2. Abstract
Every chapter of the book, Team Leadership in the Game Industry, by Seth
Spaulding, has an important point that can help in the Game Industry. Each one of
these points has either helped me in the past, is helping me now or will help me in
the future. Without the help of this book, I would not be as good a leader as I
could be. Remembering this information will help me become a better leader.
3. Chapter 1: How We Got Here
Chapter one is an introduction to leadership in the game industry.
“Second, the project-cycle length—sometimes three years and longer requires team
leads to maintain the team’s focus and morale for an extended time period and through
all manner of trials.” (Spaulding, 2009 pp. 3)
This is mainly talking about how when leads are promoted, many of them are new
and inexperienced. These new and inexperienced leaders have to be good enough
to keep the team together long periods of time while working through unique
conflict situations. This course and others like it, I will be more suited for situations
like these when they arise.
In this class, I was put in charge of a team as we worked throughout the month. We
were thrown into something without real warning. It was chaotic and fun. I learned
to trust my teammates while they learned to trust me.
4. Current and Future Application
I am currently thinking of ways that I can be a better team leader and keep high morale
in my team. Having high morality and knowing conflict resolution will help me further
develop my Leadership Development Goals.
If I need to know how to be a good leader, I can use the things I learned here. A month
is not that long, but learning to keep a team together for a month is good practice for
what I will need in the future. Handling a team takes practice and knowing how to
handle teammates with their scheduling issues and conflicts is good practice. Knowing
how to mange those and get around it while still getting work done is an important
aspect of being a team leader.
In the future when I become a Game Designer, I will need to know this. Using the
practice that I will be gaining now, will help me when I have to use them within my job.
Being a Game Designer is a lot of stress and being prepared for this will help me greatly.
5. Chapter 2: The Anatomy of a Game-
Development Company
Chapter two shows what game companies look like, from a small company to a large
company. It shows us what the strengths and weaknesses of each model are and what
the challenges leaders will face in those environments.
“… ‘professional culture’ does not mean process heavy and overly formal. No one wants to
work at a humorless job with faceless management, especially in an industry that has a
reputation for a casual, even fun, culture.” (Spaulding, 2009 pp. 27)
While you still have to be professional, you don’t want to be overly professional. Game
Design is fun. So the environment should be fun as well.
This last month, our team was extremely professional at how we handled everything,
but it wasn’t boring and strict, it was fun. We talked, chatted and thought about
different Game Design ideas as we worked. Just because something is professional
doesn’t mean it’s boring and just because something is fun, doesn’t mean that work is
not going to get done.
6. Current and Future Application
When you are a lead on a team, don’t make things overly formal and boring. Have
fun with your team. This is a good aspect for everything. Whether it is designing
games or just working on classes. It doesn’t have to be boring to be professional.
I am currently using this information to make sure I can be fun while being
professional.
In the future, working as a Game Designer is going to be stressful and making the
interactions with the team fun and less stressful will help the team overall. You
need to let your teammates know that they can joke around and have fun. Letting
them come up with ideas even if they wont be used on the project is important
because if we’re not creating, we’re not thinking as deeply and as accurately as we
can.
7. Chapter 3: How Leaders Are Chosen, Are
Supported, Perform, And Why
This chapter goes over examples of what can happen if someone is promoted to a
leader and either they are not ready, or the management doesn’t effectively help them.
“Even if your company is staffed with a dream team of talented, experienced, and driven
individuals, there is no guarantee that any of them are going to have the aptitude or desire to
manage.” (Spaulding, 2009 pp. 60)
One of the main things to remember from this chapter is that not everyone can lead.
While a lot of people have the potential to be good leaders, without experience, there is
a high probability that these newly promoted leaders, even if they are excellent in their
own jobs, will not do as well as the management wants them to.
Another thing to remember is that it’s not always the employee’s fault that they are not
a good leader. Sometimes, it’s the management’s fault for putting them in the position
in the first place. Good management should be able to tell who will be and who won’t
be a good leader.
8. Current and Future Application
I am currently examining these examples and learning from them. They show examples
of bad leaders or leaders that management didn’t handle correctly. Learning what could
have been done right and how the leaders could have done better can further develop
my Leadership Development Goals.
Within the next few classes, there is a chance that I am going to be on a team and
knowing who can and can’t be a leader is important.
Watching how people interact within situations will let you know if they are capable of
being a leader, especially if electing a leader is necessary. Knowing past leaders, who
have not been successful or leaders who have needed help, will help when having an
inexperienced leader. It would also help knowing where to help the leader as well.
When I am a Game Designer, I will have to face leaders who have been put into their
positions by the management and there is a chance that they won’t be able to be a
leader. Knowing how to handle people like this and seeing it before it happens can help
exponentially.
9. Chapter 4: A Litmus Test For Leads
This tells us of skills needed for being and effective leader.
“A lead’s core skills should encompass an ability to motivate his or her team, an ability to be
responsible for his or her section of the project but have the capacity to take a broader view,
and an ability to communicate effectively at and across multiple levels.” (Spaulding, 2009 pp.
87)
In Chapter four, Spaulding talks about the traits that a leader needs in order to be a
good leader. One of the many traits that a good leader needs is having good
communication skills. Whether it is communicating with others or you listening to other
people, communication is a extremely important skill to have.
Along with communication it is important to be able to motivate your team, make them
want to follow you. Make them excited about the work that they are doing and be
willing to go above and beyond to complete the tasks needed. Lastly you as a leader
need to take responsibility. Whether it is for your teammates, tasks or projects, as a
leader, you are responsible for everything. Learning how to do these things is important
for a leader.
10. Current and Future Application
I am currently using these skills to better develop my Leadership Development Goals.
They are needed when being a leader so developing them further will help me complete
my goals.
In online classes, communication is key. Knowing how to communicate over the internet
is very important. Being able to communicate effectively and efficiently is even better. It
helps everything, not just creating games.
Knowing how to be a leader and being responsible is going to be important for my
classes as well. In future teams, I will need to know how to be a leader. In my projects,
I’ll need to be responsible for their content and completing them.
In the future, when I become a Game Designer, I am going to need good
communication skills because I am going to have to talk to a lot of different people.
Whether it is programming people, art people or management people, I am going to
need to know how to communicate with them all. As well as being responsible for what
happens on my team and my projects.
11. Chapter 5: Leadership Types and Traits:
Assessment And Development Strategies
This chapter explains what the difference between being a leader and being the
management is, what types of Leadership styles exist, what the difference between
Control and Influence is and what is internal and external training.
“All leaders have one or more dominant leadership traits. They may excel at motivating a team,
empowering the team members, involving them in decisions, or effectively leading in a
directive or even authoritarian manner.” (Spaulding, 2009 pp. 115)
Knowing what type of leader you are is important. It’s also just as important to know
when you should use certain types of leadership styles. For example, there are a few
times when you should not be a mentoring type of leader and when you should.
Knowing when to use these types can be helpful when you are the leader. The team that
I had this month, I mainly used my participative leadership, where I often asked what
the team thought of something before I did it. None of them needed me to be a
mentor so I refrained from using that type.
12. Current and Future Application
Knowing what type of leader I am helps me make the right choices. Whether I am using my skills to
be a participative leader or a mentoring leader. Both of these have different aspects that I need to
adhere to depending on the team dynamic. Knowing these styles will also make me be a better
leader as I learn how to use them correctly.
I am currently using this information to better my Leadership Development Goals by changing and
improving them to better fit my type. As well as trying to learn other types as it will be easier to
handle certain situations using certain types.
When I become a Game Designer, I can use those leadership types in the teams that I am leading.
Whether it is being a participative leader or a mentoring leader, I will be using one of them in those
teams. Perhaps I will also learn how to be the other leaders as well.
I can also use the knowledge learned in this chapter to help me identify other leaders and what
styles they have. Knowing the styles of other leaders will help me know how to act around them
and be more able to communicate with them. Knowing your team and it’s members is important
when you are working on a team.
13. Chapter 6: The Project Team Leader: Roles
and Responsibilities
This chapter explains what it’s like to be the Leader of a Project Team and what their
responsibilities are.
“…the new lead is not looking at the right things to evaluate his or her performance — that is,
the accomplishments of the team and the advancement of the project at the end of the day.”
(Spaulding, 2009 pp. 143)
Knowing what to do when you are the team leader is important. Knowing how to handle
a team, what needs to be done and how is something all leaders need to know.
This month when we were doing our team projects, we each became a team leader for a
week. We learned how to delegate to our teammates and that even though we
ourselves didn’t seem like we got a lot done, we got a lot done as a team.
This shows how to make sure you are being a good leader because of what you and
your team have accomplished rather than what you have accomplished.
14. Current and Future Application
I am currently evaluating how I did and my teammates did as a leader in my Team
Leadership Project because that was an example of a Project Team Leader. I am
comparing the aspects of what I experienced to those in the book to see if my
team members and I were effective team leaders.
This can help me during my next few classes because I will know how to look at my
time spent from a team perspective rather than an individual perspective. So,
instead of not feeling accomplished because I didn’t do that much, I will feel
accomplished because our team accomplished a lot.
If I am a project leader in the future, I will know how to act and know what my
responsibilities will be. I will know how to evaluate myself based on what me and
my team has accomplished rather than just what I have.
15. Chapter 7: The Department Leader: Roles
and Responsibilities
This chapter explains what it is like to be a department leader .
“Directors of all disciplines are expected to set cross-project standards. They are the
champions of their disciplines to the rest of the company, and are evangelists for the
studio to the rest of the industry. Directors as much as leads model the behavior and
attitude they expect from every studio employee.” (Spaulding, 2009 pp. 181)
When you are a department leader, you are expected to act a certain way that
reflects well on your company. The department leader needs to be a
representative.
Even though I will still be a fun and professional leader, I will need to understand
when I can have fun and when I need to be serious, or where the line on ‘fun’ ends.
Being a department leader means what I do is what the company does.
16. Current and Future Application
I am currently using this information to further my Leadership Development Goals,
by practicing and thinking about how I could react if put in such a situation.
Knowing how department leaders act and what their responsibilities are will help
me in future classes because I will have to know this information. As well as the fact
that this information can help me be a better leader.
If I become a department leader in the future, I will know how to handle the
situation and what is expected of me. Because being a department leader is more
than just being a leader, it is being the face of your department and the company.
17. Chapter 8: Difficult Employees,
Underperformers, And Bad Leaders
There are always struggles when it comes to leadership. Teams cannot always be the best team out
there and sometimes, those teams have bad teammates. These members are a range of different
things from Difficult Employees to Underperformers and Bad Leaders.
“Less obvious is the fact that ineffective handling of poor performers can actually do every bit as
much damage as that wrought by the poor performers themselves, since the perception that arises is
that ineffective managers are allowing ineffective people to remain in unsuitable roles, causing others
to have to work harder.” (Spaulding, 2009 pp. 215)
Knowing how to be a good leader means making hard decisions and some of those decisions have
to do with poor performers. A good leader will need to know when you need to move someone to
another position or remove them from their current one.
During this last month, we had some problems with one of our team members. I was the leader and
I realized that he wasn’t going to get the work that we needed done. So, I delegated his work off to
a few other team members who had finished all of their work. Instead of sitting there and doing
nothing, I worked to get the job done. Because I did this, the team didn’t feel as though the missing
member was dragging us down because he couldn’t be here to complete his work.
18. Current and Future Application
I am currently using this information to think about how I will handle these
situations in the future and thinking of ways to deal with them, using the
information found in this book.
When dealing with a team in a different class, I can know and learn about my
teammates. If they are having problems, I will know what to do with them and how
to handle the situation when it arises.
In the future when I am a Game Designer, I will experience these all the time,
whether I have poor performers or a bad leader, these things will happen. Knowing
how to handle them and effectively preventing them or fixing them will make me a
better leader and have a more effective team.
19. Chapter 9: The Effects Of Great Team
Leadership
Good leadership gives good results.
“Solid team leaders, however, will probably make your games better, and will definitely
allow your company to focus more on making a game great and less on simply getting a
game through the development cycle.” (Spaulding, 2009 pp. 244)
This chapter explains what good team leadership does for the team. What good
teams need. Trust, Retention, Perception, Moral, making the team more supportive,
with healthier employees, improved succession outcomes, and creating a
successful leadership culture.
In the team this month, we experienced many of these traits. We had leaders that
we trusted and leaders that trusted us to get the work done. We were supportive
and helpful towards other team members and we quickly and efficiently got our
work done.
20. Current and Future Application
I am currently using these aspects to see how my team from this last month faired
according to Spaulding.
Teams with good leadership are always great. In future classes, I hope to be able to
have teams which hold these traits. They will let me know if the leaders are doing a
good job or if I am doing a good job.
This will help when I am on a team as a Game Designer, whether I am the leader or
just one of the followers. Trust is a big factor when it comes to being a leader, you
have to trust your team members and your team members have to trust you and
your decisions.
