The Circles That Make the Foundation for My Management Platform

So I’ve spent the last few of my blogs talking about learning, environments and my epiphanies about the correlation between sales and management.  Kind of a hodgepodge of thoughts but when I eventually put them together it formed the solid foundation upon which I would build my coaching and feedback philosophies.

To recap the path I took to this realization is actually pretty simple as it’s read but it was a long time formulating and putting this into something that was coherent.  Then it had to be dynamic; modifiable.  Then it had to be teachable. 

If you’ve ever looked at a book on drawing you probably remember drawing a series of circles and shapes to give you a rough outline and proportion of your subject.  An oval for the head; circles where the ears should go, etc.  That was your foundation.  Even if it didn’t come close to looking like the finished example you saw in that instruction book it sure looked better than before you drew your little series of shapes.  Here were my little circles.  I just had to find a way to put them together to form the picture I wanted:

·         Most people want to learn and are teachable

So often people are not given encouragement or feedback of any kind.  People get bored, feel unchallenged and are not supported in any way.  It could be an 11 year old boy not getting this support from his little league coach.  That 11 year old boy might eventually turn out to be an all star hitter someday but it’s usually because of external forces like private hitting coaches, practicing on his own, or simply playing for a more effective coach.  Often times they just get discouraged and give up.

·         You can’t motivate anybody but you can create a motivating environment

You try the quick fixes to improve your environment but it doesn’t work.  Or you “shock and awe” by bringing in a specialist or radically changing processes and procedures.  You give out rewards and kudos for a while and motivation and morale goes up but then it falls back after a short time.  You’re pushing water uphill and all that’s left is the puddle at the bottom.  You need to change the culture of your environment and it’s always a lot of work.  That’s why some managers won’t or don’t do this.

·         Don’t reinvent the wheel – do what other successful managers do

Even if you don’t have a mentor or are unfamiliar with your situation you can always get off your butt and do some research.  There are tons of forums, support groups, books, periodicals and seminars you can access.  Anything from how to effectively coach an agent to setting up your business in the most efficient manner.  You have more of a support group than you think too.  Your IT department, HR Generalist, and your peers can guide you.  Shut up and listen.

·         Put your own spin and flair on your job; personalize it

You will not stick to a diet if you don’t like the food.  Just because you’re copying a successful business plan doesn’t mean it has to be done just like your mentor or boss.  If you don’t make it personal to you then you definitely will resent it and at the worse stop doing it.  Your co workers will see your passion and be much more receptive if they see your buy in.  

·         If it doesn’t work modify it or stop doing it

You’re making this mistake if it’s the path of least resistance. Maybe it’s working just enough to keep your boss off your tail but it will eventually lead to failure.  These are dynamic times; we wear many hats and have to adjust accordingly.  If it’s not working stop and think about your options.  Stop and ask for directions like your wife (or hubby) told you to do 5 miles back.  It’s okay to ask for help and different opinions.

·         You need to be consistent

This starts with a plan.  Consistency is much more easily maintained if there’s a focus that everybody involved is aware of.  Coaching and feedback, rewards and recognition and other daily events should always be on schedule.  Also be prepared for changes in these routines.  Hardly anything is written in stone but you certainly should keep everybody in the loop when things take a different turn.  Are you changing key metrics at your client’s last minute request?  Have a plan before this happens on how you disseminate the information to your employees and how you will handle any changes in their coaching and feedback for example.  Including frequency.

·         You need to be fair

There’s always some group within the organization that appears to be the golden children.  There’s also somebody that seems to get more attention and kudos than others.  Be aware of this.  It’s a tough situation to be in but you can definitely take the focus off of these people by implementing a solid recognition and rewards program and by having specific focus groups, responding personally to suggestions, and performing other actions that include ALL employees.  Just remember what you do for one person or group you should do something similar for others.

·         You need to understand sometimes people choose not to learn

Some people cannot or chose not to play ball.  They are most of the times the core of your toxic environment and it doesn’t take many of them to foul up the carburetor.  Even the best coaching and support system makes no difference in their performance and attitude.  You gotta have a system in place to weed these people from your organization.

I’ve not gotten into any specifics here because everybody’s environment is different.  But everybody can build off the same solid foundation of circles whether you’re an outbound sales-focused call center or an inbound technical support center.

Take some time to draw on your own experiences from each of the above bullet points until you can come up with one or two examples.  It will only stick in your brain if you personalize it.  Take a chance and start changing some things that aren’t working for you now.  In my next blog I’ll start laying out the path I took after I turned all those circles into a final picture.

Foundation Builder Needed – No Experience Necessary?

When I entered the call center arena as an Operations Manager I was given the job of improving the coaching and feedback process to improve metrics that our client had set for us.  I had ZERO call center experience and limited managerial chops under my belt.  Archie Bunker would have felt like this if they had taken him out of his cab and placed him in the cockpit of a 767.  I was in over my head.

I had just come from the road as a sales representative for a concrete building materials company.  It was 1998 and our company had just been bought and all of us found ourselves out of work.  I don’t remember how I was even introduced to this OM job.  I tell people I “Kramered” into the spot referring to the Cosmo Kramer character on “Seinfeld” – he’s one of those guys that find opportunities and you just scratch your head wondering how he stumbled into that.  I was a salesman.  I wasn’t planning on staying a manager there for long.  And being charged with something so alien to me as improving metrics on a large scale was going to speed that process exponentially either by my hand or my call center director’s hand. 

My management process was sporadic (and that's probably being too kind).  I had focus groups with agents but they were not really that focused and I would sometimes lose control of the meeting.  The only thing I learned was that they either didn’t like their supervisor, was friends with their supervisor, or they didn’t know their supervisor.  Three different responses with three different solutions and nothing productive for me to use.  

I tried being one of those walking managers who tried to get along with everybody.  This micro management approach only bit me in the rear end because some people felt there was favoritism shown by me.  Worse is that in a call center that size I did miss talking and bonding with some agents.  Even worse was I had agents who read my intentions another way and felt that they could bypass their immediate supervisor and come to me directly.  That gave a whole new definition to open door policy.  What a mess.

I soon realized that management was a lot like sales and I knew how to sell.  I was making mistakes as a manager I never would have made in the sales arena.  The same salesman’s mantra kept creeping back into my brain.  It was a definition of a word we are all familiar with:

Insanity – “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result”

At least Tommy had a plan!

I’ve watched a lot of sales reps go down in flames doing this and I was heading down the same path as a manager.  Sometimes all they would do is make “comfort calls” – visits to their 2 or 3 core customers they would take to lunch every week and scratch out the same small orders from them every visit.  Then they would wonder why their sales were stagnant year after year.   There was no plan; no foundation.

I failed miserably at my first stab as a salesman.  It was a summer job with a publishing company selling bible concordances and study guides door to door.  This company put my group in the heart of the Bible belt – Oklahoma.  We would start each morning to eat breakfast together and sing uplifting and inspiring chants before we went to our designated selling areas.  I thought this was a load of crap.  We had two weeks of sales training very specific to what we would be doing but I refused to pay attention.  How hard was it to go from house to house and sell these books?  I didn’t plan my day or my route. 

The realization that I had the same net worth in Oklahoma at the end of the summer than when I left Ohio was sobering.  I was stubborn and thought I knew what was best about an industry I knew nothing about.  What a wake up call!

 

I had no solid foundation.  Oh wait, yes I did; I just chose not to build on that foundation!  The publishing company I sold for had over 40 years of people who grew very prosperous on that foundation.  The one I thought was a load of crap.   

After that summer I vowed never to be that arrogant again.  I certainly had been doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.  In my future sales positions I was determined to blueprint the same strategies that were successful to other salesman.  Now as an Operations Manager I would adopt the same philosophy.  And it worked.

Now my focus groups had purpose.  Now when I walked the floor I had a reason.  Now my meetings had agendas, take aways, and accountability.  Most importantly if I did something and it didn’t work I moved on and didn’t dwell.  I didn’t repeat the same thing over and over expecting different results.  We create our solid foundation and we build on that foundation.

I promise to start sharing some of the coaching and feedback principles in this blog.  Nobody really wants to hear endless stories about my sales career or even Archie Bunker.  What’s important to me is that people see and understand the path that led me to these principles that work.  As managers you are going to have to draw on your own experiences (wherever you got them) to be effective leaders and it’s critical that you infuse your own passion and understanding.

Once you have that solid foundation your passion is what will help you create that great environment I spoke about in my last blog.  And I guarantee there will be nothing toxic about it.

Can Archie Bunker Thrive in Your Environment?

How would Archie Bunker be coached in your environment?  The quick answer is just like everybody else.  The right answer is you need to ask Archie Bunker how he wants to be coached.  And you need to listen.  When I talk about listening I am referring to not just verbal cues but body language, the tone of his voice, the responses he gives.  Lots of different things one needs to take into account.  But a manager also needs to prepare themselves for the Archie Bunker that just can’t be coached. 

Before you can do anything as a manager you need to create an environment for somebody to be motivated.  You can’t directly motivate an individual.  If the culture of your call center is flat or even poisonous it just won’t work.  Any quick fixes you do to “motivate” somebody are just that – quick.  As quick as the fix takes it’s gone just as fast.

We’ve all done that.  Sometimes we roll out a quick recognition program; build it up; do a half crappy job at rolling it out; maybe weren’t clear about the process and made people feel left out.  Or WERE left out.

Maybe the problem of the week has been an abnormally high AHT and you have deduced that “non-work related reading material” is keeping some agents on the call too long.  It never had been an issue until now so you make an immediate decision to ban all of this type of reading material.  Again, maybe your knee-jerk reaction backfired and you have employees complaining to your HR Generalist.

So whether it’s well intentioned like a recognition program or a “shock and awe” reaction to a perceived threat to your metrics beware.  You might be creating that toxic environment. Nothing will grow here.  You’re dividing management and agents.  You’re establishing a lack of trust and confidence which will make it near impossible for you to roll out any action plan for a coaching and feedback process, recognition program, or policy changes. 

Hawaiian shirt day next Friday...

You can’t effectively coach and reward and grow our agents on such a shaky foundation.  Your first plan of action needs to change the culture of your toxic environment.  It’s no fluke that mission statements are a part of a company’s mantra and is included on everything from business cards to employee handbooks.  They establish certain guidelines to the way the company is run.  They have branded themselves in a positive light.  It’s a fantastic foundation to build an empire when it’s right and when it’s followed. 

Obviously it’s not going to address specific pathways for a manager to build on.  Most mission statements promote honesty, fairness, strive to improve and great consistent service just to name a few.  Take that same approach with your call center operation.  Here are a few things off the top I can think of that might be a good blueprint for a proper foundation and some examples:

• Honesty

Even potential bad news still needs to be communicated.  It could be as simple as announcing and apologizing for no overtime hours this week in an email.  It could be as complex as announcing an outsourcing partner to handle additional calls.  You don’t need to divulge every intimate detail or give out any company secrets but you can and should keep your agents in the loop.  They deserve that.

• Fairness

You would never give your one child birthday presents and your other child none.  Yet that’s what may be perceived when we do things like create recognition programs for a select skill set.  Everything is noticed by your agents.  They’re not idiots yet that’s the way they feel you see them when this happens.  And it’s not with just rewards – if you find yourself coaching one agent or group more often than others that’s just as bad.

• Striving to Improve

How do companies improve?  They listen to their customers and their employees.  As an inbound tech support center we are always listening to our customer’s feedback and suggestions.  That’s a no-brainer.  But are you listening to your employees?  Does the suggestion box overflow before you empty it out every 6 months?  On a more micro level are you and your managers listening to your agents when they are being coached?  As a manager are you proactive enough to move on suggestions that will improve your morale and metrics from the floor down to the specific agent?  A body at rest stays at rest.  And goes stagnant.  Create a plan to keep the lines of communication open for all and have a process to ACT on that.

• Consistent Service

If you do it for a while then stop people will notice.  They will become discouraged and at some point apathetic.  You may listen to calls where a customer clearly has had a good and bad phone experience with your call center.  You may have asked your supervisors to walk the floor every hour to make sure your “no non-business related reading material” mandate is enforced.  Your staff does it for a week and then really doesn’t enforce it after some point.  Worse yet is the inconsistency of coaching and feedback with your agents.  This consistency thing and how I approach that is the topic of the rest of this blog.

Everybody’s call center is different but they all live and die by the environment we create.  You can’t motivate Archie Bunker but you can create a motivating environment.  He will either thrive and move forward or choose not to participate.  And you can’t do anything about the latter except – yes—have a plan to weed out the ones who want to add their toxicity to your center.

The Coaching and Learning Curve of Archie Bunker

I’ve always been somebody who has been fascinated by people who seemed to have it all.  People who had their stuff together.  They had complete control of their surroundings.  They had control of people, events, physical and spiritual wellness and career and finances.  They dealt with adversity no matter how difficult it would have been for everybody else.  They made no mistakes.  There were no lessons life could teach them.

These were people I saw from the outside – people in the big homes driving the nice cars with the perfect kids.  I justified my naive hypothesis simply by watching television but it took me at least 8 years to debunk this illusion of the perfect person.  I have Archie Bunker to thank for that.

I came from a middle class family and was a child of the 70’s decade.  The cool thing about being a child of that generation was that as much as I saw the perfect life of the “Brady Bunch” I saw the imperfect life of the Bunker’s on “All in the Family”.  I got to admit I wasn’t a fan of Archie Bunker at first.  He was bitter, mean and of course a bigoted man.  He was a wrench thrown into the perfect family machine I had grown to love in the world according to the Brady Bunch and Partridge Family and the perfect people who lived in my town.

Now I didn’t dwell on this at the time.  It was something that slowly occurred to me probably because I wasn’t gripped by the thought that not every father was a successful architect.  I had a very supportive and loving family, great friends and an active school life.  But there was one of those “aha” moments that occurred watching the first episode of “Archie Bunker’s Place” – the continuation of “All in the Family”.  Something monumental had happened to Archie Bunker. 

I had watched Archie grow as a person through all 9 seasons.  “All in the Family” was a show I didn’t understand at first because I was probably 7 or 8 years old when I would plant myself in front of the TV while mom and dad waited for it to come on.  But what I discovered was that Archie was surrounded by people that cared for him no matter how grumpy or nasty or mean he would be.  Norman Lear the writer of the series needed to wrap up his 23 minute sitcom episode every week so there had to always be some kind of unrealistic resolution. But there was something else happening too.

Every episode was a true learning experience for Archie Bunker – and they were all based on what every man could understand.  There was no pre-teen fluffy moral summarized at the end of the day about Marsha Brady overcoming her fear of going to the dance with a broken nose.  This was real stuff.  Things maybe I had seen my own dad struggle with but never gave it a second thought until then.  Archie Bunker was learning from his mistakes yet was always supported by the people who meant the most to him despite the way he sometimes mistreated them.

By the end of the season Archie had become a different man.  This next statement could be argued by some but he did become more tolerant of people – his racist comments became less pronounced.  He became a grandfather.  He became a business owner.  We started to see him in a different way.  And that “aha!” moment came to me when I watched the episode where he’s sitting in his bedroom alone.  His wife Edith had suffered a stroke in her sleep and died.   Archie breaks down and weeps.  This major life event cements his spot in life as someone who will always be a good person – he will never turn back to his old ways no matter how awful his circumstances might become. 

I started to open my eyes to my real surroundings.  I saw those perfect families going through hard times.  Bankruptcies, abuse, divorce, and those perfect kids strung out on drugs and in trouble with the law.  Some of those families recovered; some did not.  They were on the other end of the economic and social ladder than the Archie Bunker types but the one constant between them was this:  Some evolved and some didn’t. 

I would theorize that most of us with constant, consistent reinforcement HAVE to change despite the few of us who just do not choose to or simply cannot change for whatever reason.  And there may not be a major life event that triggers a permanent positive change.  I slowly began figuring out how I could set up an atmosphere for facilitating these changes starting with myself and then for others.  It’s not rocket science.  It just takes commitment and consistency like anything else worth attaining.  And eventually it becomes second nature, like walking, laughing and breathing. 

This blog will concentrate on the business aspect of relevant coaching and feedback.  I hope that by adopting these changes in your management style that it will help you in your personal and other professional relationships too.  Unlike the 9 years it took Archie Bunker your results as a manager in employee satisfaction and improved metrics that will be almost immediate and will last.