Discover the Mindset of an Award-Winning Team Leader
With Hector Farmer, Digital Team Manager at TSB Bank
Show Notes
Hector Farmer is the Digital Team Manager for TSB Bank’s Customer Engagement Centre. He’s been a Digital Team Manager for the past 7 years, at 2 different banks. In 2020, he won the Customer Contact Network of New Zealand, National Team Leader of the Year Award.
He’s got a fantastic mindset which helps his people thrive. Exactly the sort of mindset to look for if you’re recruiting Team Leaders, or to replicate if you’re a Team Leader.
Top 3 Tips:
Share your “Why” with your team. And if you can, align your “Why” to that of your business. Purpose matters (11:45).
Have positive intent in how you coach and lead your team. It’s the foundation of great leadership. When you create a safe environment for your people, they’re empowered to be their best selves (12:03).
Slow down to speed up, by stepping back from the detail, and doing what only you can do as a leader - setting strategy, enabling others, and removing barriers (12:21).
You'll Learn:
Hector’s apple orchard metaphor, which shows how you can help your team deliver great customer outcomes (03:42).
The actions Hector takes each day to help his team thrive (05:52).
The emotional bank account each of your team has, and why it’s vital to keep topping it up (06:15).
The model which Hector uses to identify what coaching each team member needs (06:56).
Connect with Hector here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hector-farmer-488a68161/
If you’d like some ideas on how an evidence-based Coaching System can help you reduce unplanned absenteeism and attrition - while boosting employee engagement and customer experience - send me an email at blairs@bravatrak.com to book your 15-minute chat over Zoom or Teams.
Transcript
Blair Stevenson (00:00)
Welcome to the Secrets to Contact Center Success podcast, connecting you with the latest and greatest tips from the best and the brightest minds in the industry.
I'm Blair Stevenson, founder of BravaTrak, the High Performance Coaching System for Contact Centres, that helps you to reduce unplanned absenteeism and attrition, while boosting employee engagement and customer experience.
Today, I'm joined by Hector Farmer, who is a Team Manager with the TSB Bank. Hector won the Customer Contact Network of New Zealand, National Team Leader of the Year Award in 2020. And I'm really delighted to have Hector along on the show.
Today, he's going to share his approach to engaging his team and growing their performance.
So Hector, welcome along. Great to have you.
Hector Farmer (00:47)
Great to be here, Blair.
Blair Stevenson (00:49)
So just for listeners, just tell us a bit about your background and your experience.
Hector Farmer (00:56)
Yeah. My background, I've got seven years of contact center experience. All in finance. So I'm with TSB Bank now.
I started out at ANZ Bank, working a 4:00 PM until midnight shift as a Customer Service Consultant. Which was, I tell you, one of the most fun roles I've ever done. And joining a contact center environment, I fell in love with the buzz, the way we engage customers, the pace, the ability to really connect with people who needed help.
And so from my customer support role, I've moved into a personal banking role where I got to have a bit more robust conversations with customers, and then from there into coaching and leadership.
And I think, you know, my experience from contact centers tells me that as a contact center team member, you really get to grow, you really get to develop, and you're given opportunities and exposure to grow yourself and learn more. That certainly has been my experience.
Blair Stevenson (02:07)
Cool, cool. So, you know, Team Leaders really have an incredibly important role in contact centres. In the end, I think to a very large extent, the performance of your team is reflective of your leadership and the coaching that you do.
So I'm just curious about the mindset you bring to your Team Leader role that makes you so successful.
Hector Farmer (02:36)
Yeah, I think in a leadership role, really it's a service first role. When we create a safe environment for people, they're empowered to be their best selves.
We know, obviously, that people turn up to work as whole people. And that their value when they turn up to work is in who they are, before their performance. I value a person in my team because they're them, rather than what they can do for me. And out of that, performance tends to lift.
So I know if I can get alongside one of my team members - and serve them well - that enables people to own their own growth, own their own development, and feel supported and empowered to deliver great customer outcomes.
Blair Stevenson (03:22)
Nice, nice. And I fully agree, and I think when we last talked, you shared with me your apple orchard metaphor, which kind of nicely sums up your approach and philosophy. So just for listeners, I'm just wondering whether you could talk us through that metaphor?
Hector Farmer (03:42)
Yeah. You know, I think contact centers are like apple orchards. If our contact centers were apple orchards and all we did was focus on apples, we would not have many apples, right?
If I was an apple orchard owner, I would be really interested in what the condition of my trees are. I'd be really interested in the condition of my soil, be interested in how I'm looking after the trees that are ultimately going to produce the apples. I'd be thinking about how often I'm going to prune my trees. I'd be thinking about how I protect my trees from insects and how I fertilize the soil to keep them healthy.
And, really, the approach of an apple orchard owner is to grow healthy trees. And out of healthy trees, I end up with lots of apples.
I.e. growth comes as a by-product of health. And the art of leadership is knowing where to focus to develop that growth, to develop that health. Knowing where I need to do spend my time.
Blair Stevenson (04:51)
Yeah. I think it's interesting that over the years, I've worked with many, many Team Leaders, and I've seen many who were kind of focused on the apples.
You know, they'd have their spreadsheet open every day. And they're looking at the numbers. As though magically the numbers would change just by looking at them.
And yet the Team Leaders who have been really successful aren't spending their days looking at the numbers - or counting their apples - they're actually busy out there, fertilizing as it were, pruning, encouraging growth. So it's a lovely metaphor.
So I think that you bring to the work that you do a really outstanding mindset. But I'm wondering how that translates into action. What are some of the things that you really focus on, on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis, to create that right environment for your people to thrive?
Hector Farmer (05:52)
Yeah. I think the first thing that I do each day to make sure my people can thrive is I connect with them personally. And having that little bit of personal connection with my people just enables them to relax a little bit, enables them to know that they're cared for. And out of that care, they can care for our customers.
I'm a big fan of Stephen Covey, and his work around the emotional bank account. You know, when I invest into someone, it enables me to make withdrawals and deposits to help that person.
I also adopt an approach of five to one feedback of praise to corrective feedback. I.e. my people are getting more praise from me than they are corrective feedback. What that means is that they're able to act on that corrective feedback really well. And it cultivates that trust.
Blair Stevenson (06:51)
Because they know that you're there to support them, because you are recognizing the effort and the good work they're doing.
Hector Farmer (06:56)
Yeah, that's right. Positive intent certainly makes a relationship.
And I also understand the barriers for my team. It's important to understand what's blocking our people from achieving the things that they're there to achieve. It's important to understand what is in the way of our people delivering great outcomes to customers. And once we understand what those blockers are, I then go to work on removing them. [That] again reinforces that I'm there to support my people. Again, it's a service first approach.
And then, finally, when it comes to coaching, I often reflect on skill vs will. There's quadrants for everything these days. But people sit anywhere in the quadrant of skill versus will. I.e. I can have the capability to do something, but no desire to do it. Or I can have all the desire to do something but no skill to support my desire.
And understanding where our people sit on that scale is really important, because it's going to change the way that I coach that person. And so for people that have no skill, it's very easy - we teach. And for people who it's about will - we enable, and we enable those people to deliver great outcomes.
Blair Stevenson (08:18)
Mmm. And I know this might be a bit difficult to answer, but once you've got someone who's been well recruited, and they've been trained, and they've built up a body of experience - whether that's over a 6 to 12-month period, or a bit longer - where, generally, from a coaching perspective do you find the opportunity lies? Is it more in the skill area, or more in the will area?
Hector Farmer (08:45)
That's a good question. I think it depends on the individual, of course. If I've got someone who is relatively tenured, they know their role well, it often can be more will-based.
But there's an element of skill there as well. And the skill that we're talking to at this level is actually, “How do they develop?” There's a skill that I find people need to learn, and that's actually, "How do I grow myself? How do I set good goals for myself? How do I actually step out of my current role and start to do a bit more?"
So there's a little bit of a desire aspect, where you come alongside someone and show them the future. You know, you can ask them questions to learn their aspirations. But then you've got to support them with the skill to go and get there. Does that make sense?
Blair Stevenson (09:45)
Yeah, it does. And I think, certainly people are looking for development. You know, they want as part of their role, they don't just want to come to work for the money. They actually want development and the opportunity to grow. So that's a really important part.
Hector Farmer (10:07)
Yeah. They often don't know how to grow as well, right? It's very well me being great in my current role, but to become excellent in my current role, that's where the skill coaching comes in. To become excellent in your role, you've got to start influencing. So how do you do that? "Come alongside and teach your peers. Here's how."
Blair Stevenson (10:27)
That makes perfect sense. And, just a bit of background. My thinking around that question was I've been talking with a few Senior Leaders recently, who have admitted that actually the toughest role they ever did in their career was working as a CSR (Customer Service Representative).
And there's a lot of pressure on CSRs. You know, constant calls, expectations in terms of quality. And that pressure can mean that the emotional bank account you talked about can actually be drained throughout the day, through the nature of the work that people do.
And so the importance of not only topping that emotional bank account up from your relationship perspective - but also from the kind of just replacing all the de-motivators that have been occurring throughout the day - is really, really critical.
So I'm just curious, if you were tasked to mentor a new Team Leader, what would be the top three tips for them that you'd provide on how to lead and coach their team, to get them fully engaged and grow their performance?
Hector Farmer (11:44)
Yeah. Really good question.
Tip #1 (11:45)
Firstly, it's important that your people understand your "Why". People connect with your "Why" before they connect with your "What". And if you can also - in addition to that - align, your "Why" to your business' "Why", or your contact centre’s "Why", that's really important. Purpose matters.
Tip #2 (12:03)
The second thing that I would say is, have positive intent. As I've sort of alluded to throughout some of the questions you've asked, positive intent really is the foundation to great leadership. When people feel safe, they perform well.
Tip #3 (12:21)
And thirdly, I would say slow down to speed up. As a young leader, you can really feel like the way through a problem is with more effort. "If I do more, I'll get a lot more done." But that's not actually always the case. Particularly in a contact centre.
Step back from the detail, and do what only you can do as a leader. There's a role that we play that only we can do. And that's setting strategy, that's enabling others, that's removing barriers. But if we get too close, or try and do too much, we often become ineffective.
Blair Stevenson (12:55)
I think that's a really good point. From that ineffective perspective, there's the danger of reverting back to what you might've been comfortable with as a CSR, and not doing the work that needs to get done as a Team Leader.
Yeah. Cool, great tips. Thank you very much. Really appreciate it, Hector. Well, that's all we've got time for today. Hector, thank you very much for coming on the show. You've given us some wonderful insights into how an award-winning Team Leader approaches engaging his team and growing their performance.
Now, for listeners, you'll find the link to the show notes in the episode description below.
And if you'd like to connect with Hector on LinkedIn, you'll also find a link to his LinkedIn profile in that description as well (https://www.linkedin.com/in/hector-farmer-488a68161/).
And lastly, if you'd like some ideas on how an evidence-based Coaching System can help you reduce unplanned absenteeism and attrition while boosting employee engagement and customer experience, I'm happy to help out.
Just send me an email (at blairs@bravatrak.com) and we can organize a 15-minute call over Zoom or Teams, and you can find my contact details also in the episode description below.
Well, that's it from us today. Have a productive week.