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 Features
Becoming a Stellar Games Industry Manager, Part 1: Building a Great Team
 Who Leads and Who Follows?
Everyone on the team needs to have great skills and leaders need to have lots of great skills, not just as individuals but also as motivators, guide, mentors and yes, occasionally traffic cops. They need to be able to lead from the frontlines, from within the team, from the sidelines and sometimes push from the rear. Some of these skills are very subjective – like having a positive attitude, a strong personal vision and the ability to translate that vision into action while making sure you give everyone a chance to make a contribution. A team’s success will depend on the quality of its collective thinking under your direction and its ability to act on that thinking creatively and efficiently.
As the team leader, along with everything else you’ll be doing, be prepared to:
- Plan roles to be filled and select the right people
- Help establish team objectives and values
- Lead the team in meetings, activities, production, etc.
- Be sure that targets are achievable
- Insure that values – including mutual respect and trust – are observed
- Analyze and correct failures swiftly and surely
- Celebrate successes enthusiastically
- Represent the team loyally and accurately both inside and outside the organization.
Your team looks to you for inspiration, so be ready to:
- Keep the team together and running smoothly, especially during crunch time
- Stay positive and accessible
- As much as possible, never ask anyone to do something you haven’t done or wouldn’t do
- Help the team keep their eyes on the prize: the higher you aim (within reason, of course), the greater the shared excitement when the team hits the target
- Be on the lookout for bullies, slackers and attention-grabbers
- Keep the competition on the team pro-active and friendly
- Avoid getting yourself or your team tangled up in office politics
- Help team members make a solid commitment to each other and the project’s goals
- Recognize and celebrate team and individual successes
Throughout the course of a project, you’ll have a lot of other roles, from advocate and liaison with management to the mechanic who has to make repairs, deal with the “squeaky wheels” and fine-tune the team’s engine. Initially you’re the person who organizes the team. Once you’ve got the team together, you become a facilitator, cheerleader and (hopefully infrequently) troubleshooter.
“Action” words for successful team leaders:
- Listen
- Ask
- Respect
- Assist
- Share
- Support
- Facilitate
Understand Everyone's Job (Including Your Own)
In an effective team, team members know their roles thoroughly. Even if you’re not a programmer, for instance, you’ll need to have a basic understanding about it, if for no other reason than you’ll need to know whether your team can or can’t make a particular thing happen in the game. If you’ve never done art, find a time when you can sit down with an artist and watch what she does.
Although individuals may emerge in one of the following roles, the leader will probably have to be all of these things at one time or another:
TEAM ROLES |
CHARACTERISTICS |
TEAM LEADER: Builds the team; nurtures collaborative spirit |
- Excellent judge of individual talents and personalities
- Adept at finding ways to overcome personal weaknesses
- Creates and maintains open lines of communication
- Inspires and sustains enthusiasm
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EVALUATOR: Guardian and analyst of team’s long-term effectiveness |
- Never satisfied with less than the best solution
- Expert at analyzing solutions for finding and correcting team weaknesses
- Committed to making appropriate course corrections
- Constructively assesses and recommends remedies.
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IMPLEMENTER: Finds ways (preferably positive ones) to keep the team moving forward |
- A born scheduler who thinks methodically
- Anticipates delays and finds ways to prevent them
- Has a “can-do” attitude
- Rallies support and overcomes defeatism
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CHEERLEADER: Sustains and encourages the team’s vitality and positive energy |
- Enthusiastic, positive, willing and able to find innovative solutions
- Eager to take a leading role in team support
- Helps others see problems as challenges that can be met
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EXTERNAL CONTACT: Maintains the team’s external relationships (with management and/or outside the company); makes sure the client is happy but doesn’t abuse the team |
- Diplomatic and acutely aware of others’ needs
- Presents an authoritative but reassuring presence
- Fast, effective grasp of the overall picture
- Trustworthy; respects confidentiality
- Helps maintain a professional atmosphere (keeps the team from bashing the client no matter how arbitrary demands may be)
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COORDINATOR: Helps devise and manage the team’s production plans |
- Can prioritize on the fly with rapidly shifting deadlines
- Understands everyone’s role and skills, and can assign accordingly
- Excellent personal multi-tasker
- Can give clear instructions
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ENFORCER: Insures that high standards (and company policies) are maintained |
- Works with the team to establish rigorous standards
- Good judge of personal and team performance
- Not afraid to point out problems
- Able to stand up to bullying; able to protect the team
- Able to praise when appropriate
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