Recently there were a lot of troubles here and there. It was coming from both the admin side and the technical side. I mostly work as a developer but with the prefix there, I might have been seen as an admin as well from the outside.

When some decisions aren’t discussed nor informed prior to announcement, it causes confusion within the crew. When most crew don’t know about the situation, they are on the same level as the users, how will they answer the users’ questions? This might have caused an impact on the crew’s image, after all we are the people “inside”, we should know more. Yet in reality, we don’t. People from the “outside” might speculate as to “are you really a crew member?” or some other thoughts.

I have absolutely no problem with the leader making up decisions by himself, even after discussion. But announcing to the “outside” without actually telling the internal is kinda unacceptable. Imagine that Steve Jobs announces iPad 3 and lets the whole world know about it even before any internal employee in Apple, ridiculous isn’t it? In this case, most employee will go crazy, flaming Steve Jobs for such decision, but the fact that the decision itself isn’t wrong, just the way of doing it is wrong.

I know I have no rights nor knowledge nor experience to talk about this, but I want to express my thoughts. As a leader, you are taking responsibility on the performance of a whole group of the crew facing the public. The public is important when money comes from them, but without a proper crew and “internals” you can’t please the public. Discussing about issues within the crew but ruling over the entire crew’s decision is fine, you’re just gonna take the responsibility for it if it ever fails. But if you don’t let them know what you think, they never know what they’re working for. The core of the crew is the leader, if there is no connection between the core and the surrounding, the surrounding will simply leave. Just like if Jupiter suddenly loses its gravity, all of its satellite will fly away.

Being a leader is difficult, and its an endless learning cycle. The best of the best makes mistakes, but not twice. You can feel free to make mistakes as much as you want to but please do not repeat them.

Side note: I find it easier to rant about things when I’m not in charge, or when I’m not the person responsible. I find this situation similar to Japan.