{"id":1069,"date":"2013-10-15T14:19:19","date_gmt":"2013-10-15T14:19:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/articles\/?p=1069"},"modified":"2014-09-15T23:25:04","modified_gmt":"2014-09-15T23:25:04","slug":"l3-qualities-leadership-presence-and-charisma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/articles\/2013\/10\/15\/l3-qualities-leadership-presence-and-charisma\/","title":{"rendered":"L3 Qualities- Leadership, Presence, and Charisma"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Written<\/a>

Written by Eric Levine<\/p><\/div><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What is leadership?<\/b><\/p>\n

Leadership sounds simple, right?\u00a0 It sounds especially so in the context of the Judge program, where leadership has an obvious connotation.\u00a0 You show up, you head judge a PTQ or team lead at a GP, you go home, and you\u2019re done.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But is there more? Of course.\u00a0 Leadership is not just about being in charge at an event.\u00a0 Leadership is about working at and outside of events to make sure that you leave the program better than you find it.\u00a0 One of my professors in my MBA program, Charles Manz, coined the term \u201csuperleadership,\u201d which he defines as \u201cleading others to lead themselves.\u201d\u00a0 This, I think, is a good short summary of what we expect of our Level 3s in the leadership department.\u00a0 Author and consultant Jim Collins coined the idea of \u201cLevel 5 Leadership,\u201d which is much the same thing \u2013 a \u201cLevel 5\u201d leader does the job well, exceeds expectations, and leaves a legacy so that when he or she is not around, things continue to go according to plan.\u00a0 (A quick aside: \u201cLevel 5 Leadership\u201d does not have anything to do with the 5 levels of judging in any direct way.\u00a0 A Level 1 judge could be a Level 5 leader!)<\/p>\n

So how do we do this?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Leadership: Teaching while learning<\/b><\/h2>\n

A leader is a mentor, before, during, and after events.\u00a0 As a Level 3, you\u2019ll be receiving messages from judges in your area all the time asking for your advice.\u00a0 A lot of the time, these questions will be easy; maybe they\u2019ll be clear-cut policy questions or situations you\u2019ve run into before.\u00a0 Sometimes, however, these will be questions you find difficult. \u00a0In a situation like this, the best thing to do is discuss these situations with the judge asking you the question as well as other judges you trust.\u00a0 Reach out through IRC, the forums, or other channels and find someone to learn from.\u00a0 Just because you make L3 doesn\u2019t mean you get to stop learning!<\/p>\n

<\/p>At events, this means giving your judges good guidance on how to do things while simultaneously using their skillsets.\u00a0 If you\u2019re a head judge and you have an issue that needs solving, you might have the solution.\u00a0 You might not, though, and in this case, you have floor judges and team leaders who have unique skillsets.\u00a0 Being humble enough to ask for help when you\u2019re in a leadership position does two things: first, it gets the problem solved when you find the person with the right idea or skill, and second, it shows your humility and your trust in your staff.\u00a0 This is the kind of quality people notice and follow.\u00a0 The more you do this, the more you\u2019ll learn about the judges you work with and the better you\u2019ll be able to assign them tasks in the future!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Leadership: Take responsibility<\/b><\/h2>\n

Your staff will make mistakes.\u00a0 You will make mistakes.\u00a0 This will happen.\u00a0 When the players notice that a mistake has been made, if you\u2019re the head judge, they\u2019ll come to you and tell you about it.\u00a0 Most people get defensive when their mistakes are brought to their attention; it seems to be a human social instinct, and it\u2019s one you\u2019ll need to avoid as a leader.\u00a0 When people bring your mistakes to you, they\u2019re not insulting you.\u00a0 They\u2019re giving you an opportunity to learn, and you need to humbly take that opportunity.<\/p>\n

<\/p>In a customer service situation like this, humility is required.\u00a0 If your staff made a mistake, then in the eyes of the players, you are responsible.\u00a0 In reality, it\u2019s possible that you\u2019re not directly at fault, (if the judge simply made an incorrect ruling, for example) but in a situation where it\u2019s related to tournament logistics, then most likely you had something to do with the error.\u00a0 Take responsibility and apologize, but also use the players bringing the concern to you as a resource.\u00a0 Ask what you can do better next time, and players will be much more willing to trust you in the future.\u00a0 Again, this trust is something you need in your local community in order to effectively run events and be a head judge, so cultivate it wherever you can.<\/p>\n

Once you\u2019ve identified the mistake that was made, talk to the judge or judges involved.\u00a0 Start off by apologizing for your role in the error \u2013 perhaps you didn\u2019t communicate your plan well enough to them, or perhaps you forgot about a key part of the task you wanted done.\u00a0 Discuss with them what everyone could have done better.\u00a0 Remember, this should usually be a conversation, not a blame session.\u00a0 Being the head judge doesn\u2019t give you \u201cprotection from feedback\u201d!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Presence: Be quiet and loud<\/b><\/h2>\n

Leaders know when (and how) to make themselves the center of attention and when to rein it in.\u00a0 This, in a nutshell, is the idea of \u201cpresence\u201d \u2013 as a Level 3, you\u2019re a leader whether or not you\u2019re \u201cin charge\u201d of something, and you have to know how to manage that.<\/p>\n

<\/p>If you do have something you\u2019re in charge of, there are times you\u2019ll want to be the center of attention.\u00a0 Maybe you need to run a team meeting.\u00a0 Maybe you need to get the attention of all the players and you don\u2019t have a microphone and a stage.\u00a0 Maybe you need to take charge of a difficult situation.\u00a0 You need to be more than just loud; you need to have a confident presence.\u00a0 Some of this is physical.\u00a0 Stand up straight, smile when appropriate, make eye contact, and speak clearly.\u00a0 (Practice in a mirror!)\u00a0 Most of this, however, is mental.\u00a0 The biggest keys to presence, I think, are two sides of a coin.\u00a0 One is planning for situations you can anticipate, and the other is confidence in situations you couldn\u2019t have seen coming.<\/p>\n

The first of these two, again, is simple.\u00a0 If you have a judge meeting to run or announcements to give, you should have a written plan for that.\u00a0 There\u2019s no reason to walk in and wing it.\u00a0 Even if you can do that and do it well, it\u2019ll go better with a plan.\u00a0 When your judges see you\u2019ve got things written down, they\u2019ll feel more at ease.\u00a0 That builds trust, without which you can\u2019t lead effectively.<\/p>\n

Confidence in unplanned scenarios is a little more difficult to cultivate.\u00a0 (If you really want to cultivate it, though, I suggest doing administrative work for side events at Grands Prix.)\u00a0 At this point, though, you should have the tools to take care of nearly any situation.\u00a0 As a judge, you\u2019ve worked a lot of tournaments and seen plenty of strange things happen.\u00a0 If you\u2019re in a strange situation, what is it similar to?\u00a0 How is it similar to something you know how to do, and how can you apply that to this situation?\u00a0 If you can\u2019t find help that way, does someone else on your staff know how to deal with this issue?\u00a0 And most importantly, how can you solve this issue quickly and with minimal disruption to the event?<\/p>\n

<\/p>The biggest key here is to stop and think.\u00a0 When one of your judges comes to you with a weird situation that isn\u2019t covered in the documents and doesn\u2019t fall under your umbrella of experience, stop and think critically.\u00a0 It\u2019s okay to be silent while you do so; in fact, it\u2019s much better than stammering and spluttering at the awkwardness of not having the answer right away.\u00a0 What do we do about not having enough chairs for everyone?\u00a0 What should we do with the judge who cut himself on the paper cutter?\u00a0 How do we deal with the fire marshal showing up and telling us we have too many people in the building?\u00a0 Stop and think, and remember: in significant and exceptional circumstances, deviation is okay as long as you find a good solution. \u00a0(This is not<\/span> an invitation to deviate whenever you want.)<\/p>\n

So these are times when you need to look like you\u2019re confident and in charge.\u00a0 There are also times when it\u2019s important to lead by example rather than by inspiration.\u00a0 Let\u2019s say, for example, that you\u2019re leading deck checks at a Grand Prix and you\u2019re doing a check with one of your team members.\u00a0 If you forget to note the time of the swoop, walk slowly back to the deck checks table, and take the full 7 minutes for the check, what does that say to your team members about what behaviors are acceptable?\u00a0 You don\u2019t need to be making famous, memorable speeches all day every day at events.\u00a0 It\u2019s usually enough just to communicate this idea, which I paraphrase from a conversation I had with Jared Sylva<\/a><\/a><\/span><\/span> recently:<\/p>\n

\u201cI know how to do this, and I think I know the best way to do it.\u00a0 If you help, you can learn the best way too, and you can make this the best tournament it can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Charisma: Be passionate (but not crazy!)<\/b><\/h2>\n

<\/p>Even if you run a great tournament, people won\u2019t follow your lead if you don\u2019t have passion.\u00a0 Show your judges you care about them and your event.\u00a0 Get excited about events in advance and talk about them.\u00a0 Get invested in the judges you work with.\u00a0 Show them you care about their development as judges and as people by talking to them at events.\u00a0 If something goes well at an event, congratulate and thank your judges for making it happen.\u00a0 Share that credit with them; after all, they were the ones who were out on the floor doing things well.\u00a0 If something fails at your event, take it seriously and take responsibility, but don\u2019t fly off the handle about it.\u00a0 If you want to be level 3, you need to care about judging.\u00a0 Show your passion!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Charisma: Be approachable, not a distraction<\/b><\/h2>\n

We all know a judge who the players love to talk to.\u00a0 When a player has a story to tell about how they epically won or lost their last round or about how great their sideboard is, they go to that judge and tell it.\u00a0 Other judges come to this judge at events to talk about rulings, policy, the Commander game they played last night, or whatever\u2019s on their mind.\u00a0 Charisma is all about being that judge and using that ability for good.<\/p>\n

Be willing to have fun at events.\u00a0 Smile.\u00a0 When something funny happens, laugh if it\u2019s appropriate.\u00a0 If players are joking with you, joke back if it\u2019s an appropriate situation in which to do so.\u00a0 Relax.\u00a0 At Regular REL, tell the players how cool the foil Jace they opened is.\u00a0 Get involved in side events when you can, as it\u2019s the best way to meet players and show them that you\u2019re likeable.\u00a0 Go out with judges after events when you can instead of being a curmudgeon.\u00a0 (Don\u2019t stay out too late, though!)\u00a0 If you can earn the trust of your players and judges socially, that trust and respect will apply to you professionally as well.<\/p>\n

<\/p>
\nThere is a flipside to this, however: if judges really like talking to you, they might forget that they\u2019re supposed to be passing out match slips or they might miss a player with a raised hand.\u00a0 Make sure not to be so social and exciting that you make one of your judges miss something.\u00a0 Definitely don\u2019t get so wrapped up in a conversation that you forget one of your own duties!\u00a0 Spend a minute talking to someone and then move on.\u00a0 Don\u2019t be afraid to tell someone (politely) that you have something else to do.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

Leadership Again: Lead; don\u2019t micromanage<\/b><\/h2>\n

When I was the Deck Checks lead on Day 1 of Pro Tour Gatecrash, Head Judge Toby Elliott<\/a><\/a><\/span><\/span> told me I would need to get all of the constructed decklists collected, sorted, and accounted for before the draft.\u00a0 Did I mention that the first thing happening in the event was a draft and that we would have to collect, sort, and count those lists too?\u00a0 Obviously, Toby knew going in that this task wouldn\u2019t be easy.\u00a0 Despite this, he didn\u2019t sit down with me and say \u201cHere\u2019s how I want you to do everything so that everything goes right.\u201d\u00a0 He trusted me to get the job done, and he let me do it.\u00a0 I asked the other available team leads and floor judges to help me out as best as they could.\u00a0 With lots of people pitching in ideas and effort, including Gavin Duggan<\/a><\/a><\/span><\/span>\u2019s ability to act as a human sorting algorithm, we managed to get the job done on time.\u00a0 We were very happy when we got it all done, and we felt like we had accomplished something and really created a method that could work at other events.\u00a0 This all happened, and all Toby had to do was tell me to make it happen.<\/p>\n

<\/p>Toby\u2019s trust wasn\u2019t blind; he knew I had a great team of judges to draw upon and that, with those people, I could make it happen.\u00a0 Between his knowledge of my experience and his understanding of the experience of the rest of the staff, he didn\u2019t have to worry about it.\u00a0 Similarly, when I asked the judges I was working with to execute the plan we had come up with together, I knew it would go well because I knew and trusted the judges involved.\u00a0 This is how you want your head judging experiences to be.\u00a0 Get the right people on your staff, put them in positions where they can excel, and give them achievable goals, and your events will go well.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t need to micromanage someone, don\u2019t.\u00a0 Delegate some responsibility to good leaders on your staff and let them run with it.\u00a0 Be a resource for your staff instead of a puppet master!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Is there more than all of this to leadership?\u00a0 Definitely.\u00a0 This is one of those areas, though, where words are no substitute for the real thing.\u00a0 Learning by leading and learning vicariously by watching other leaders are extremely valuable, and if you learn one thing from this article, it should be this: take leadership opportunities whenever you can, and take them seriously.\u00a0 Every single one will teach you something.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Awesome resources:<\/b><\/h3>\n

Authority, Command, & Leadership<\/a>
\n– An awesome article by Chris Richter<\/a><\/a><\/span><\/span>.\u00a0 Read it!<\/p>\n

Level 5 Leadership<\/a>
\n– A short description of Level 5 leadership.<\/p>\n

Level 5 Leadership: the Triumph of Humility and Fierce Resolve<\/a>
\n– The original Jim Collins article about Level 5 Leadership.\u00a0 (Only a summary: full version requires payment.\u00a0 A great read, though.)<\/p>\n

Wikipedia: Superleadership<\/a>
\n– A reasonable distillation of the idea of superleadership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Next on the L3 Qualities article series we have L3 Eric Levine, discussing Leadership, Presence, and Charisma!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":2236,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[37,112],"tags":[104,108,83,64,84,103,85],"language":[180],"class_list":["post-1069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education_development","category-l3_qualities","tag-charisma","tag-eric-levine","tag-l3","tag-leadership","tag-level-3","tag-presence","tag-qualities","language-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1069"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2237,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069\/revisions\/2237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1069"},{"taxonomy":"language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.magicjudges.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/language?post=1069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}