Leadership and Gaming

Being a leader is more than having a fancy title and making big bucks. Or having the GM label and the attention of everyone at the table. Leaders come in all shapes and sizes, not to mention styles. Having a good set of leadership skills can help you, whether you are running a game or leading a team into a conflict in afghanistan. For our context, let's talk about adventure building. When you start modeling the next story arc/adventure you're going to write, what do you do first? Do you build a framework of events and structure your NPCs in it? Do you think about what you want to have happen and do? Or, is the players and their needs foremost? Do you build things to their strengths and weakness, player and characters alike? Perhaps more telling, what do you do when planning falls behind schedule or events take shape in a manner you did not expect? What's your initial reaction? Do you immediately rework everything, dump it and start over/give up or take a break deal with it, knowing that life throws curve balls and gets in the way sometimes?

How you answer the above says a lot about you and your style of leading. Some GMs are task oriented; its all about the game, the rules, and playing. Others are people-oriented; the players' feelings are paramount and if the apple cart is upset, so are they.

All that intro aside, this article http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_73.htm can give you some insights into what kind of leadership style you employ. Or, surprise you by showing it might be different than you expected. Personally I'm very people and story-oriented. The game is important, as are the rules but the story and people are the most important.