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Thread: Starting up in leadership

  1. #1
    Senior Member Me_Bigsnail's Avatar
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    Starting up in leadership

    Ay, you may not know me but I am Dismas Hind, seasoned idiot, today I'll hand out some words on leadership while a special something related to it is in the air.

    Note: This aint about CIC and what its made of, this is all about concepts of leadership, take 'em as you wish

    Now, in my time as XO I havent found a definition of leadership that sticks around, if anything we're all leaders like it or not, we are leaders in our homes or in our community, but I know what the challenge of leadership is, you know its like if I had a handful of 10000 dollars and said 'Every squad marine staying at FOB gets 10k' you're not being a great leader, you are asking people to do something that anybody else would do under normal circumstances.

    Thats not the challenge, the challenge of leadership is getting people to willingly do what they would not, okay, many people in times of crisis turn around at seek for that one guy even though they got no title, they dont sign paychecks, but because they know better (I.E People who are robust)

    So what it takes to be a leader? Well first of all it takes confidence, no one expects you to be a great leader if you are clueless like the rest, but most importantly, character, people who are greedy or compulsive liars are not trusted among ranks.

    If I come by and tell my CO at CIC who currently is having a stroke thinking of the 30 marine push at the 21 xeno stronghold and when I go through his office door and I say 'CO, we did it' and he gets up gets to shake my hand, hell even pins a medal on and you can see tears pour down his cheek check tact map and sees no marine dots, chances are I have a bad character.

    If you're in the leadership business for the next medal or the next parade in your name you're doomed for dissapointment, you must understand the true rewards come from leadership itself, so when you get to that cozy bed of yours you look back and say 'Damn that was a good team we had, we did really good stuff together i am proud of what we did' the moment you get burned out of this game, you will carry on that memory and it will be a constant source of pride and joy.

    Now up until now someone reading this is like, 'Wow Dismas Hind told me he's going to give me something for my leadership skills and up until now all he has done is giving me a damn sermon!' so I'm about to give you some practical stuff to get your mind wrapped up

    Admit defects and fix them, leaders fix problems, not create them

    Y'know I've seen a lot of people ignoring feedback or guys saying 'okay any of you got any ideas' and the person who pops up and says something negative about the plan gets turned down, when delegating tasks on mid op, listen to SLs or if you are the latter to your marines, feel welcome to change the plan anytime, plans can be flexible around marines, but marines are not flexible around plans.

    Other times people turn comms into a debate channel on who's right or wrong, avoid this, you are here to delegate information and future plans, you dont carry entire squads on your palm with bad character.

    Set goals

    Everyone will roll their eyes to this one but, goals are meaningful if people understands them, but more importantly if people understand the role they are going to play in accomplishing the goal, for example our goal is to kick xeno ass, alpha bravo holds position to await xenos to reach those barricaded positions so we can kick their asses, charlie delta unga to kick asses early on, if things turn grim they retreat to barricaded position to kick ass.

    Goals are used by leaders to focus their men and more importantly it tells them what they DON’T have to do, FOB squads should not expect to turn around the corner and be in the front already.

    Set high standards for your CIC

    When you're in the 'bossman' chair you got responsability, and when there's a full CIC, even more, not only in the operation but with your subordinates, do not cast your personnel like nobodies, make sure everyone is talking, your SOs calling out the dead spec at north river your XO handing out intel around the clock, if you dont make sure those standards meet, you wont have an easy operation when everyone is playing mimes.

    Reinforce success

    When new folk play as XO their first worry is 'how badly can i fuck up' at first they'll fail, then they'll go silent, be aware of this because as i said above, mute CIC is a low standards CIC, now the XO wont even try AT ALL, make sure to give them simple orders like, load OB or fix reactors and congralutate them, do not feel ashamed because now he'll be optimistic and hopefully go gloves off in this operation, not expecting failure, but success.

    Same deal with all roles, remember, every one of us can be a leader when the right opportunity rises.


    Last words before finishing this shitshow: Flanks are quite cool, there's some guides about them, get used to map layout and call out flanks with the right numbers, acting like a hero is a loss that might not be recovered from, so make sure to have a good grasp of folks on the field, willing to follow you.
    Vibing as: Dismas Hind.

    THE BOIS (And gals)
    https://pastebin.com/DHCmg4nM

    Shoutouts to Manezinho for the pixelart

  2. #2
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    A very good approach to leadership in general, good guide. While it doesnt address too much on tactics and strategy, it addresses the real time issues leadership roles need to deal with.

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    Whitelisted Captain BatHoovyDood's Avatar
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    Ah the classic tell the CO we won after getting all the marines killed, an important part of every XO's skillset.
    - Squad Leader Cassandra 'Boston' Ellis (and overconfident CO)

    (Probably already dead)


  4. #4
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    The point about the medal is very poignant. So often do I see the CIC try and order pushes that are gauranteed to fail (my favourite is from solaris, "Bravo, send your QRF to flank the enemy forces in the middle of the eastern caves.") and every time it feels like they do it because they think they're some kind of tactical genius that just revolutionized the battlefield and was the only person with the guts to go home a decorated hero.

    On the point of flexible plans, one of my favourite things to ask squad leaders is 'do you think your squad could X' or 'how fresh is your squad?' because sometimes a squad has 20 men but 10 of them are injured and 5 of them are out of ammo and if you don't ever talk to the SLs or - god-forbid - the squads themselves, you won't ever find out (medical huds help, but, they don't show broken bones). I often see people fall into the trap of forgetting that 10 plain-old privates don't equate to 10 other privates, not just because of ammo and health, but also because some marines are just bald and if you don't ever interact with anyone when making announcements, you will look just as bald.

    As for the goals, I think it should be said that in some situations it is very valuable to attach a time to your goals. Especially if you're evacuating. If you don't attach a time to your evacuation expect it to be no sooner than when the Queen hits the DS. That said, if the FOB still has multiple lines of cades that are actually being held defending the DS, you don't need an immediate evacuation. Plans should be flexible, after all.

    Also as for the mute CIC point... the weirdest feeling I know in all of CM is when I play XO and the CO goes mute, probably because they felt like they fucked up or because they feel I am too dominant as a XO, but, they're the CO, they should grow some balls.

  5. #5
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    If its lowpop prepare for no one to listen and just unga, usually works.

    If highpop ensure the measure of fuckups is low, bravo has been retarded as of late so doubling up fob duty is not as bad of an idea. Using charlie and Delta as delay forces is likely your best bet to winning a match. If xenos cannot move outside of the caves without putting the hive at risk, Io's can more safely collect intel (lurker gang snacks) and fob can be expanded and have defences built. With ordinance technician and marine and xeno defense updates coming, building the fob to be an impenetrable fortress will be the goal.

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