things they are good at, things they are not so good at. This way, you will be better able to assign the correct person to a task.

Always remember to keep the communication going, even whilst delegating. Ask for updates/reports on a regular basis, make sure that you know what is going on, and that your employees know what they are supposed to be doing. If there are any changes to be made to their task, inform them immediately. If you have placed one specific person in charge of a number of other employees for a task, make that person your primary contact out of those people. Don't get over-involved in the task for it will only confuse things. You have delegated it so trust that person to carry it out effectively - obviously if things aren't going well, then get involved and change things around. If you have new/extra information, then pass it on to the employee who is in charge and then allow him/her to act upon it.

Ask For Help!


Don't be afraid to ask for help!

Thats one of the key lessons that you must learn, you are not always right, you will make mistakes, others WILL come up with better ideas than you. Be open to accepting another's idea and putting that into practice. Be sure to realise that just because you are in a command position that does not mean your ideas are necessarily the best. It is a team effort, and there are some good 'junior' employees out there who have some great ideas on them, don't let that talent go to waste.

If you need help doing something, then just ASK SOMEONE. There's no shame in asking for help, two heads are always better than one! Have a group brainstorming session if needs be, bounce ideas off of each other, you'll always come up with something better like this than you would on your own. If your problem is within game, again, just ask someone who may the answer to your problem, if you need to know how to construct, just go ask someone that you think would know. There's always an Academy course to help you out!

Learn from your mistakes. If you make a mistake, don't beat yourself up about it, everyone makes mistakes. Move on from it and importantly learn from it. If we learn from our mistakes we will be less likely to repeat them in future. If you find it easy to take notes and keep them somewhere for you to refer to later, then by all means do that. Or perhaps you'll simply take it onboard, whatever is easiest for you. Learn from the past, move on to the future.

Dedicate time to the game. Leaders in this game need to be active, they cannot log on every now and then and expect everything to get done. They need to be able to react to situations thay may arise quickly and efficiently. You can be the best leader in the NR, but if you only log on 2 days after a major incident you're not going to be much help.