Steve's Squad Leading Tips (Guide?)

[StevePl4y5]

STEVE'S SQUAD LEADING TIPS



INTRODUCTION

For a while I've been running "experiments" on the PR players I play with online. For a while, whenever I Squad Lead, and even when I'm just part of the Squad, I've been trying different attitudes, play and lead styles, and see how people react to them.

Based on these "experiments" and just experience from regular ingame time, I've been wanting to put up a Guide on 1: Being a SL, and 2: Being part of a Squad. But I'm too fracking lazy to do it, so for now, I'll just leave a couple tips.

Be advised that these tips cover a more phsycological part of being a SL, more specificaly on public matches with randoms on your squad. In my opinion the phsycological aspects are 10x more important than the tactical aspects.


SETTING THE TONE

During my playtime, I've found that there's this ONE thing that makes all the difference when leading a squad. This is setting the tone. This is the first thing you should do, before briefing your squad, it's the first impression you'll give to your subordinates, and it's the tone that will set the attitude of the squad throughout the whole round.

Now, what do I mean by setting the tone? Do not elude yourself, taking it easy on a squad of randoms, unless they're all good players, simply does not work. Most of the times you'll find yourself with players in your squad that do not even aknowledge your orders, those are the guys that you need to set the tone to. When you set the tone, you must:
1- Show your subordinates your capabilities as a Leader;
2- Make your subordinates trust you and respect you;
3- Teach the importance of obedience and teamwork;
4- Warning them about the consequences of disobedience;
5- Motivate them to do their best;
6- Tell them what you expect them to do.

Now, how do you do all this, in the short period of time of the beginning of the round without interrupting your also very important briefing? I'll show it with an example of something I applied on a recent round: I joined a squad, the SL was not doing anything right, and finally he decided to leave, I was assigned SL. By then, everyone in the squad was rather pissed off cause nobody was having fun. So I steped up and said:

"Alright boys, this is how it's gonna go with me: you can make every mistake and screw up you can possibly imagine, and I will give a pad in the back and say good job for trying. But if at any moment, you disobey my orders, you're getting your ass kicked off the squad ASAP. It is not a matter of dictatorship, but a matter of cohesion and cooperation."

After that I gave an order to see how well the tone had been set, I told them to rally up on me. And bloody hell, never in my time as an SL I have seen a squad rally up so damn fast! We were by the side of a building, and everyone was backed up against the building watching their sectors without me having to say a damned thing. We almost looked like an organized squad, lolz. Unfortunantly my internet played a trick on me and I got disconnected shortly after. That squad probably had a wonderful time, lol.

Setting the tone, if done right, will save you a lot of shouting and frustration during the round. When I'm in a squad, and my SL goes on to brief us properly, I instantly feel motivated to play at the best of my habilities. The morale impact, setting the tone can have in your Squad is greater than you can imagine. It will make good players stay, with an increased will to do good, and it will make bad players and lonewolfs shy away.

Setting the tone is the first step into achieving your squad's maximum combat efficiency.

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I was looking to leave a couple more tips on other aspects, but when I start writing, damn I don't stop. In order not to make a super long post, I'll just start working on a full PDF guide that I'll post here latter. For now stay with this.