If You’re the Best Player on the Worst Team, You Still Lose
In my last article, we discussed how playing “Call of Duty” online can tell you whether or not you might be cut out to be a community manager.
In it, I talked about how some players don’t play to the objective – they play to pad their own numbers, ignore the objective and toy with competitors. In the end, the team that first completes the objective, whatever that may be, is the actual winner.
As you can imagine, there are times when you are utterly dominated in this game. When this happens to me and my brother, we will sometimes be the best players on the team that got crushed – the players who scored the most points on the losing team.
I would always rather be the third or fourth best on a team that wins the match, then to be the best on the team and lose. I won’t lie, being the best on the team is fun, but it is so much more rewarding when the team wins. It’s hollow when you lose.
If you are the best player on the worst team, you still lose. Being the best on a bad team is a poor goal.
When you are building out your community staff, do it slowly and carefully, selecting the best people to build a strong team. Don’t promote or add people based on ratios, do it based on quality.
If you have a team full of poor performers, you may be able to claim the hollow pride that comes with being the greatest of a lame bunch. But, you won’t win. You’ll also have to pick up the slack for the poor performers. Instead of taking care of the responsibilities that they are supposed to be handling, they’ll drop the ball and you’ll have to pick it up. This means you’ll have less time to dedicate to the various other tasks that require your attention.
When it comes to managing a community, being the best doesn’t just mean that you are individually great, but that you are the leader of a great team of people. That is something to be truly proud of.
