Top 8 Myths of New Call Center Leaders

Is your center a place where the “Blind Are Leading the Blind”?

A common practice for call centers is to spend all their training dollars on their agent new hire training, while very little money is spend on call center leaders.  In an industry that is all about people, this can be a big mistake.  While it is true that agents require extensive training in order to properly and efficiently represent the company, these agents need good leaders to ensure they have the support and help they need to continuously do their jobs well.

Most call center leaders (80% or higher) come from the agent population.  They have proven themselves to be very proficient and effective individual performers, however, this job know-how and ability does not automatically translate into effective leadership, coaching, communication, reporting, and business acumen skills.  As a matter of fact, most people moving into their first leadership roles have large misunderstandings about what being a leader means.

8.  “Now I’m a leader, I don’t have to take customer calls anymore.”  Well – you may not be the one initially saying hello, but you will take all the escalated calls…and the less tenured your agents are, the more escalated calls you’ll take.

7.  “I don’t have to worry about my stats anymore.”  Sort-of – you don’t have to worry about your individual stats, but you are now responsible for a full team of performers, and their stats now become your stats.

6.  “I don’t have to worry about attendance and schedule adherence anymore.”  Actually – as with your stats, your team’s attendance and adherence become your problem to fix AND your team will notice and follow your example.  If you are late, they will be late!

5.  “Now I have the job, everyone has to do what I say.”  Just having the job doesn’t mean that people will respect your or follow you.  This is something that each leader has to earn across time and through positive interactions with their team.

4. “Now that I’m a leader, I can lighten up on the rules for my team.”  Unless you are a one team center, this isn’t the case.  Each center has rules in place that everyone needs to adhere to and follow, and as the leader, it is your job to reinforce the rules.  And if you do make unjust exceptions, you’ll be seen as playing favorites – which does not help with building respect.

3. “I can be open and share my feelings.”  Sometimes.  Remember, when things change or if you have to press your agents to do something new or different, or push their performance, there will be grumbling amongst the ranks.  They will look to you their leader to see how you are responding.  If you appear negative they will too and their poor performance will persist.  If you are positive and enthusiastic, they will at least give it a valid try, and if you stay positive and reinforce their behavior, you will see positive results.  And as a leader, leading your team through changes and tough things is your job.  Leaders only succeed if their people succeed!

2.  “I’ll now be working “normal” hours (8am to 5pm / M-F).”    Leaders keep working until their job is done – this means most leaders work much more than 40 hours a week.  And to ensure that they can coach or meet with all their people, they often have to stay late or come in on weekends to do so.   

1.  “My number one job is to take care of my agents.”   While it is true that this is half of a call center leader’s job, it has to be balanced out with taking care of the business unit they work within.  No one (including the leader) would have a job if the agents were focused and consistently doing the job they’ve been hired to do.  So it is critical that the leader is thinking about their company and balancing that out against the needs of their agents at all times.

If your leaders need training to help them better understand your business, the call center division, and how to be an effective leader, we can help!

Office Communication - Bullies and Doormats

The people leaders within an organization are the ones who create the environment and culture that the employees work within. While they may not be the ones who set or create the company rules, they are the ones who help employees navigate within them and strive towards a balance that works for both the company and the employees. How your leaders communicate with their employees can make all the difference between how an employee feels about their work and the company.

This is often the aspect of leadership that new leaders struggle with the most. They aren’t sure how to approach difficult situations, so they go overboard and come across to harshly, or they are worried about being liked, so they come across as not really agreeing with what they are saying.

Unfortunately, most companies don’t have training or discussions about this aspect of their leadership skills, and that’s too bad when simply having discussions with the leaders and helping them to be aware of what they are or aren’t doing can assist new leaders to make changes that will serve them (and the company) well throughout their careers.

There are many different communication styles, but most of them can be broken down into these four basic categories:

1. Aggressive (Buford the Office Bully)
2. Passive (Dora the Office Doormat)
3. Passive-Aggressive (Wishy-Washy Wilma)
4. Assertive (Derrick Direct)

The first three communication styles can all have negative impacts on your company culture. And if it is bad enough, your leaders will actually be driving attrition within their teams.

1. Aggressive Communicators: are often seen as bullies, or dictators. It is their way or the highway, they are hard to please, treat people poorly, and their limited effectiveness is due to people are afraid of them, not because they respect them. Situations are often resolved using anger, and intimidation. Employees fear being the next person who will be belittled, picked on, or fired.
2. Passive Communicators: are often seen as a push-over or as a doormat. They often let stronger members of their team rule the roost, and just seem to go along with what the team decides. These leaders are liked because they are nice to everyone, however, they aren’t respected because they don’t set and enforce boundaries with their team. They have a hard time dealing with any type of conflict, and would rather avoid it than deal with it. (They may let inappropriate behavior go on for a long time.)
3. Passive – Aggressive Communicators: are the most difficult communicators to understand. They flip back and forth between being passive and then without understanding why, they seem to suddenly flip out and become very angry and upset. Passive-Aggressive communications are mostly passive communicators who aren’t sure how to communicate well when they have to discipline people. So they go along appearing as if everything is fine until something (and it may be small) pushes them to the edge of what they can tolerate, and then they blow up. They are the least honest communicators, as they rarely provide direct and honest feedback due to not wanting to hurt someone’s feelings.
4. Assertive Communicators: are very honest and direct with their people. They set clear expectations, and expect their people to adhere to the rules and meet their goals. They recognize and praise their people for doing a good job. They also let their team know if they have done something inappropriate and coach or discipline individuals accordingly. Assertive communicators are usually well liked because they continuously let their team members know how they are doing, and they create a safe environment for communicating two directions, and they are fair as possible in their dealings with employees. They look for the win-win solutions as much as possible.

If you were a phone agent, which leader would you want to interact with?

Call Center Leaders - Myths and Facts About the Role

Top 5 - Myths and Facts about Being a Leader in a Call Center

Many new leaders are very excited about their new role as a call center leader, because for the first time, it allows them to flex those “leadership” muscles and gives them the opportunity to prove how great they are to their peers, co-workers, and managers. Below are the Top 5 Myths and Facts about being a leader within a call center.

Myth #5: “Now I’m a leader, I don’t have to take customer calls any more.”

Fact: Call Center leaders handle the most difficult of calls – those that have been escalated due to the customer being very upset. In addition to this, if the center sees a spike in calls, or if there are too many absences, the leaders have to jump on the phones to assist the agents in handling the volumes.

Myth #4: “Now I’m a leader, I don’t have to worry about my stats or attendance any more.”

Fact: Leaders are now measured by their team’s performance, so instead of just worrying about themselves, they have to worry about their entire team. It is also critical for leaders to know that their people are watching them all the time and will follow their lead. If leaders cut corners or aren’t following the rules, the team will lose respect for them and it will decrease their credibility during coaching and disciplinary sessions.

Myth #3: “My primary job is to take care of my agents.”

Fact: Half of a leader’s job is to manage, motivate, discipline, reward, and recognize their agents. But the other half is to take care of the business.

A leader wears a dual hat – leading their teams and managing a successful business unit. This may include creating ad-hoc reports, tracking performance, providing insight to clients about their customers and continuously looking for ways to improve performance.

Leaders aren’t successful unless they can do both successfully.

Myth #2: “I can set my own standards and expectations with my team, and make exceptions as I see fit.”

Fact: Call Center rules are set up to ensure the entire group is following client required protocol and so they can meet their Service Level Agreements, by changing these or allowing exceptions a leader may be promoting or reinforcing poor performance.

When making exceptions leaders need to be sure they aren’t “playing favorites” (that they would make the exception for anyone in that situation). Leaders need to be careful that they exceptions they are making don’t potentially causing HR and/or legal issues.

Myth #1: “I’ll now be working a normal M-F, 8-5:00, 40 hour week”

Fact: Leaders are expected to work until they get all their work done, even if this takes them well over their 8 hours in a day. Leaders also have to have very flexible schedules so they can work with their entire team – which may mean working across midnight hours or coming in on the weekends.