Virtual Management

• Guilds
• Jun 21, 2011
• 0 Comments

Guild Management is a thankless and unpaid job. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t leverage what you’ve learned managing your guild in WOW for a job in real life. Below are some skills that guild management uses in game that are applicable in the real world job market.

Conflict Resolution

A large part of guild management comes down to conflict resolution.  At its most basic level, this could mean that you’re settling a disagreement between two or more players.  At its most advanced level, you’ll be addressing complex issues that are related to some of the core principles behind your guild.  These could include players upset about your raid policies, loot distribution etc.  Your ability to effectively manage these situations can be the difference between helping players understand why your policies exist to having raiders be shown the door.  Effective management of all varieties of conflict uses the right tool for the right job (oftentimes, the right tool can be more time intensive…which is the reason why you see poorly run guilds have lots of fluctuation in their rosters).

Managing conflict amongst employees uses the exact same tools.  Firing anyone is always considered to be the last resort and should only be a conclusion that you reach after having exhausted all other (often time intensive) avenues.

Marshaling Resources

Effectively utilizing your resources is another challenging aspect of guild management.  An asshole once said, “…you go to war with the army you have—not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time”.  These words are doubly true with putting together a raid every night.  There are nights where you step into an instance with the Dream Team.  Bosses goes down, loot is distributed and your raiders rejoice at the well oiled machine that is your raid team.  Other nights can feel like the Bad News Bears.  Players disconnect at critical times, usually competent raiders drop the ball and encounters that you’ve had under your thumb for weeks start to present new challenges.  Steering the ship throw the bad (while simultaneously reminding players that not only are they better but they will DO better in the future) and taking pride in the good are challenges faced by all guild management.

Corporate management requires the same hardiness and resiliency.  Unless you’re building a company from scratch, you’ll most likely be stepping into a work place that has a mixed bag of employees.  Shelly in accounting may be a pain in the ass but she knows the peculiar accounting practices of your business inside and out…you better make it work.

Potential employers who don’t recognize these skills are missing out on a valuable wealth of experience.  After all, not only are you managing to get folks what you want them to do, you’re getting them to do it without the profit motive!  That said, your mileage may vary when you try and leverage your WOW management experience into a real world job.  Many employers can turn their nose up at your experience or take your WOW hobby as a strike against your potential employment.  I’d recommend that you be mindful of the employer when you make the decision to try and leverage your experience.  A bank could be a much less understanding audience than a games company.