More VHL Lessons Learned

[LefLop 45]

 

More VHL Lessons Learned

 

Being back in the VHL and active is a thrilling experience. I'm super happy to be here, and honestly taking a break and making a new player in an unfamiliar engine is very different for me. I've gone over previously what my goals are here in the VHL and my motivation for creating again, but I wanted to quickly speak to surprising things I've learned from my recent spurt of activity here again. 

 

Pre-Draft Questionnaires 

 

In the SBDL your job as a coach is to mainly pitch players and sell them on your program. In here, you are basically immediately thrown into a draft experience, where the GM and his crew basically are best served to figure out who you are and if you are a fit to the team. Given that there are draft picks and player valuations, this creates exciting scenarios where TPE ranking and draft ranking may not match. In the SBA that only happens in the big leagues, and a lot of GMs that are promoted from HCing dont really have pre-draft questionnaire making experience. After going through this process as a draftee again, I totally now realize that I have to change up my questionnaire process. Some of the questions I got from the teams were really not that easy to answer, or even boring to answer. I'm going to definitely have to reevaluate my own questions now. I think I'll be best suited to have a pool of questions and then evaluate the draftee and send ones that I think would be interesting or answerable. I will definitely have to have them be different based on if they are a first gen or not, at the very least. I also think league only questions are boring and dont really make a team stand out. I was talking to a SBA GM recently and I realized that everything that GM does exudes culture. If I am aiming to build my own culture or identity to stand my team out, that means that I will need to exploit every opportunity that I have to talk to players. I know that free time and lack of skills are a valid excuse, but I should also look to not rely on them and push myself to do better. 

 

The other thing that's really always impressed me was delegation. Every time I come back here I'm reminded how well the minors utilize their staff. Teams have contacted me with the aGM taking the lead, some teams even have lead scouts! I've always been more of a loner type guy, and my last couple of apprentices have sadly gone inactive. I would love to go back to my commissioners and really find someone else to mentor and use more effectively. To be honest, looking back at it, I may have been too hands off on the process and not been a good enough leader. I totally realize now that I can do better and should push my AGMs and be more vocal with them. 

 

One of my new years resolutions was to be less lazy and take on a growth mindset. So far I've only done ok. There are bad days where I fall into old habits or just tell myself I'm too tired to deal with it and just dawdle. I've even done it once at work already. I'm aware of these mistakes, but I catch myself doing them but also doing nothing to fix that, which isnt great. Hopefully these broadened horizons from different leagues will help me become better. 

 

Thanks for reading! 

LefLop 

 

(Sorry for poor formatting I cant figure this mobile formatting out for my life)

[RomanesEuntDomus 442]

Review

 

Always like reading this meta articles that look at things like league structure and organisation and you provide some nice thoughts on that. The formattting was decent enough for being on mobile and the struggles you mentioned, I've definitely seen worse from people with better equipment.

 

8.5/10

[bigAL 2,176]

The formatting is great dude, welcome back! I love your ideas about building a culture vs building a spreadsheet. In our kind of sim leagues (vs like an EHM or GM-league), we sometimes forget that we’re dealing with people, and that makes team culture important. People don’t put energy into things they don’t want to do, and team and league leadership’s job is make their place somewhere people want to be. I’m glad you’re using that growth mindset and soaking up all the managerial tips and tricks you can find. Everything we do shapes who we are, and you’ve got the recipe down for becoming a better you!