Leadership Question Bank
These questions have been used in the past for our metallic applications and interviews. They're not really weyr specific, and have been situations and questions that many of us have faced during out time in the hot seats. Often, when a new admin team comes to bat and wants to give the place their own flavor, applications are revamped and revitalized. These questions are intended to give a jumping off point for that sort of thing. We at Monaco hope it'll be helpful to other admins out there.
- The Weyrwomen of Monaco
Weyr, Silver Skies MUSH
Briana, Jemai, Kata and Selene
Policy | Goldriders Only | Bronzeriders/Weyrleaders Only | Situational
When are you usually online and what timezone are you in?
How would you characterize your leadership style?
It's been said in a corporate environment, there are 7 different life-cycles, and each has a corresponding leadership 'style' that goes with it. Which of these would you say your style matches, and what does it mean to you personally: Prohpet, Barbarian, Builder/Explorer, Administrator, Bureaucrat, Aristocrat or Synergist?
What do you consider your strengths when it comes to leadership?
What do you see the administrative structure of the weyr being? Who has the 'final word'?
Who do you feel has the ultimate authority at a Weyr?
How do you see the roles of the other riders in the weyr: bronze, green, blue and brown?
How do you choose who goes on the Search Committee? How would you treat the folks that stood with you and didn't impress?
If you have admin experience, can you give us an example of a stressful admin situation which you felt you handled well? What about a stressful situation you handled poorly?
Which statement are you more likely to support: Rules should be set in stone and supported regardless of personal opinion. Let your conscience be your guide.
Anne's policies on canon can be incredibly restrictive. How do you strike a balance between playability and remaining true to Anne's vision?
In a hatching situation, how would you decide who to Impress?
What do you do with the folks who didn't impress out of later clutches you are involved in as a goldrider?
We currently have X PC golds at the weyr, and 1 NPC. Give us arguements both for and against adding another PC gold at this time. What would you do with the NPC?
What would you do if the senior WW were to step down as WW, and it was decided that you would become acting WW as soon as you'd graduated? What if you never become senior WW?
If you are selected to be Weyrleader, what sorts of ideas and suggestions do you bring with you to help increase activity levels and attract new people to the Weyr? What about the weyr would you change and where does it need to be improved?
In terms of leadership skills, what do you consider your worst areas? Your best areas? Where would you be looking for someone to balance your skills in?
If selected to be Weyrleader, would you like to know in advance of winning the flight or not? And conversely, if not picked as Weyrleader, would you like to know beforehand?
What do you think the OOC duties of the Weyrleader are? Be specific and take as much space as you need to.
How would you decide who to choose to be Wingleaders and Weyrsecond?
What sort of relationship would you like to have with your Senior WW? (IC/OOC/Both?)
What do you expect from your Senior WW?
If you're not originally from the Weyr you're interested in being WL in, how would you handle coming in as a potential 'outsider'? What steps would you take to make the rest of the weyr comfortable?
Suppose you and the SC misread an application: The person seemed to be an even split on all colors, but a closer read, after the hatching, indicates that they really didn't want a brown. And that's what they got. What do you do and how do you handle it?
It's just after a stressful Hatching, where you (the WL) and the SC have agonized over who to Impress. You've finally narrowed it down to seven (you hope) stellar Weyrlings. Immediately after the Hatching, one of the disappointed Candidates goes into the Weyrhall and tries to commit suicide by cutting his wrists. What would you do?
At your hatching, a candidate you want to impress doesn't show up. What do you do? -- What if they had told you ahead of time that they were going to have a puppeteer and a backup?
One of your greenriders complains to you about his lack of turnout to his flights. He believes it's because his character is male. What do you tell him, and what do you do, if anything?
You're the WW and you and the WL are assigning dragons to wings. A really stellar greenrider from the last Hatching asks to be made wingleader. But you've got also this good brownrider from several hatchings ago who wants to be wingleader. How would you decide who was wingleader and how would you explain your decision to the one who didn't get it?"
Two of the older weyrlings visit Fort Weyr. While they are there, they get into a fistfight. None of the Monaco Weyr staff are on-line. The Fortian Weyrwoman deals with it ICly by having her queen compel them to go home, and writes you a +mail telling you what she did and why. The Weyrlings complain to you about how she treated them, and insist they did nothing wrong. What do you do as a bronzerider? As a wingleader? As Weyrleader?
You're scheduling TPs at Monaco. A person has a tp they want to run and has already picked out a date to run it. First, the date conflicts with other smaller tps and you request a later date for the tp. Second, the tp will require working around certain mush policies that must be followed. The rider replies to you saying that they will not wait and will not follow the proper mush policies as he does not agree with them, and a couple of his fellow tpers agree with him. The announce that they will run the tp anyway, without your consent and without following the mush policies. What do you do?
An older player returns from inactivity, and quickly begins to publicly criticize your leadership style OOCly, complaining about the way you're running the weyr over the knot, maybe even spreading rumours about you across the MUSH, and essentially trying to engage you in a very personal and vindictive conflict. How do you respond?
You're the Weyrsecond/Jr Weyrwoman. The WLM for the current crop of weyrlings has gone offline with no explaination, and hasn't been back. The weyrlings are starting to complain. There are three very capable AWLMs that are available. What steps do you take, and why do you do that?
You have a potential candidate who's telling you things that have been discussed in confidentiality on the search committee. They refuse to say who's told them what they're telling you, and none of is exactly complimentary, and understandably they are upset. What do you do as a junior member of staff? What do you do as a senior member of staff? Would you change anything for future search committees?
Your hatching goes perfectly. There's not a hiccup in sight. However, four days afterwards, just when you've managed to regain your sense of stability, someone informs you that the gold you impressed was promised to one of the candidates and that they think this was unfair. How do you react as (WW, ww, or WL) if the person who they say was promised the gold, got the gold? How do you react if the person they mentioned didn't get the gold?
The search committee has voted unanimously, except for your vote, to impress someone to a dragon that you don't think they either deserve, or would mesh with. Not only that, it's likely to be a controversial decision with some of the candidates because of this person's style of RP. What do you say to the search committee, if anything? What do you do, if anything? Would this change if you were WW/WL? How would you deal with future decisions of the same nature?
You are co-heading the Search Committee. There is some debate about one of the Candidates, who in your opinion needs more experience before Impressing. However, she is enthusiastic and is always out and RPing. Most of the SC wants to Impress her, and only a few people think she should wait for the next Search. How do you decide?
You are WL/jr ww. The WW has gone away for a much deserved vacation, and will be back in two weeks. Three days after she leaves, one of the wingleaders has a huge fight in the Weyrhall with the Weyrsecond. You /thought/ it was only IC, but it's been almost a week now and the Weyrsecond hasn't logged back in. What do you do?
The Senior Weyrwoman leaves on vacation for two RL weeks. The day after the Senior Weyrwoman leaves, you notice that a particular training item is not being conducted properly. You point this out to the Weyrlingmaster whose response is to threaten to quit. The Weyrlings are two weeks into training. How would you handle this situation and why would you handle it that way?
Someone comes to you repeating rumors they've heard about an admin leaking information from staff meetings and/or search committee meetings. What do you do, and what steps do you take to resolve the situation?
A rider has just graduated from the Weyrling ranks. They come to you requesting a transfer. You have heard this rider make derogatory comments about the Weyr. You have been told that this rider continually makes these comments, lowering Weyr morale and discouraging others from joining the Weyr community. How would you handle this situation and why would you handle it that way?
One or more people come to you complaining that there are no TP's going on or not enough big TP's going on. They complain that because of this, there are not enough things for them to RP around the Weyr. How would you handle this situation and why would you handle it that way?
You get a complaint from an area leader regarding the behavior of one of your riders or residents. This incident occurred at their Hold or Hall. The specifics of this incident are unclear to you - you are not even certain whether this incident was IC or OOC. What do you do?
You are sitting in the Living Cavern, enjoying a mug of klah and some light RP with several other characters, when suddenly a character enters that you have never encountered before. They take center stage and immediately, through much weeping and wailing, announce that they have just been raped. How would you handle this situation and why would you handle it that way?
As WL, You work very hard to keep things running smoothly on the game, delegating work out to people, and trying to handle some things on your own as well. The WW comes to you, and tells you that you're not doing enough work, and that if you don't do more, she'll remove you from Leadership. What do you do?
The hatching has just ended. There are several Candidates left standing Unimpressed on
the Sands. As the Weyrleader, one of your duties is to speak to these people. What do you
say to them? Several days later, you receive an rude, angry +mail from one of those
Candidates saying that they feel the reason they didn't Impress are because:
1. you don't like them
2. you were biased against them
3. you only Impressed your friends
4. etc.
How do you respond to this person and what are your reasons behind your response?