The best managers nurture, support and get the best from their teams. Yet are we truly supporting our managers, or are antiquated metrics and performance metrics driving the wrong kind of behaviours, asks Natalie Calvert.
Think of the best bosses you’ve ever had and consider why they left a strong impression. I bet they encouraged and supported you, fought your corner if necessary, empathising and helping develop your career at every step? I also confidently predict that you won’t value the memory of working for ‘managers’ who drive tasks and enforce the rules above all other considerations.
In most cases, we have thankfully moved away from the dictatorial approach to contact centre management, with much greater understanding of the difficulties of the role and the complexity of the customer-facing role.
But is our desperation to cling to metrics - exacerbated by the precarious state of the economy - now causing more harm than good?
We understand that contact centres have performance targets and that operating without any rules and targets relating to efficiency is unrealistic. However, we must recognise the demands we place on our managers to operate economically come at a cost. As I mentioned in the beginning, good managers are not number crunchers quick to crack the whip. Yet by demanding that contact centre teams always meet targets such as average handling times, calls per hour etc, we are leaving managers no choice but to work in a draconian way.
Referring once again to the best managers you have worked for, would you say your performance was better than when you worked for a boss you didn’t like? Driving the numbers in preference to true management is counter-productive, especially over the long term when the impact on morale and team spirit sets in. It may at first seem illogical, but if we take the time to think it through, it becomes clear that management by statistics doesn’t work.
As one of my favourite managers once stated: “focus on the service, and the numbers take care of themselves.”
For a definitive look at contact centre Team Leaders, Calcom will soon be publishing a paper which explores this issue in great detail. Based on the findings and teachings of a three year programme developed with a number of leading service providers, this paper explains exactly where we are going wrong with managers and what we can change. Please follow us on Twitter and we will announce when the paper is available.
Natalie Calvert
CEO
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