Everyone knows that in order for a clan to grow and prosper, leadership must be shared. Some clan founders have problems accomplishing this. The reason is mainly that a clan founder may not be assured that those appointed new leaders will follow the foundations and goals the clan was founded on. Here is how you solve this catch 22, and it comes with all sorts of extra benefits to boot.

Teach the Clan Philosophy.

The best way to ensure that your appointed leaders and senior staff are moving the team in the direction you built the clan for in the first place is to teach them. Sure you may have some posts on the “officer” section of the forum, maybe you have spoken to them on voice about your goals, but nothing settles into the minds of your troops like an official training program. It gives them a sense of “official-ness” and adds to the confidence and knowledge that will be expected from senior clan members.

Making it Your Own.

This training program, more than any other your clan could offer will be designed and constructed by you, the clan leader. This is your most personal and specific training because the WHOLE of the content will be WHAT you want your OFFICERS to know. This is leadership 101 for your most promising clan members.

Here you want to cover ideas like how to handle conflicts, settle arguments, enforce rules, and treat people with respect. Sure you can cover some technical issues like server set-up, forum moderation, or perhaps web maintenance, but your chief goal will be to provide the knowledge and philosophy that the other clan members are going to expect from a person of their new rank and status. This should be a very empowering experience, you want to make your new leaders feel that they have accomplished something and at the same time focus on the importance of responsibility not power.

Required, period.

If you plan on sharing power in your clan (and you do), this training should be mandatory for ALL officers. Put yourself through the training first by going into each step on your own and making sure the program is crafted for learning. Set your goals and test run them in your program. Once you are satisfied with how you want it to work, and what you want others to learn from it then you can say that you have been through your clan’s OCS program. If you have officers in your team before you made the program, they get to go first, but they must attend.

Official OCS Graduates.

Becoming an officer in the clan is not an easy thing to accomplish and it should come with not only power, but pride. Your officers should have great loyalty towards the team and be knowledgeable and reliable. To help these members achieve this kind of pride and devotion, build in clan specific memorabilia. By that I mean take the time to create a unique leaning method filled with catch phrases, special events, and “officer-only” kinds of knowledge. The more “eventful” your training program is the more effective it will be in building pride and honor. That applies to all training, not just your OCS, but your OCS should certainly have a different kind of memory than your Basic Training does.

Remember, the entire point of an OCS program is to give your leaders the tools to cover the bases while you are unavailable. They should have the knowledge and capability to handle problems and the trusted authority to make choices and decisions without your immediate approval.

If you have built the program right, tested it yourself then you should feel perfectly at ease allowing your officers to do thier job.

- Hedge

© 2009 tribehaven