To Motivate Call Centre Staff - Demonstrate Leadership

Chapter 16 of the Call Centre Motivation Workbook

Highly motivated call centre teams usually claim to be that way because they feel their managers demonstrate leadership.

Your team needs to look up to you and to derive its sense of purpose and energy from its manager. Leadership has been defined as "the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he or she wants to do it."

And that's really the way it should be in a highly motivated call centre. Your staff should be keen to carry out their tasks!

The demands of call centre management mean that we seldom make time to audit our leadership skills, but it's worth asking yourself at least once a month whether you demonstrate the appropriate behaviours.

Being a leader is tiring because you have to keep it up all the time, but as you develop the demonstration of these behaviours, your team will grow to respect you and motivation will remain high.

You only have to look at what happens to call centre teams when a strong leader/manager leaves and his role is taken by a weaker character.

Everybody else leaves too!

So let's look at some of the qualities you need to demonstrate to motivate your team. Leadership requires you to be:

• Loyal to the company.
• Loyal to the call centre team.
• Open, firm and fair.
• Honest.
• Able to see the big picture.
• Able to communicate simply.
• Enthusiastic.
• Decisive
• A role model
• Consistent
• Assertive

Leaders demonstrate:

• An ability to think before speaking.
• Persistent positivism.
• Clear direction.
• Courage.
• Integrity.

In addition, leaders bear the following points in mind:

• Being good at your staff's tasks but admitting you are not a specialist.
• Not creating an environment of "don't do what I do, do what I say."
• Publicising the team's successes and not dwelling on their failures.
• Listening to the feelings and beliefs of team members.

Behaviour

If we are to motivate our staff through leadership, our behaviour determines success or failure.

Most of us rely on three types of behaviour in handling our teams. They are aggression, submissiveness and assertiveness.

Of these three types of behaviour, assertiveness is the most effective because it aims for a win/win situation.

Let us attempt to define the three types of behaviour.

Aggression

Imagine that you need a special report from a team member and you phrase your request as follows:

"I want the figures by the morning or else."

The request has threatening overtones and is likely to result in an aggressive response:

"I can't do everything. I'm up to my neck in it already."

To which you respond:

"That's your problem."

In this example, your behaviour has been aggressive and has been met with hostility. The result of this conversation is likely to be that some other task will be dropped and the report given will be sub-standard.

The other person is likely to have experienced feelings of hurt, anger or humiliation.

Submission

Submissive behaviour occurs when you are dealing with someone who dominates or frightens you for some reason. This manifests itself in weak, subservient behaviour. For example:

"Do you think you could possibly do this for me?"

With some people you find it difficult to ask for action and in this example, you are likely to walk away feeling guilty for having been so weak. After a while, your guilt will turn to annoyance and over time, if this situation is repeated, you will lose respect for yourself and they will too. Eventually, you are likely to become over-aggressive when dealing with them to compensate.

Assertiveness

Assertiveness creates win/win situations. It allows you to state your own needs without ignoring the needs and feelings of others. In our earlier example, you would be likely to say:

"I know you're already up to your neck in it, but what will we need to do to make sure I can have your report today?"

The style is not confrontational and focuses on the task, rather than the person. You are effectively asking the other person to manage the situation, drawing on your decision making powers as a resource.

When assertive behaviour is used, you are more likely to have your needs met and to receive a high quality outcome.

Assertiveness comes into its own in many situations including these common examples:

• giving bad news
• saying no to staff requests
• disagreeing with people in meetings

There are 6 main types of assertive behaviour

Simple Assertion

This is where you simply demand your rights or provide information. "Please let me finish." "We'll meet at 8.30."

Empathy

This is where you express recognition of the other person's position, but continue to stand up for your rights. "I appreciate that this route conflicts with your long term plans, but I'd like you to go along with it for the time being."

Discrepancy Assertion

This is where you point out that you are not receiving a clear message of intent and request clarification. "As I understand it, you are saying that you do not wish to leave but you are looking for another job. I'd like you to clarify where we fit into your thoughts."

First Person Assertion

This is where you express the effects of some action (or lack of it) on your position, how you feel about it and what you want done about it. "When your report is late, I report late to management which makes me look inefficient and I get annoyed. So I need to have your report not later than the 25th of month to make sure I don't go through this again.

Consequence Assertion

This type of assertive behaviour explains what you will do if an unsatisfactory situation continues and gives the other person the opportunity to commit to change. "If you continue to operate outside of our policies, I'll have no option but to look at how we continue to work together. I would rather not do that."

Probing Assertion

This is where you use probing techniques to establish where the other person stands before expressing what is acceptable to you.

"What do we need to do to make this happen?"

Call Centre Leadership Audit

Examine the leadership qualities listed earlier and decide where you are strong and where you need to develop. List the actions you will take. Strengths Development Areas Action

Leadership Case Study

Chiswick Insurance Associates (CIA), is a medium sized insurance broker which has just won the right to provide insurance products for all government employees for low premiums.

The CIA has two telesales teams, tasked with handling both inbound and outbound calls. The telesales teams are managed by Smith and Jones.

The new government work means some cultural changes are necessary at the CIA. For a start, 24 hour working will have to be introduced.

In addition, both inbound and outbound calls must be scripted in accordance with a procedure developed with the government. Deviation from the scripts would be treated as a serious issue and could result in the contract being terminated. In addition, 14 new agents will need to be recruited to manage the workload.

All the new systems and people must be in place as a matter of urgency and by not later than 1st August. Smith and Jones meet to discuss how to deal with the new opportunity.

Smith: This whole package is going to be hard to sell to the telesales people.

Jones: Tough. They either want to keep their jobs or they don't. They're just going to have to accept it.

Smith: With respect, I think that approach will create bad feeling. And when we ask them to start 24 hour working as well as using scripts, they're likely to feel insulted.

Jones: Maybe. But with the deadlines, we're just going to have to lay it on the line to them.

Smith: No. I recommend that we get both teams together and let them have their say.

Jones: No way. The notes from management spell out clearly what needs to be done. If we start letting telephone staff get involved in management issues there'll be hell to pay. No. I've been doing this longer than you and I've seen this type of thing before. The way ahead is to present them with a fait accompli.

Questions:

1. Who was right and why?
2. What was the impact of the wrong approach?
3. What steps were required to achieve the correct approach?

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