Squad Leader Communication and Attitude Guide

[Zhohar]

Good Squad Leaders (SLs) communicate effectively. The purpose of this guide is to teach you that skill.

1. Expectations

The crux of good communication is making your expectations known: before a certain event happens (a round, a flag assault, a flag defense, etc), make your expectations known to the Squad Members (SMs). Make sure your instructions are clear (indecision and ambiguity are unacceptable), concise (detailed but brief), and person-specific (call people by their names). Do not speak unless your words translate directly into SM actions.

Examples:
When the round starts, make your expectations known:

• Hold your spawn please until I call you in. That means deselect any spawn points, and spawn in on the green dot when I call you in.
• I need you all running assault medic please – make sure you pack your revive tool so that you can get your squad mates up when they die.
• Look for empty armor in the back flags and bring it forward to Central Base. Call out what you’ll be driving before you spawn in.
• Eroak, spawn on me and mine the roads, rest of you hold spawn please.
• Wear light armor for this round please, we’ll be doing a lot of running.
  When you’re assaulting the flag, make your expectations known:
• I need you with me, Reader, we’re assaulting the flag. This is not going to work if we’re fragmented across the map. Come by me, we’re all waiting for you.
• Let’s group up here, by the move marker. Stay behind the wall, heal up, get some supplies, reload your clips.
• Hold here for a moment, when our sprint recharges, we’ll run across the road and assault the flag.
• Try not to shoot at anything – just run for the flag. Once we flip it and get a spawn point for our team we’ll deal with the enemies around the flag.
• The flag is gray which means they are capping it right now – throw grenades ahead of you.

When you’ve captured the flag, make your expectations known:

• Good work on the flag – we’re going to hold here and defend until more of our team spawns in. Stay off the grating, stay on the second floor, look toward the stairs and the catwalks – defend the entrances.
• Do not move past the move marker please – we’re defending, we’re not assaulting. Raz, Rasta, fall back please.
• Fubar, mine the roads toward the UCB, rest of us look toward Playground please – they’ll be coming for this flag quickly.
  When you’re moving from flag to flag, make your expectations known:
• Doctah, you are way too far from the squad, I need you back with us – we can’t revive you there if you go down over there.
• Allright gentlemen, we are too close together: a single grenade will take three of us down. Spread out but stay within a revive range – about 10 seconds of walking.
• Hold fire please, do not engage, just run right now – we’re trying to be sneaky, we can’t have anyone following us.

When you see someone breaking rules in your squad, make your expectations known:

• Lorax, watch your language, it’s against server rule to speak like that.
• Rage, bunny hopping is against server rules, do not ever bunny hop on this server. This includes prone spamming, crack jumping and dolphin diving.
• Gloop, you cannot leave a sentry in the enemy UCB: we’re here to destroy assets and we cannot shoot at anything that does not shoot at us first. We cannot destroy or steal any vehicles. We can destroy the assets are run away. If someone is repairing the assets, we can engage and kill them. These are server rules and they are enforced.

When you are dead, make your expectations known:

• Squad Lead is down, south of the flag, by the Rorsch, I need a revive. Takk, get me up, I’m just behind you.

If you are silent or speaking only as required, you are giving a choice to your SMs: they can either work for the squad or for themselves. When you make your expectations clear as above, you are ordering your SMs to place the squad above their own interests.

2. Squad Members Lone-Wolfing

Pay keen attention to SMs not following orders and immediately ask them to comply. If an SM is not following orders, make your expectations known, clarify your orders and ask him again. If he does not comply after a third warning, kick him from the squad. Make it clear that there are only two options: actively working with the squad or leaving the squad.

The most common symptom of a lone-wolf SM is straying from the squad. Others include not holding spawn, not carrying the correct kit, and not following SL instructions.

Example:

• “PlayerX, hold spawn means deselect your spawn point and wait for me to call you in – the reason for that is so that we can sneak by undetected and so that we’re together and organized. You’re already in – move toward me, let’s stick together please.”
• If PlayerX does come toward me:
• “I need you running assault medic mate – next time you spawn in, make sure you’re a medic. There will be dead friendlies all around and I need you to revive them.”
• If PlayerX does not come toward me:
• “PlayerX, can you acknowledge me – do you hear what I’m saying? If you understand the words I’m saying, press Page Up three times please.”
• If he does press Page Up three times:
• “Is something stopping you? I need you by me here, stick with the squad please.”

3. Immature Players

Invariably, some of your SMs will behave immaturely – common examples include foul typing and uncivilized VOIP usage. Once again, make your expectations known. Speak professionally and briefly: let them know their behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. If the offending player does not comply after two warnings, kick him from the squad.

Example:

• “PlayerX, you’re free to criticize your squad mates but be constructive: speak politely and teach them how to do things right.”
• “PlayerX, that’s the second time: next time you use that kind of language, you’ll be kicked from the squad. Teach people how to throw frags properly and use a civil tongue while doing so. “

4. Correcting SM Communication

Instruct your SMs to communicate properly. Confusing, partial, and incorrect information is not only useless – it is detrimental to the squad. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself whether you will take any action based on the SM’s words: if the answer is no, correct them.

Examples:
Wrong: “man down”, “I’ve been shot”, “I need a medic”, “need a revive”, “I’m down”
Right: “Vert down, north of the flag, two contacts on my body.”

Wrong: “I’ve got engineer”, “I’ll do it”, “I got it”, “If no one wants it, I’ll do it”
Right: “Zhohar has engineer. I’ve got a Pillum, bait, and a PDS.”

Wrong: “I’m being shot from somewhere”, “Watch out, there’s a sniper somewhere”, “Lots of people here”
Right: “Four contacts, southwest of the flag, behind the little wall, they’re throwing grenades.”

5. Blame

Each situation is a problem and as a SL, your job is to find the solution. Focus on the solution and not on the problem. Work with ideas and not the emotions attached to them. The most common emotion is anger: your squad mates aren’t performing as well as you expected, your team is not as helpful as you expected, or your CO isn’t as helpful as expected.

Do not blame anyone for the squad’s failure: focus on fixing problems and working with what you’ve got. Regardless of who is the cause of the squad’s failure – be it the squad members, the team mates, or the CO – realize that blame solves nothing.

Your job is not to blame or spread negativity: that is the job of children. Your job is to focus six people and accomplish objectives. Your job is to fix whatever is preventing your squad from accomplishing its objectives. Your job is to motivate people, your job is to keep your calm under stressful situations, your job is to teach your SMs things you take for granted. Your job is be calm, patient, and mature.

Examples:
Wrong: “I can’t do anything because my squad sucks – they can’t shoot and they can’t revive.”
Right: “PlayerX, try and crouch the next time you’re shooting – it improves your accuracy, especially with the Baur. The default key is CTRL, on the left side of the keyboard – try hitting it with your pinky finger. If you want a more accurate gun at longer bursts, try using the Voss or the Krylov.”
Right: “PlayerY, if you see a dead friendly on the ground, make sure you look around and find whoever has killed them. After you do that, come back for the revive. If you just blindly revive, whoever has killed the dead friendly will probably get you too. Pay attention to what’s going on around the dead body.”

Wrong: “Our squad is the only one doing something here. This team is full of retards.”
Right: “Hmm, it doesn’t look like our team’s going to spawn in on the back flags once we cap them. Let’s go help them out and quickly cap Harbor. That will stop bleed and let the rest of our team put up a better fight – we’ll move on to other flags after that.“
Right: On TeamSpeak to a TGer who is leading a different squad: “Meatwad – heads up, ingame chat.”
In the team chat (press ‘k’): “Meatwad, we’re making noise on the west side of Harbor – can you push middle?”

Wrong: “This CO is an idiot, he’s not giving us any supplies. No wonder we’re losing, the CO isn’t doing anything. ”
Right: “Quade, fall back with the walker please. Specterr, spawn in as engineer please – our CO isn’t giving us supplies so we’ll have to make do without him. “
Right: “Ari, come back as support please. Rest of us – just throw grenades into the main pass. Looks like at least two squads are coming toward us and the CO isn’t giving us an orbital strike – let’s just try and delay them with grenades. Make sure you stick close to Arithea, she has supplies.”

Be patient and focus on constantly improving.

6. Attitude Matters

The heart of Squad Leading is simple: lead with enthusiasm, put in the effort, show your squad that you care. Be excited. Show people that you really want this to work, that you’re taking this seriously, that you’re on an adrenaline high.
An infectiously enthusiastic SL makes the game fun, regardless of the ticket situation.

--

That’s all. Now comes the important part – there’s only one way to become a better SL and that’s by doing it. Have at it

[Takk]

Great write up! A lot of great information for us freshman SLs, most of which I still need practice on.

[DaBrit]

Excellent post with great information. +rep.

I learned a lot from it, and will definitely be incorporating it into future squad leading endeavours. Thanks much Zhohar!

[Specterr]

Nice write up Zohar...everything you mentioned is the filling that makes pecan pie so tasty

[Jimmy Jammer]

That is some sweet pie...

[SharinganTH1422]

Originally Posted by Zhohar

Allright gentlemen

Now that's classic Zhohar right there, . You know you've got Zhohar as your SL when you hear a silky smooth voice calling the whole squad "gentlemen" every 5 seconds .

Brilliant.

P.S. Yh, the other stuff was pretty good too I suppose . Having Zhohar as SL is always fun, he knows what needs to be done by the squad, and he communicates it well. Reports are clear and concise, even in pressure situations, and he always knows how to tell off some idiot who doesn't want to listen to orders , which is why I highly rate this advice.

[rage4order]

Brilliant post!!! You had to make me a bunnyhopper, I will have to make you dead.

[MDFubar]

I don't recall giving permission to use my likeness, name, or personality in any way shape or form without proper compensation! I WANT PECAN PIE! Great right up Zhohar! I gotta spread some rep around before you can have any again, so come on people! Do something extraordinary and lead the way!

[Uranium - 235]

Clearly I need to run a TGU class on Uranium's "This is everyone's fault but mine" school of squad management.

[Nepharyte0]

Great post. But you forgot the most important thing you can say after giving all your initial orders and you are about to spawn in. It is what I say every time. "And remember, let's have fun."

[Augustus Gloop]

Originally Posted by Zhohar

Gloop, you cannot leave a sentry in the enemy UCB: we’re here to destroy assets and we cannot shoot at anything that does not shoot at us first. We cannot destroy or steal any vehicles. We can destroy the assets are run away. If someone is repairing the assets, we can engage and kill them. These are server rules and they are enforced.

GOD, I always forget that

[Uranium - 235]

Originally Posted by Augustus Gloop

GOD, I always forget that

Technically speaking, it's the sentry gun's fault.

[Specterr]

Originally Posted by Uranium - 235

Technically speaking, it's the sentry gun's fault.

Sentry guns don't kill people...people kill people