Why Measuring The Leadership Capability Of Team Leaders Lifts Contact Center Performance

Transcript

Hi there, this is Blair from BravaTrak.

I've been thinking about the leadership capability of contact centre leaders, along with the phrase, 'what gets measured gets done'. That phrase is not strictly true, of course. It's more like, 'what gets measured can be managed.'

And you know how important performance measurement is in your business. As a result, you measure almost everything about the performance of your agents. From productivity measures - such as availability, average handling time and after call work - through to sales and service metrics - such as first call resolution, customer satisfaction, sales conversion, lead generation, and save rate.

But here's the thing. The people most responsible for frontline team performance are your Team Leaders. They hold the pivotal role in lifting employee engagement and driving team performance. Yet their leadership performance is rarely measured as closely as the performance of their team members.

In fact, in several contact centres with which I have experience, some Team Leaders actively resist having their leadership performance monitored. And I get it.

If you'd been in a role for some years where all the accountability had been on your team members, but little on you as the leader, why would you want that to change? You'd risk being exposed. Further, you'd risk being required to spend time doing things you'd rather not do, because they require more work than you're used to putting in.

Most Team Leaders were promoted because they were high-performing agents. Not because they were high potential leaders. It takes less effort to default to completing administration tasks than it does to leading people.

Yet, leaders are made. Not born. A simple definition of what it means to be a leader is that leaders make people better. Which means leadership is less a position and more a process. A quick study of all great leaders shows they work at it day after day, as you would do when perfecting any skill or getting in shape, for that matter.

And the optimum way for you to get in shape is instructive. No doubt, you'd develop a plan to achieve your desired outcome, and then track what you're doing so you can make any necessary adjustments along the way. Occasionally, you'd test where you're at. And based on those results, reset your plan for the next period.

On reflection, that seems to be a useful blueprint for not only getting in shape for almost anything, but also for improving the leadership capability of your Team Leaders. Despite the resistance you might get from those who don't want to be held accountable.

That's my take. What do you think?