Leadership in the Call Center
What are the essential leadership characteristics needed to run a call center? Call centers, if run well, demand excellent leadership skills. A demanding call center environment will test every leadership skill a manager has.
Some have said that the best call center manager has to be right and left brained. The left-brain is supposed to be the logical and verbal side while the right brain is described as the imaginative and emotional. How does that fit into the realm of call center leadership?
Call centers are about people. Lots of people. Customers call and email by the thousands. Staff respond to the customer calls. (Don’t feel left out if you are in a 12-person call center, the principles still apply). Leading staff to provide good customer service requires a manager to be emotionally aware and capable of understanding the needs of customers and staff alike — making sure everyone is satisfied with their experience with the call center.
Call centers are about budgets, technology, processes and procedures. The logical or left side requires a good leader to be capable in each of these areas. That doesn’t mean they are techno-weenies who go around putting “my computer doesn’t understand me” stickers on the backs of colleagues. The call center manager has to be able to select the best people to manage the details in these areas. If you don’t manage the details in these areas typically the boss of the manager helps the manager to find something else to manage! Detail management is a left-brain activity.
Call center management is more than managing the detail. The job of a call center manager is also to manage the big picture stuff. Where is the call center going? Where is the company going and where should the call center be taking lead? This is the stuff of the right brain. The imaginative and big picture thinking that connects the call center so that it is a strategic asset to the organization.
Posted: January 27th, 2007 under Leadership.
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