The worst leaders are those who are poor followers themselves.
This has not changed in thousands of years of human warfare.

I am going ot have to back up Tornadium here. I have played with quite a few folks that came from project reality, Arma etc. They all experience burn out. When you do not have quality control over your members, leading becomes an exercise in frustration.

I did, and I love being a leader in games, but I am telling you right now, if you have never lead in an open game, I will use PS2, it is a different animal. Yes, ex-military helps, but they are relatively few. People that get team work and for the greater good, help, but they are not many. No you usually see squads full of petulant children that get mad because they perceive you to be an 'asshole' because they all want to roll around in tanks or whatever and not go secure the tower you need to shore up your left flank.

Rinse repeat for months on end, throw in SL's that can't lead and want to do everything as a democracy, section leaders that are new and trying to fake it through the operation, etc etc it piles up and before you know you melt down on their asses, and before long you are screaming at the outfit leader to train his fucking people, and call me when you get around to that.

Which is unfair, as the outfits I ran with were very well trained, but even the most dedicated members of your team is not going to hang out and continue to push, when they see they are up against a brick wall.

Trust me, or don't but you will see it and mark my words if it has not happened to you yet, it will. Massive open games are far more difficult to manage than you think. I respect all you guys that play Arma, PR, RO, all those games I really do, but you have FAR more control over who is allowed to play in your games. Here, you won't. And that is when it will set in. Especially you guys that have never experienced it before, go run an outfit in PS2 for awhile or join a big one and volunteer to run ops. Then come debate with me and Tornadium.

And Eve, is far worse.

Being a leader consumes energy and time. Most likely you will hurt your brain for everyone instead of expecting Christmas gifts (not talking about businessman).
So we should reward war council with something real, let's start from the basic, say.....McDonald voucher?

I think the worst I've seen was after explicit orders to not drop bubbles because we were likely going to be bombed, some dude panics when he hears someone warped in and he bubbles.

Spoiler, We died.

You shouldn't yell at people for ignoring orders, you should ignore those who ignore orders and reward those who show discipline and dedication. It encourages people who ignore orders that being a team player is a good thing, yelling at people only makes them hate you. Instead after a while, people would be competing with each other for your affections and praise, everyone trying to be the best.

You should read The Art of War some time.

With that said, everyone who wants to lead anyone should read The Art of War. And other books associated with grand strategy, leadership and social skills. I also recommend people check out ToastMasters groups, will teach you public speaking and speech skills, thing is all these things are skills.

id like to try and get in the war council (and if somone dose not folow orders we could do what comnisars do and shoot them)
it all depends on how they work the system on the war council i realy want to see a single champion duel in the center of a battle feild just to see a chaos champion and a space marine champion dueling while the two armys stand by and watch (i know this wont happen but it would be a spectecul to watch)

I completely agree with all that was said. Except... the cheerleaders part. Not only are us Space Marines gonna much less attractive than a slew of happy dancing cheerleaders, but our role in that regard is more of a morale supporter. Than simply getting people to feel cheery.

There's been a lot of quality posts in this thread, and I completely agree with those who've spoken about the qualities which a leader needs to have. Good leaders are exceptionally hard to find; especially so online. Ultimately there needs to be accountability for actions, both on a player, squad and commander level. If the development team do not place feedback mechanics in the game for both good and bad decision making, then the whole thing will fall flat.

With zero accountability for ones actions guiding anonymous players will be like trying to herd cats.

I can recall many online situations where I have wished there was a Commissar ready to deliver a bolter-round to someone being uncooperative, disobedient or down-right counter productive; and if there was a way of implementing such a thing in Eternal Crusade without it being abused, I'd be all for it.

"Walk softly and carry a big gun" ~ Force Commander Gabriel Angelos.

While it's a slight bastardization of what Theodore Roosevelt said that quote is right on the money.

You think that hasn't been tried?

You can't compare IRL Leadership to video game leadership because there will ALWAYS be people who don't listen no matter what kind of approach you take and you HAVE to put up with it.

Show me a case where this doesn't apply.

Please.

Don't read too much into the cheerleader part, I am not saying try and portray youself as a bubbly teenage chic, I am saying boost up your team, stay positive even when things go to absolute crap. People will key off that and rise to your level of optimism or they will key off your negativity and the shootin match will go to crap.

Be a booster, not a downer.

Yes and no.

While I agree self improvement is never a bad thing, I don't think it is necessarily relevant to the discussion, which by the way we have taken FAR away from the OP's intent.

Having said that...

People love to quote the Art of War. And it is a good reference point, and has some very valid information and ideas. However, there ares so many others out there that focusing on just the art of war won't give you a very big tool box from which to pull.

A few:

Field Martial the Viscount Slim : Defeat into victory.

Pete Blaber : The Misssion, The Men and Me.

Machiavelli: The Prince

Elbert Hubbard: Message to Garcia (how to be a good follower)

Miyamoto Musashi: Book of Five Rings. Translation by William Scott Wilson is my preferred version, though none are bad per se.

Those will get you started. Of course read The Art of War, it is obviously one of the better written pieces on leadership out there.

Being able to express yourself with writing and when speaking is obviously a good skill to have. I do not however, agree that it is crucial to leadership, nor inspiring people to follow you. Lincoln spoke very plainly and managed to convince a couple people to listen to him.

Also, read about and watch (if possible) current leaders. Take from them things to work for you and develop those lessons into your 'style' of leadership.