TEAM LEADER DEVELOPMENT

Industry Content Supporter:
Marc Carriere
Managing Director
https://www.linkedin.com/in/marccarriere/

Creating excellent team leaders takes a lot of work and is not always easy. However, the surprising thing is that it isn’t the hardest thing in the world either… especially if your team leaders adopt positive habits they consistently apply every day!

Over the past 35 years, I’ve owned call centers, consulted with businesses, and coached and mentored call center managers and team leaders. I’ve seen the best habits of excellent team leaders in action, which they use to successfully nurture, coach, and lead winning teams!
I promise. If your team leaders learn these habits and apply them daily, senior managers and team members will recognize them as outstanding leaders in a few months.

Habit 1: Knowing Their Numbers
Exceptional team leaders are obsessive when it comes to knowing their team metrics. They know these numbers are how they are measured every hour, day, week, and month, so they keep track of where their team is concerning their KPIs and sales targets every day and every hour of the day.

Habit 2: Setting Expectations
Excellent team leaders always remember they are leaders, coaches, and mentors. They set the direction and expectations for the team and team members individually early and often. They also set expectations regarding key performance metrics, work behaviors, and dress codes. They also set expectations for what the team will receive from them, such as coaching, extra training, cheerleading, or celebrating team and individual achievements.

Habit 3: Walking the Talk
Outstanding team leaders handle calls weekly to stay sharp and on top of any issues, showing the team they’re invested in its success. They know that taking or making calls earns the team’s respect and helps them in other ways. If the team knows their Team Leader can do the job, they’re more open to being coached and listening to suggestions and tips.

Habit 4: Clearing Roadblocks
Extraordinary team leaders discover what keeps their team members from hitting their targets and doing a great job. They know it’s their job to try their best to address and fix these issues. They let the team know why they can’t fix any problems. They know the team will accept an issue once they understand why it cannot be fixed.

Habit 5: Helping Team Members Be Great
Excellent team leaders remember how scared and unsure they were when using the phones. They also remember how much they had to learn and take on board. They remember how much they needed reassurance and support from their team leader and how much they wanted and needed constant feedback, especially in the beginning. So, fantastic team leaders evaluate team members' efforts often and provide corrective feedback and reassurance to help them become good at their jobs.

Habit 6: Effectively Onboarding New Members
When a new team member joins, exceptional team leaders first get feedback from the training team to understand what they were good at and what help is still needed. They also want to assess the new team members' attitudes, attendance, training participation, and interactions with others to determine what needs improvement. Fantastic team leaders ease them into the job by having them sit with an experienced agent for a few shifts. This settles them into the job and the team, and they get comfortable with the job by watching and listening to how it is done.

Habit 7: Getting Extra Help When Needed.
When extraordinary team leaders notice a gap in certain call activities, procedures, or processes, they seek help from the training or quality assurance teams. They may ask the teams to listen to extra calls or provide additional training to help them fill the gap.

Habit 8: Managing Absenteeism
Outstanding team leaders work on absenteeism daily, seeing it as a tripwire and warning team members that there may be a problem with a team member considering leaving.
Apart from being concerned for their team member’s welfare and their duty of care to them, they see this as a fantastic opportunity to fix a problem early before someone decides to leave.
They know that often, it can be a simple fix, or these absences may be related to a more serious problem that can affect the whole team, so they want to find out what’s going on and, if possible, fix it as soon as possible.

Habit 9: Showing They Care
Exceptional team leaders develop high emotional intelligence by constantly showing they care about their team members and are genuinely interested in their lives inside and outside work.

Habit 10: Recognizing Good Effort
Stellar team leaders know that genuine recognition and appreciation for hard work, even if someone just missed a target, are very rewarding. It can be as simple as a pat on the back.

Habit 11: Keeping Their Team Close
For the better part of the shift, outstanding team leaders manage their team by walking around their team, being available to answer questions, giving tips or quick training sessions, and fixing any problems people are having that come up.
They know that it’s more efficient and easier to be accessible when the team is sitting around them. They don’t have to wander all over the floor; they need it immediately when someone needs their help!

Habit 12: Being Prepared.
Excellent team leaders work to a schedule for the upcoming week and follow their schedule.
They build their schedules with activities they know will occur every week. These include any regular meetings they have with their boss and other meetings. They also schedule time outside peak calling times for admin tasks, answering emails, reading reports, or updating them.
They especially schedule time to listen to recorded calls and coaching sessions to provide corrective feedback!

Habit 13: Efficiently Running Pre-shift Meetings
Extraordinary team leaders always have quick, positive meetings for 5 to 10 minutes before a shift begins. They share how the team tracks against KPIs and targets and any information on changes or updates to processes, systems, or products the team needs to know about. They also hand out award certificates and provide recognition.
They also get each team member to commit to a personal target for the shift and do a ‘check-up from the Neck up’ to ensure everyone has cleared their minds and is focused on their goals.

Habit 14: Learning Why a Team Member Quit
Considering all the time and effort they’ve invested in their team members, successful team leaders want to know why someone quits and whether the situation could have been avoided or corrected to prevent it from happening again.

Habit 15: Investing In Their Personal Development.
Excellent team leaders want to enhance their skills, take advantage of any training opportunity or leadership seminars the company provides, or further their personal development by getting their hands on as many books, articles, or videos as possible to grow further. They also speak with other team leaders and senior company personnel to find out what books, courses, or training materials they recommend, and they join online call center communities and associations to learn more and improve their skills.

The quicker a team leader adopts and applies these habits daily, the easier their job will become. They’ll also be recognized as outstanding team leaders who effectively coach, nurture, and lead a great team—someone worthy of greater responsibilities and promotion!