by Daniel Corley

Created on: April 15, 2008

Any good clan must have at least one strong leader. A clan needs someone who will not only lay down the rules but enforce them with an iron fist. There are to many gamers who are complete jerks to have a weak leader. It is hard enough to control a group of people you'll probably never meet but if you don't have a leader who is respected your clan will fail.

I am of the opinion that in the case of clans and guilds Machiavelli was right, it is much better to be feared than loved. If people know that your the strong arm of the clan they will think twice before crossing you. I've seen it time and time again. In fact when me and my brother formed a relatively short lived clan for counter-strike, this was proven. My brother is a good man and a good leader, everyone loved him who was in the clan. He was harsh on those who were disrupting things on our server but far more open when it came to our members. While this is not what did the clan in, it was more us being less and less interested in counter-strike as the time went on, it would have, given enough time. During our time with our clan I tended to be the one who was a bit harsher, I was less likely to give someone a second chance and to me a third was out of the question. It was perhaps my brother who kept us all together but my harder line tended to insure a bit more ridged order.

If a clan does not have at least one leader who is willing to put a foot down and say that something has to stop and has to stop now, there will be nothing but chaos and this chaos will kill your clan. Any leader should first understand that any action taken by any one member of the clan is not only a reflection of the clan as a whole but also of you as a leader. If you do not want that responsibility you should not be a leader.

As a leader you have to be strong you have to do what you think is best and you have to make sure others will follow suit. Make the tough choices that will bring about the best possible ending. This of course is not always easy but being a leader never really is, if you can do that your clan will thrive otherwise, it will die it is only a matter of when and why.

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