Airsoft team organization and leadership
Airsoft team leadership and Organization Day 1
Team leadership theory
This week Regiment Airsoft will cover basic team leadership and organization. Before you start saying “I’m a born leader”. There is a difference in bossing people around and leading them.
This boot camp is to help you lead and organize your Airsoft Club more effectively. Before we really get started this isn’t a “there is no I in team” speech, because any smart ass will tell you there is a “M” and a “E”. This isn’t a pep talk.
When I worked part time in sales the manager would have “training” meetings once a month. Two things that are on my list of things that piss me off, people talking to hear themselves speak and motivational speakers. Guess what the meeting consisted of.. that’s right, the manager speaking out of his ass and listening to one of those “dream big and you can achieve” motivational CDs.
First the textbook definition of leadership. “Leadership is the art of influencing human behavior so as to accomplish a mission in the manner so desired by the leader.” let me translate that for you. Getting people to do what you demand them to.
Here is some more textbook regurgitation on leadership. For those who are over educated and have PHD’s in human management this is a crash course, not a college degree.
Leadership styles
Authoritarian. This is the “You will do this” type of leader
Democratic. This is the “Lets work together to solve this problem” type of leader
Influential. This is the “Finish this and you can get a break” type of leader
Which one should you use. Authoritarian and Democratic, use Influential sparingly, this type of “leadership” may get immediate results but over time the reward becomes the norm and is demanded.
When you are in the staging area and have the time its best to use the Democratic style of leadership. If your group is small include the whole team in the decision making process. Your new team mate may have come up with a good idea for you to capitalize on. The most important reason is this style will help to create a sense of team unity.
Authoritarian is best used when the balls start flying, your word is law. Everyone should know who to follow, and that is you, the Airsoft Team leader. You don’t have the time for a debate on which side looks better to attack from. This is important as eight people working on a bad plan will always do better than eight people working individually.
The final type of leadership, Mentoring, is in a category all its own, Technically it isn’t a leadership position. You attach a new member of the team to a older one. Older as in time in not age. The idea is the junior member will learn by watching the more experienced player. This also works both ways, if you have a senior member who lacks in a specific skill you can match them up with a new member who is above average, both will learn from one another, This is a very powerful tool to increase the skills of your team.
Now the fancy text book learnin’ is out of the way tomorrow we get started on the practical.