Who was the best leader you ever had (FC/LS/Static) and what made them so great? (No names needed, just the story)

My current FC!

I could go on a whole tangent about how much they've grown since I first joined, or how amazing everyone is, but focusing on our leader and what she does right:

  • Listens to her members. This is so important. She regularly runs things by us. Do we want more events? Are we okay with changing out the buffs we use? Do we have enough interest for a Savage raiding group? Do we want voice chat to be an option? By not just listening to us, but actively using what we tell her to plan out events and changes, it makes sure that there isn't a lot of unnecessary confusion, and makes every member feel like their opinion is valuable. If there are any serious enough concerns, she tries to compromise to the best of her ability.

  • Has solid leadership. You and your BFF or partner isn't enough. You need a small handful of officers, at least. They're all hand-picked from members who have been loyal to the group. All of these people are held to higher standards than normal members. They have their own leadership channels to talk through problems, and they have semi-frequent meetings to make sure there aren't issues flying under the radar. They're just a solid group of people who love the guild and want it to run smoothly more than they want a power trip. This is essential.

  • Her rules are a guideline, not hard law. This can go either way, but in general, I'm more of an advocate of letting your rules be a more loose thing to be interpreted to each situation, not absolute. For example, our FC chat is family-friendly. Minimal swearing and dirty jokes. This is because we have a variety of people, and it's easier to censor the one chat that people are constantly seeing than it is dealing with each person's individual morals. But this doesn't mean that someone who swears or slips in a harmless innuendo gets punished immediately. If it happens too frequently, the leadership will talk to them, but people are allowed a sort of "grace period" where they can technically break the rule, but not be punished for it. This means people are still actively trying to self-censor, keeping the conservative members happy, but they don't feel completely stifled by the rule, keeping everyone else happy.

  • "One bad apple can spoil the bunch." Members are held to pretty basic standards. Be nice. Be respectful. Be understanding. If someone isn't following it, leadership steps in as soon as they can and lets them know to shape up or get out, and all privately, without causing a drama storm in the group. Small problems are dealt with before they can cause even bigger problems. Don't underestimate how thoroughly this can kill a great group. Take it seriously.

  • We have member-planned events and leadership-planned events, because people like that stuff. The member-planned stuff is generally every week or two, anything from running raids on reset day to treasure maps to newbie-friendly EX runs. The leadership-planned events are more seasonal things like Halloween and Christmas get-togethers. This means that you never have a situation where things get stale, or members ask to do something at a dead time and feel ignored when they can't muster up a group. If you want to do something specific, plan a time and set it up on the Discord. If you did all your weeklies already and want something to do, there's always still a couple of things to look forward to every week. Plus, your members are bonding over this content every time. It's one of the best choices they've made, honestly.

  • Has VoiP as an option, but doesn't push it on new members. YMMV here. Personally I felt uncomfortable in any group that pushed me to get into voice chat. Ours has one, and it's used regularly, but people are usually careful not to exclude anyone who isn't in it. That also means nobody feels obligated to speak if they don't want to, which makes it more accessible to people who aren't sure about it, and overall just keeps it healthy without being a turn-off to anyone.

  • Is a dedicated omnicrafter/gatherer, plus has a couple others helping out. Who it is doesn't matter as much as the fact that you have one, and they're dedicated to the FC. This keeps you with a steady stream of gil for whatever the FC needs, someone to help out newer players (if you're a social guild), someone to make pots/food (if you're a raiding guild), someone to make the money to buy and decorate a house and do voyages, etc etc. The omnicrafter has a lot of hats, and if you don't have one "working" for the guild, you'll probably struggle a lot when it comes to expansion of your group, because you won't be able to afford the space and resources they want. Not to say it's not possible, but I personally don't know what state we would be in if not for ours.

And I'm not sure how she's mastered this, but:

  • She gets our respect without demanding it. She isn't authoritarian, but we also know not to try to push our limits and cause more headache for her. Part of it is that she's always kind and down to earth with us. She's talked about some of the challenges that come with running a guild. She runs content with us. She jokes around with us. She lets us make small mistakes without exploding on us. She's a good person, and fair, so all the members worth anything will do what they can to be good back to her. We can bend the rules just enough to be comfortable, but we know that if we actually broke them, we'd been in deep shit - and feel awful about it too.

Honestly, I can't offer advice for how to get that. I don't know how she does it. Just try to be a fair leader, and a good friend to the people who make up your guild, and you should be fine.

/r/ffxiv Thread