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Commanding Tips
The following are observations I have made and things I have learned that help make a Commander effective.
Duties of a Commander:
Generate ideas
Don't just do the same things over and over again, come up with ideas to keep your troops interested and motivated.
Come up with helpful ideas for your commanders. It'll get you recognized and it's a lot of fun.
Support Ideas
If one of your subordinates comes up with an idea make that person take charge of realizing that idea. Assign a few personnel to help if needed.
Gate Keeping
This is defined as keeping abreast of information and communicating it to team members.
The more info you have the more dangerous you are to the enemy and the more info your subordinates have the more helpful they can be.
Always be careful who you give information to, they may be giving it to the enemy. Get as much info as possible. Eg: If your regiment is going to face off against another one, try to find out all you can about the other regiment. That way you can assign the proper amount of force against them to beat them in the required amount time without using too many resources. You can get this info from people who have fought the regiment before.
Management
Always be sure your subordinates know what their objectives are and what resources they can use to realize those objectives.
Meetings
Sometimes meetings are necessary to go over or come up with plans quickly. A good general rule though, is "never call a meeting if a simpler method of communication will accomplish the same result." This is because meetings are generally inefficient if not run properly.
When calling a meeting a few general preparations should be made before hand:
-Don't call a meeting unless its purpose has been defined beforehand
-Prepare an agenda of topics that need to be discussed during the meeting.
-Send copies of the agenda to the people involved before the meeting. Include the time, time zone, place of the meeting, and an estimate of when the meeting will end. This allows everyone to come into the meeting prepared.
-Make a note of the decisions reached. It's amazing how quickly decisions made at a meeting are forgotten.
-Try to keep the meeting down to seven or eight people. Otherwise some people will be intimidated to speak up and communication in general will be difficult especially in an on-line meeting.
Training
Training is an integral part of command. Not only do you have to train people how to fight you have to train them to be future commanders.
Training people to fight is easy. Practice with them and give them tips that you think will help.
Training people to be commanders is more difficult.
-One part of training future commanders is to ask them for suggestions. It will ultimately be your decision which suggestion to follow or to come up with something yourself.
-Another way is to put a person temporarily in command of a small group. Eg: Put them in charge of one group in a battle while you take charge of the rest.
-Proper training insures that when you are ready to move to the next level of command there will be someone to replace you.
Know your personnel
Know who your best people are and make sure these people get the training they need to move up in command. Also know who is ready and able to take on a higher command position.
Know your strengths
Know your limits and the limits of your men. For example don't send a green battalion up against an elite one by mistake. Make sure you know what your resources are capable of.