The raid leader listens to his team and draws guidance from those above them (eg. Managing Director, Vice President) to craft the overall strategy – and realises he is responsible, but should not make a cement strategy until consulting the team. A rookie mistake is to pretend you know everything.
Let’s think about the raid leader’s key traits:
• Strategist
• Listens to his team and superiors to craft a plan
• Big picture oriented
• Thinks about mitigating risks
• Chooses his team carefully
• Makes decisions
3.2.2 – Tank
This is the key role of the tactical leader who leads the execution and is seen to be the ‘main man’. The role of this person is to be seen as the key leader in the eyes of the customer and business, even though they will be supported by ‘healers’ and ‘DPS’ to execute on various levels.
The tank knows that it is IMPOSSIBLE to defeat entire raids (deals, projects) without the support of his team, and does not even try to engage in risky solo advances just to sooth his ego.
Further to this – to an extent your role is fairly bland. You need key attributes of strength, ability to listen, and ability to act – but you are not proclaiming to know and be able to do everything.
I see so many account managers and leaders who try to learn and know everything. Your job isn’t to know every detail – your job is to find the people who do know them and use them effectively to solve problems.
Let’s think about the key traits of the tank:
• Brave
• Has the trust of his people
• Humble at the right time
• Understands the power of a team
• Trusts those behind him
• Listens
• Ability to make key decisions quickly and effectively
• Can handle pressure and ‘a beating’ sometimes
• Carries the morale of the team and gives them confidence
3.2.3 – Healer
In real life, the healer will be the team that will support you and keep you going both literally and emotionally. The healer is someone the team can trust, is attentive and responsive. They could be your support manager, your coach, even your partner outside of work.
You must choose these roles carefully. Let’s think about the type of people you want to have behind you as the healer.
• They need to be people you can trust – you don’t have time in the heat of battle to micromanage them
• They need to be able to ‘read’ you – you don’t have a walking health bar on you. They will learn to perceive what you need and when
• At the same time, again you don’t have a walking health bar. So communication about what you need is important – don’t blame a healer for letting you down if they didn’t know what was wrong
• Reliable – the healer should be trusted to always be around at key times
3.2.4 – DPS
The final role I will touch on is DPS – these people are your artillery on the ground that do the main damage to get you over the line. This role should constitute the most people in your team. These could be your consultants, your pre-sales team, associates, that really get in there and engage.
This is an interesting point – how many of you managers and leaders see yourself as the tank and the DPS – instead of using, trusting and developing your DPS team – and still think you can always win? How many of you try to be everything?
You must expand your team and be comfortable giving away some control, to help you win. During raid preparation you will paint the strategy and the vision – you don’t need to micromanage every second of how they get there.
DPS must be adaptable to the situation. Imagine a situation in a raid where you are against something with magic resistance. You aren’t going to send someone who won’t be able to penetrate. Similarly in real life, if you are dealing with someone with a strong supply chain background, the person you choose to engage directly with them isn’t going to be someone with a sales background. Most normal people have ‘sales resistance’!
Your job is to choose the best DPS for the situation.
Let’s think about the key traits of the DPS:
• Action oriented
• Trustworthy and reliable
• Understand and work within the strategy set
• Detail oriented
• Have detailed domain knowledge
• Can ‘talk the talk’
4. Your Strategy Is Always Developing
The strategy you develop at the start of a project is great, but it cannot be dormant. Things are going to happen in real life to make your pretty little strategy redundant.
Keep your ears open, listen to your team and trust your gut. If things are not going to plan, work with your team and make a decision to pull out, or change strategy.
There is no glory in getting 100% of a lost deal, when you could be a part of the 100% success.
Key Lesson: Your plans should always be evolving
5. The Definition of Insanity
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and expecting different results.
If you wipe on a raid, you sit back and think about why, and you adjust to do things better. Similarly, in real life if you lose a deal, fail a project or generally have no success – take the time to debrief with your team to understand the root issues and gain trust that you can do better next time.
Key Lesson: Make sure you are learning from your mistakes – not repeating them
6. Failure Breeds Success
Treat your real world like a game. Pretend that even if you fail a project or deal, that all you do is press respawn and you get another shot. As long as you are debriefing, learning from your actions and experience, you should see failure as a great learning tool.
Learn from it, shrug it off but make damn sure those around you know how you are going to kick butt next time!
