This document provides a summary of each chapter from the book "Team Leadership in the Game Industry" by Seth Spaulding. For each chapter, the document includes a one sentence summary, an example from the author's past experience, and how the author plans to apply what they learned in their current and future work. The chapters discuss topics like organizational structure, choosing and supporting leaders, leadership styles, and managing underperformers. The author reflects on how improved leadership could have helped issues they witnessed and aims to foster communication, trust, and accountability as a future leader.
2. ABSTRACT
The nine chapters of Seth Spaulding’s book, Team Leadership in the
Game Industry, detail Seth's experience through conferences and
interviews on how to be a effective leader. He explains a leader’s
importance in a game studio and how it affects the rest of the company.
In this presentation I will summarize each chapter with a simple one
sentence citation. Afterwards, I will explain how the chapter has
affected me in the past, currently and how I will use my developmental
goals and what I’ve learned from the chapter in the future.
3. Chapter 1: How We Got Here (pg. 1-22)
• Growing companies need to consider issues with departmental and
project leadership (Spaulding, 2009).
• In the past at my current employer, technicians got into
confrontations with the current lead who had no to little training on
how to be a lead
• I’ve realized over time how important it is for management to be
involved in a company especially as a team changes or grows.
Faceless management is a recipe for disaster: poor morale, employee
turnover and low productivity
4. Current and Future Application
• It’s clear that technology will continue to advance, increasing the
need for additional staff with the required skill sets.
• In light of my personal development goals, one skill I need to
continue to work on is my idealized influence when I identify the
talents of each team member and help them develop their skills.
5. Chapter 2: The Anatomy of a Game-Development
Company (pg. 23-58)
• “Leaders should work to maintain a single company identity and
foster an environment of mutual respect, open exchange, and
support between projects and departments.” (Spaulding, 2009)
• At my current employer, Facilities and Operations used to have
BBQs, Christmas dinners, and gathers together for our three
buildings that are rough 2,000ft a part. Once we got merged with
another company, all that stopped, ruining morale.
• As the company grew, management should have maintained that
identity and maintained that open exchange and personalization.
6. Current and Future Application
• Establishing and maintaining a current organizational chart can
promote transparency by giving employees a clear picture of the
organizational structure. Management needs to always consider future
growth and plan how they will manage each department after expansion
• Based on my developmental goals and as a future leader, I will continue
to understand the importance of creating a community culture within an
organization no matter how large it becomes. It’s also important to
assess the organizational structure to ensure there is enough head count
for the number of projects coming in.
7. Chapter 3: How Leaders are Chosen, are Supported,
Perform, and Why (pg. 59-86)
• “The goal is always to find the right person and match them to the
right role within the company.” (Spaulding, 2009)
• At my current employer, from what I’ve learned, I now see that the
current lead was placed in his position because he was skilled at
being a technician. The Manager supports him because he has a lot
of knowledge about the job. He, however, does not have any
leadership skills and should not have been promoted to the lead
position. It has been apparent from the way he handles situations
and conflicts poorly.
8. Current and Future Application
• As a leader currently, I need to understand each followers’ skill sets
so I can determine which position or project task is best for them.
• When hiring new leads internally or externally, I will take the time
to understand what skills the company needs so I can properly
evaluate applicants.
• I will be weary of hiring applicants that have strong skills in
production, but little to no leadership experience. If I do
hire/promote them due to time constraints, I will mentor and
monitor them closely.
9. Chapter 4: A Litmus Test for Leads (pg. 87-114)
• “The critical thing for a new lead is to be able to make the
managerial transition successfully.” (Spaulding, 2009)
• In the past, I have been able to listen to co-workers to get an idea of
what motivates them or what they value. I’ve used this information
to change my communication methods with them.
10. Current and Future Application
• In the future and relating to my leadership development goals, in
order to effectively communicate to my followers, I need to have an
understanding of their personalities so I know how they will respond
to feedback
• I need to be conscious of my behavior and set it as a model for
others. As a positive model, morale will most likely be higher and
followers will be more productive
11. Chapter 5: Leadership Types and Traits: Assessment
Developments and Strategies (pg. 115-141)
• A deeper understand of a leader’s own motivations, desires, and
competencies allows them to make better decisions and
communicate with their team more effectively (Spaulding, 2009)
• In the past, I’ve had issues with conflict as a leader. I tend to try and
avoid it as much as possible and I procrastinate with addressing it.
12. Current and Future Application
• In light of my leadership development goals, I currently need to
analyze my personal motivations and competencies so I can better
understand my strengths and weaknesses
• I also need to strengthen my incompetency's, such as my tendency
to procrastinate with resolving conflict. I can then turn those
weaknesses into strengths and become a better leader overall.
• In the future, if there is an area of the job that I’m not fully
comfortable with, I may seek guidance from another lead to resolve
an issue.
13. Chapter 6: The Project Team Leader: Roles and
Responsibilities (pg. 143-180)
• Leads for all disciples are expected to be vision holders for the
project (Spaulding, 2009)
• In the past at my current position, when we had multiple servers to
rack and stack, I’ve had to be the positive influence to keep the rest
of the team motivated
• I’ve accomplished being a positive influence by looking at the
reasoning for the project from a company perspective and
communicating that to other team members even though I wasn’t
the lead
14. Current and Future Application
• In my current position, I try to ensure that other team members
have all the information they need to understand a project scope and
timeline it has to be completed.
• In the future as a leader, I also want to ensure that all team
members have the tools needed to complete a project. I will
distribute the project tasks evenly throughout the team and I will
communicate the instructions to the team in a professional friendly
manner.
15. Chapter 7: The Department Leader: Roles and
Responsibilities (pg. 181-214)
• “The department director presents and champions a vision for how
the department functions within the larger company and how
members of the department function on each project team”
(Spaulding, 2009)
• In the past, I’ve seen faceless management where projects and tasks
go unnoticed. If the team didn’t take care of it independently, the
manager wouldn’t have known there even was a project until the
project was way behind schedule. This typically is a risky situation
and can lead to poor results for the department and company
16. Current and Future Application
• Currently, I try to lead-up, lead-down and lead-across to keep everyone
informed on what is going on in our office. I also pay attention to what
others are doing. If I see that they are underperforming or doing
something that may negatively affect their yearly reviews, I step in and
try to help them
• In the future as a department leader, I will have frequent meetings with
other leads to stay involved on what’s going on. I will lead by example
and create a vision that each department can follow. For performance
reviews, I will create a process that is fair and current for each position.
The reviews will be unbiased and performance based according to the
metrics I have previously created.
17. Chapter 8: Difficult Employees, Underperformers, and
Bad Leads (pg. 215-242)
• “…ineffective handling of poor performers can actually do every bit as much
damage as that wrought by the poor performers themselves…” (Spaulding,
2009)
• The lead at my current employer used to work over 60 hours each week. He got
into the habit where he actually stayed at work several days of the week. The
thing is, there was no work to do so there was no need for the overtime. Based
on his badge reports, we estimate that he received over $100,000 in bogus
overtime for the year and he did this for over three years. We brought it to the
attention of management, but they told us to mind our own business. HR and
the Vice President of Ops finally figured out there were issues with his overtime
and made a drastic decision to stop all overtime in the entire company (over 10k
employees). This affected both operations and facility management drastically,
all because our manager didn’t act immediately or properly.
18. Current and Future Application
• In my current position, there isn’t much I can control when it comes to
resolving issues with my current lead’s poor ethical behaviors without
going over my manager’s head. The next step for me would be to
whistle blow on everything that’s been going on, but that’s a hard step
for any employee to take
• In the future as a leader and manager, I need to closely monitor those in
my department so I can identify issues with underperformers and bad
leaders quickly. Once identified, I need to address the issues or
concerns immediately so that it has as little impact on the team as
possible
19. Chapter 9: The Effects of Great Team Leadership (pg.
243-255)
• “Great leaders encourage retention by demonstrating competence, and
they help build an environment of trust that people naturally want to be
a part of.” (Spaulding, 2009)
• In my current position, the VP of Operations is micromanaging each
data center, even though he has a Regional Director and site managers
below him that should be doing it. The lack of trust has led to many site
managers and employees quitting or looking elsewhere for employment.
It has also caused additional stress on the sites due to the “walking on
glass” influence the VP has with his surprise visits.
20. Current and Future Application
• Employee turnover is a major overall company cost. When someone
leaves, the company needs to hire a recruiting firm or pay for position
postings in local and national listings. Employee retention is very
important and as a current leader I need to promote a sense of trust
within my team even though I don’t have a lead title. I can build trust
within the team by effectively listening and communicating with other
team members, increasing morale and increasing retention
• In the future as a leader, I will understand that high retention is mostly
due to open communication, clear company values and mission, and
high morale within each team. I will do my best to be a positive role
model and leader within my organization to reach these goals.
