Leadership in eSports

Being an effective leader is essential to developing a cohesive and well­ functioning team. There are many aspects of leadership that are important to understand to ensure your team meet goals and overcome challenges both in and out of game. As a leader, it is also important to understand how to successfully develop your team members to reach their own career aspirations.

For our next quest, we discover what is leadership, how leadership can be different to management and the role of a leader within eSports.

Believing in your team

Leadership is not simply giving instructions and managing tasks; instead, it involves connecting with your team to enable open communication to foster and encourage team and employee growth and development or, believing in them. 

Leadership is the ability to influence others to achieve their goals and contribute to the growth and improvement of an organisation. Being a leader means providing people with the guidance and support they need to complete team and organisational goals. It is made of multiple skills, qualities, and expectations.

In the workplace, being a leader is more than just managing your work team.

Workplace leadership refers to guiding, motivating, and directing others towards unified workplace goals and objectives to meet the needs of a business. It involves having a deep understanding of what your organisation wishes to achieve and influencing those around you to do their part in making it happen. To even consider being a leader takes a lot of courage, and more importantly, preparation. Leadership can come from anywhere or anyone; all it takes to find it is to put in the work.

Professional behaviour qualities of leaders as a role model.

Effective leadership is essential in teams and organisations of all sizes. Great leaders distinguish themselves from poor leaders by demonstrating most of the following characteristics:

• Integrity— Being honest, following your convictions in all circumstances and following through with your commitments
• Ability to delegate— Delegating effectively, not just to free up your own time
• Communication— Able to communicate in a number of ways, to a diverse group of people
• Gratitude— Encouraging positive mindsets with your team by expressing gratitude for their contribution and work
• Learning agility— Being open to continuous learning opportunities and knowing how to find solutions when you are unsure.
• Influence— Able to convince people through different methods; this contributes to being an inspiring leader
• Empathy— Able to sense other people’s emotions, coupled with the ability to imagine what someone else might be thinking or feeling
• Courage— Having the courage to speak up with new ideas, feedback and raise concerns.
• Respect— Treating people with respect to create a culture of trust, ease tensions and conflict, and improve the effectiveness of your team.