Why We Need Less Leadership

By Kathryn Frankson

Ok, ok so we still need leadership. But, as someone who just wrapped an Experienced Manager training I'm now convinced that we actually need more management. Even typing that feels a bit underwhelming because management conjures up thoughts of scheduling, status reports and approving PTO; however, when done right management is truly the catalyst for achieving business outcomes. Why? Because management is exactly 3 things: 

1. Clarifying the Objective
2. Creating a Plan to Meet the Objective
3. Facilitating the Plan

People are fundamentally motivated by understanding what they need to do every day and having the resources and trust to do so.

 

And as someone who recently shifted into a new role with a new team and new projects, this was a timely reminder.

 

It's easy to get swept up and anchored in the positives of leadership, because there are many. Leaders influence culture, leaders drive change, leaders have vision and clarity which motivates others to follow.

 

But to execute strategy and unite teams, especially as we all take on more, faster, in an ever-changing market, the need for banding collaborators together with clarity around objectives and a road map to get there...is more important than ever.

Kathryn Frankson is a B2B event sales and marketing professional at UBM. A believer that 2019 communication means knowing how to get the markets attention through thumb stopping content, audience development and storytelling, she executes sales and marketing strategies in the catering, food service and special event space.

Connect: LinkedIn 
  


How to Build Confidence Through Preparation

Familiarity: Can you drive the route in advance, walk the stage or sit in the meeting room ahead of time? If so, do it so the setting feels as familiar as possible.

Visualization: Close your eyes and mentally walk through the entire meeting. Picture yourself greeting everyone, asking questions, flipping through the deck and closing out the call. Go into as much detail as possible so that you can think of responses and actions you’ll take if things don’t go to plan. It’ll help reduce that feeling of “what if I get caught off guard”.

Micro Attention: We all manage a lot of clients and projects which means most of us need topic refreshers. Take 1 minute prior to each important conversation or meeting and give top line details your attention. Realistically, you know the nuts and bolts, so tune everything else out and get in the zone.

Prime: We work better when we feel better, right? So, if you’ve got an important meeting, don’t check email before (we’ve all received a derailing note that we just can’t get out of our head) but rather, text with someone positive and uplifting, say an affirmation, take deep breaths and smile – anything that gets you into the right frame of mind.

Kathryn Frankson is a B2B event sales and marketing professional at UBM. A believer that 2018 communication means knowing how to get the markets attention through thumb stopping content, audience development and storytelling, she executes sales and marketing strategies in the catering, special event, cruise shipping and pharmaceutical space.

Connect: LinkedIn

Preparing New Agents for Customer Service Success

When hiring new agents, how quickly the agent can begin making a meaningful contribution is always a concern. After training, it is not logical to assume an agent is ready to begin taking phone calls. Unfortunately, managers may look at call volume, handle times and other similar metrics in making a decision to prematurely put new hires in contact with customers.

As individuals are different, we cannot assume a new hire is ready to assist customers just based on previous experiences we’ve had with other new hires.  It is important for managers to view each agent separately and begin identifying their individual needs. I have discovered that this is best done prior to bringing them in to the call center. With each new training class, I set aside time to sit in and monitor the agents. I look at how engaged they are, how quickly they grasp the material, and I keep track of the questions they ask. All of this helps create a plan that is unique to each agent before they enter the call center.

It must be noted, there is a standard plan I use when new agents are introduced to the floor. It is designed to be flexible and easily tailored to the needs of the agent. This is important as it allows the agent to learn at a pace that is best for them without feeling the pressure of trying to “keep up”.  Furthermore, it puts the agent in the best position to succeed and ensures the customer is being assisted by well trained and well equipped agents.

To ensure newly hired agents are getting off to the best possible start, try to concentrate on the following three areas:

Proper Staffing: When starting in support, allow the agent time to focus on Emails rather than Chat or Phone queues. This allows them time to review needed resources, and seek out assistance from peers or managers if necessary. In addition, this removes some of the angst felt when rushed onto the phones without thorough preparation.

Real-time Monitoring/Shadowing: Proper monitoring is the key to any new agent’s success. This should be frequent and consistent. When monitoring, observe the preparedness of the agent. Is the agent ready to assist when the interaction starts, or must the customer wait? How efficient is the agent? Evaluate their workflow to discover if there are any deficiencies in how the agent works. Minor changes here, can lead to better interactions for the agent and the customer.
Monitor a new hire for at least 30 minutes a day during their first month on the floor. This gives the agent insight into what the leadership team is looking for, and offers a chance to provide feedback on creating a great customer experience.

Timely Feedback/Coaching: Feedback should be given as swiftly as possible. To delay only reinforces bad habits and behaviors that may lead to bad customer experiences. Feedback is designed to help improve agents. Therefore, I would suggest keeping the tone positive. Rather than detailing what was done wrong, accentuate the positives and give suggestions on how to improve in those areas that are lacking. Also, seek input from the agent. They should be as invested in the process as you are. When they see you are eager to hear their opinions, it will only cause them to do better going forward.

I have over 15 years of progressive customer service leadership experience in the public, private and government sectors. I have led or consulted contact centers of various sizes across numerous industries. Additionally, I’ve implemented new technology and products, while maintaining award-winning contact centers.

Connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Why Should Core Values be Reflected in Your Customer Experience?

Core Values - The fundamental beliefs of a person or organization.

Core Values serve as the guiding light for how everyone in your company interacts, communicates and works with each other, external customers, and the community. The core values are the solid foundational building blocks on which your culture is built. They are your company's principles, beliefs, or philosophy of values.

Core Values provide the framework to help guide many business decisions. When weighing options - refer to the Core Values and the answer should become clear.

Core Values should be unique to your company. Just as your culture should only be able to describe your company alone, the Core Values follow the same idea. Consider examples of Core Values of the big names in business or your niche, but don’t copy them. Don’t try to be them. Try to be as impactful and distinct as they are… in your own way. Otherwise, customers won’t be able to state what is memorable about you and the way you work with them.

Avoid Truth, Integrity, Honesty, and Ethics as stated Core Values. Yes, I went there. My explanation… only because I feel these are inherent in any honestly run business. These will also likely be included in virtually every other company’s core values as well. Get to the Core Values that really mean something in a truly non-generic way. Your company Core Values shouldn’t be able to describe any company other than your own. So don’t include the ones that come standard with every other “Core Values Workshop” mindset. Let’s assume those as a given. If they can't be assumed, then you've got bigger issues than defining other Core Values.

Use phrases or sentences as Core Values to convey the meaning. A word to summarize the intent is great - but extend it with a sentence to demonstrate the meaning within your organization in a specific way. Example - Fun: We work hard, and we play hard. Fun should be included during the work day as well as our outside team activities.

Core Values MUST be exemplified at the leadership level. As with culture, leadership must model Core Values in their actions, behaviors, thoughts, and communications for them to be believed understood and embraced by staff. Should this not be the case, you’ll be lumped into the same category as the notorious, now defunct, Enron. As little as 18 months before their demise, Enron had crafted a Core Values list that was clearly only worth its weight on paper. Had they truly personified those core values, they might still be around today.

Core Values need to be evident in practice - not just written on a document because they sound good. After a visitor spends a day within your company, they should be able to look at your Core Values statement and they are evident by how the company and staff operate as a whole and were apparent and displayed in their own personal experience.

Core Values help in recruiting and hiring decisions. While I’m a huge advocate of diverse thinking and perspectives, the Core Values of staff personalities and characteristics should hold true to the company Core Values. These Core Values, along with your defined ideal culture, should be openly shared and discussed during the interview process. Pay particular attention to how they engage in this part of the interview. Share examples of how Core Values are internally and with external customers. Prompt discussions with candidates on how they might envision the Values being exemplified in the prospective - or past - roles. Their stories will display an accurate understanding of the Core Values and their creativity in displaying them to customers.

Core Values should serve as foundation and guidance, not limitations, for the folks you believe in and invest in to best represent your company and work with your customers. Similar to using the core values to guide business decisions, staff will use them in making daily decisions in their responsibilities. When deciding upon a course of action, if there is a Core Value to support one method vs another, the answer becomes clear. The Values, as a whole, should not be limiting in nature, but provide clarity and direction.

Core Values guide performance reviews. How well your staff lives by and exemplifies the core values of your company should be coached and rewarded. Let’s say you have “Taking Creative Risks” as one of your Core Values. If you have someone who does their job very well, gets along well with others, and customers rave about them personally… yet they take few - if any - risks, they should be coached in this area. First - be certain they really understand what taking creative risks means within your company. Share a few examples of creative risks that you yourself have taken or - concealing the identity - the risks that coworkers have taken. Since risks are never guaranteed as a positive outcome, be sure to share some that did and did not turn out as planned, but keep the way the risk was created and ventured for the benefit of the company or the customer as the main focus.

Core Values are ingrained by frequent and regular discussion and relevant stories. I’m a huge fan of daily and/or weekly team huddles. Have staff share stories about how a Core Value contributed a decision or action for a coworker or customer. Stories are how people relate, internalize, and learn information and concepts. Hearing examples from those around them, staff will start to build on those or take key components and create their own way of modeling those Values.

Embed the Core Values throughout the Customer Journey and Experience. When mapping out your Customer Experience, be sure the Core Values are consistent and evident in every phase and impact point. Pick key moments of influence in the customer journey and consider how the Values can be seen and felt by the customer in each. Have the Core Values in your marketing material, on your website, in the lunch room, conference rooms, walls, feature an “Employee of the Month” who models the Core Values in a newsletter, etc. Talk about them, discuss them, challenge them, find ways to integrate them into conversations.

By intentionally identifying, setting, and modeling Core Values, the more they will become the DNA of your company, distinguish you from your competitors, and make you memorable in the minds of your customers.

It's a beautiful thing...

Article reposted with permission of author.

Kristina Evey | Ever feel that you're just one win away from a major tipping point that will help you and your business stand out as the top tier in your industry? I create that "win" for motivated C-Suite and Leadership teams. I'm a Customer Experience Strategist who loves to help Leadership Teams demystify the process of shifting operational and business priorities to the customer perspective and seeing revenue increase. I like seeing the "A-Ha!" moments at the C-Suite level when they realize how simple changes make huge impacts both internally and externally. I help B2B companies build strong connections with their customers by engaging at all levels to consistently deliver unexpected and amazing experiences customers are so delighted with that price becomes irrelevant.

Connect: LinkedIn | Twitter

Build Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn

Looking to grow your career? Expand into consulting and management? Leverage your customer experience and call center knowledge to hit the speaking circuit? Building a personal brand on LinkedIn is the key to opening new doors. But where do you start? 

Successfully optimize your profile

1. Add a headline. Don't overthink it. This is meant to be a quick invitation as to why people should click on your profile. 
2. Update your summary. LinkedIn is a powerful tool but to take full advantage you need to be searchable and that comes from content and keywords. Plus, more context enables new connections and allows you to showcase your work. 
3. Use your cover image real estate wisely. You can use this space to showcase your personality and professional focus. Canva is a free and easy tool for creating custom cover images. 
4. Ensure your profile pic is set to public. This can easily be changed under LinkedIn's Privacy & Settings so that search engines and people not in your network can easily find you.
5. Publish content. Because LinkedIn supports a mobile experience, organic posts are more algorithm friendly than outside article links (LinkedIn wants you to stay on platform). Also, spacing between content is more SEO friendly so keep that in mind. 
   

Build an audience 

1. Grow your followers through strategic searches. Have you located coworkers, clients, partners, prospects and subject matter experts in your industry? Have you searched by hashtags, content and companies? Diligently build your audience through outreach and personalized messages.
2. Social media should mirror a conversation. Don’t just push information out. Teeing up topics and sharing them is not enough. You need to jump into conversations and provide value. Search by keyword and topic and add your feedback in the comments. Providing value is the best way to drive awareness of your personal brand. Plus, the beauty of social media is the transparent and level set nature of it. There’s no gate keeper so you can immediately become a fixture in important conversations among media, prospects, event organizers and brands.
3. Give recommendations and endorse colleagues as a way to build reciprocity. 

Get people’s attention:

1. Now that you’ve created a profile and built an audience – deploy a content strategy that works for you. Do you like writing? Prefer video? Be authentic with your voice.
2. Share your content and updates consistently and respond to all comments. LinkedIn weights comments even higher than likes so the more engagement per post the more your content will be served up in people’s feed.
3. Have fun! LinkedIn’s moment is now and it’s a hugely powerful tool for growing your brand. It’s a big runway for allowing you to connect, share, grow your side hustle or expand your business. So, dive in, start creating and let’s connect! 

Kathryn Frankson is a B2B event sales and marketing professional at UBM. A believer that 2018 communication means knowing how to get the markets attention through thumb stopping content, audience development and storytelling, she executes sales and marketing strategies in the catering, special event, cruise shipping and pharmaceutical space.

Connect: LinkedIn

"Follow The Leader", Featuring Janet Poklemba

How do you create actionable goals from the knowledge acquired at a conference? 

I’ve always considered conferences to be valuable experiences that allow me to learn more about our industry, and to stay on top of trends, technology and innovation. Connecting with peers is one of my favorite aspects of conference attendance, as we share wins and struggles of often relatable challenges. After a conference, I consider it very important to share the experience to help demonstrate how the investment pays off for our team.

Below are three tips to keep in mind to ensure your conference attendance results in action that helps to inspire, inform and move your business forward.

1. Aspiration! Many sessions I attend are aspirational. They help cultivate a vision of where our team could be in the future. I carry these ideas back to work to contribute to long term strategy sessions. I’m always interested in how other organizations are creating better insight, navigating new technology or providing proactive and predictive service. This helps to build the path to the contact center our team needs to be to help our customers.
2. Inspiration! Taking time to focus on my field is always inspiring to me. Customer Service people are awesome! There is so much information provided during a great conference that it can be difficult to remember so I’ve used Twitter to help me capture my moments of inspiration. Along with note taking during sessions, I tweet the key ideas that resonated with me. At the end of the conference, I review the tweets, pop them in a PowerPoint, and use them to help remember and share that inspiration with my team.
3. Collaboration! Connecting with peers in other industries is valuable in building your network ,and they are generous with their insight and experience. This network of peers is critical when you are looking at innovation in your own contact center. Having a trusted colleague to reach out to, and ask about technology choices or services you want to pilot in your call center, helps you to make better choices more quickly. It also lends credibility to your decisions by leveraging industry leaders that have been successful with similar initiatives.

I’ve met amazing people, who do great work for companies all around the world. If you have a chance to go to a conference, take that opportunity to learn, grow and share the inspiration and ideas with your team. Better yet, bring a few team members with you, and take advantage of more sessions, connections and collaboration!

Janet Poklemba has been in the business of customer service for over 20 years in a variety of call center leadership roles working both sides of the BPO model and managing in-sourced teams. She is passionate about the Customer Experience and all things digital to help reduce customer effort and bring the voice of the customer to the decision making table. Janet is experienced in multiple industries including telecommunications, satellite TV, home warranty, HVAC and consumer products.

Connect: LinkedIn | Twitter

What Makes A Great Leader?

By Kathy Holdaway

Good leaders make people feel that they're at the very heart of things, not at the periphery. Everyone feels that he or she makes a difference to the success of the organization. When that happens people feel centered and that gives their work meaning.
- Warren G. Bennis

Leadership is an art and a science. It is an art because it continually evolves, changes form, and requires creativity. It is a science because there are certain essential principles and techniques required. A good leader knows when it is time to change shape because they are highly attentive to those around them. Coming from a position of strength, a great leader takes risks by freeing up the creative genius in their followers to build their capability and multiply the talents of the organization. This leads to community and greatness. By powerfully communicating a vision that animates, motivates, and inspires followers, a great leader is able to transform his or her organization. A good leader needs to be able to laugh; a great leader needs to be able to laugh at oneself. What kind of leader are you? What makes a great leader?  

What qualities do leaders routinely exhibit? What do your followers want to know in order to believe in you? What are the words that lead them to believe you?

Consider the following as a beginning list of Qualities:

Cooperation Collaboration Consistent Creative Conscious Caring

Capable Courageous Innovation Understanding Integrity Sense of humor

Consider the following questions that relate to those qualities:

• Do you cooperate with the best in your people or do you demand from them?

• Do you routinely work with them to bring innovation and best practices to your organization or do you push your ideas on them?

• Are you consistent in demonstrating the principles of leadership you wish others to emulate, or do you vacillate in your own modeling?

• Do you encourage creativity with brainstorming or are your ideas the only ones that work?

• Are you conscious and present with your employees, or are you in a conversation in your head while with them?

• Do you balance caring in the choices you make that effect your organization or are you only interested in the bottom line?

• Are you the only one capable in your company, or do you unleash capability by empowerment through equality in responsibility and authority?

• How courageous are you? What does risk look like to you? Does your organization go through frequent paradigm shifts continually advancing your corporate vision?

• Do you foster a collaborative working environment or does your leadership style reflect mainly "telling?"

• Do you balance understanding with expectations on deadlines when the circumstances dictate?

• Do you model integrity? What does integrity look like to you?

• Are you able to laugh at yourself and laugh freely and openly with your leadership team?

One of the joys of coaching emerging leaders, is the well-spring of ideas that surfaces in the coaching conversation. I find that both new and the existing leaders understand the dynamics of leadership required for today's complex business environment. Many of them emulate the qualities covered above. Where do you stand?

I facilitate leaders to live into their highest capacities, build high performing teams and develop creative solutions to their challenges. The best leaders of today understand the necessity of being in a state of transformation to accommodate the changing landscape of the teams and companies they lead. It begins with how they represent themselves within and without their organization. If they seek to influence, have impact and create change, then being authentic, having an open mind and an open heart are foundational. LinkedIn | Twitter | Website

"Follow the Leader", Featuring Michael Sherlock

What are some guiding principles you follow, when developing new leaders?

I believe the most important element to the development of a leader is their ability to practice engaged active listening. It is so easy to think that you have (or have to have) all of the answers. And many people rise to a leadership position because of their abilities in this area. But when you operate as if you are the only one with the answers, you do yourself, and especially your team, and incredible disservice.

In order to lead others, you must be committed to their professional development. And that means ensuring that they have the opportunity to solve problems, and make mistakes, without fear. You can guide them, support them and ease their journey, by three simple steps: 

1. LISTEN fully, with your ears and your eyes 
2. Help them to UNPACK the problem or challenge
3.  Facilitate a SOLUTION that makes sense 

Rather than jump quickly towards an answer, use the "Tell Me More" principle of asking enough questions that your employee releases all key pieces of information. This requires patience on your part, and the mindset of an investigator. It takes more time, but is well worth the effort, especially when your employee works through the overall issue. Sometimes this process alone highlights that there really is no problem.

Once all the key pieces of information are brought to light, look at them objectively. Imagine a suitcase that was stuffed so full you couldn’t zip is shut, even if you sat on it. You have to take everything out to see if it can all fit if repacked. And sometimes that means leaving some things behind, like unnecessary emotions.

Finally, when all the facts are seen clearly, you can help guide your employee to a solution that makes sense. But let them see it, come up with it, and agree to their plan. You can still help guide and direct if their solution seems incorrect, but they opportunity to see a path for themselves will build their confidence and experience.

If you’ve always been the one who has the answer and makes the smart moves, how much will your team benefit from being able to show you what they are made of? And what will THEIR success mean to your own?

Michael Sherlock is a business writer, author, speaker and podcast host. As a Vice President of US Sales for two multi-national medical device companies, Michael has managed net revenue exceeding $50 million and managed as many as 500 employees at a time.

Mrs. Sherlock provides corporations and business leaders with engaging presentations and actionable strategies on leadership, employee development, customer experience, and sales transformation. In addition, Michael hosts the Shock Your Potential podcast where she highlights the best in leadership, sales and customer experiences. The Shock Your Potential Podcast is available via iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and your favorite podcast apps, as well as online.

Connect: Website | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Can Anyone Lead?

By Kathy Holdaway

What does leadership look like when you are not the one in charge? How does your way of being, create a collaborative environment? How do you show up every day?

Leadership starts with who you are on the inside. Being who you are, is the greatest gift we could ever receive from you. I wonder what practices keep you in tune with who you are, so that wherever you go, there you are. The bright shining light that stands in strengths, is a beacon to others. Be the person who demonstrates the best qualities with everyone at every moment. This place it is what people are magnetized by. Something about you stands out, as a result.

Because you are being genuine, and offering the best version of yourself, the person on the receiving end feels your contribution. They want to go where you are going, and become who you are being.

“Wherever you go, go with all your heart.”— Confucius

I think this is important especially in today’s leader environment! When I talk about practices, I am referring to what keeps you in the arena of integrity. It could be a practice of mindfulness that comes from inner awareness and being attuned to yourself, your environment, and the people around you.  It could be meditation, being at one with nature, or connection to the place within that keeps you calm. You get to choose what works best for you! 

Leaders practice effective listening skills. They are not thinking of the next thing to say; they are present in the conversation listening on multiple levels.  Leaders are committed to their personal and professional development, and are generally life-long learners. They know they can always learn from others no matter their station, position, culture or environment. The best leaders create space for you to grow into your greatness, and stretch your capabilities and capacities.

“Since in order to speak, one must first listen, learn to speak by listening.”— Rumi

Today, leadership is moving toward a more conscientious model, where every stakeholder is considered. This includes those internal and external. Today's leader has a broader outlook on people.  Consider how you might begin to ignite that in your workplace. Some of the qualities of a more conscious leader are compassion, empathy, integrity, transparency, gratitude and commitment to values. Exceptional leaders allow each person to be who they are, while inviting them to grow into their strengths.

And for my contributing quote, I challenge you to “Lead yourself and others to greatness, by simply being yourself”. If someone practices this, would you consider them a leader? 

Kathy Holdaway is a Transformational Coach and Consultant for Leader Development, Leader Transition and business growth with leaders, emerging leaders and founders who desire to lead by being who they are in their authentic power delivering with impact and sustainability. 

Her experience includes: 10+ years successfully coached over 100+ national and international coaching clients to include business owners, and mid-level executives in effectively removing barriers to their success focusing on mindset, leadership skills and strategic engagement. Previously in her corporate career of 19 years, she facilitated the growth of sales team, led them to be winning teams, and promoting many to  management roles.

Connect: Twitter | LinkedIn 

Employee Engagement: Why is it Important?

By Jacqueline Santiago

Every employer should know they are at risk of high employee turnover, which is why employee engagement is so important. Implementing strategies is more than just providing surveys. You have to be fully committed by understanding the principles of employee engagement. Some of which are: 

• Culture
• Leadership
• Purpose
• Action
• Transparency
• Commitment
• Recognition
  

The purpose is to have an engaged culture, which will make people stay, and go above and beyond what is expected. Because of engagement, staff will feel a sense of purpose and belonging. This can be done when leadership incorporates the organizations mission, vison and values in everything that they do. Rather than just talking about it at meetings, or when employee turnover has become a problem, engagement should be a core component of the business.

You must make employee engagement a primary focus, on a daily basis. In addition, be open to feedback that is positive or negative. When talking to employees, I find that it is the little things, that often matter the most. Often, associates simply want their value acknowledged, and their good efforts recognized. Sometimes, leadership can forget about those who are the foundation of the organization. Don't wait until it's too late.

Ambitious and driven professional offering years of expertise in Human Resources, Operations and Recruiting. My desire to exceed expectations combined with strong leadership skills has fostered my ability to be a performance driven team player. I possess the 5A’s: Alignment, Assessment, Accountability, Awareness, and Appreciation. The passion that I have allows me to be a professional with an extensive knowledge of Employee Relations.

Follow: LinkedIn

Demonstrate Value in Your Role

By Chris Truitt

Early in my career I learned of the importance of showing value. I survived numerous acquisitions due to my willingness to take on more responsibility and build a skill set that was scarce. Whenever I saw an opportunity I took it. If there was an app or a tool that was useful for my team, I read up on it, watch video tutorials and took available training. I’ve written wiki articles and if no one saw value in my contribution, I wrote the article anyway and saved it on my own cloud drive. I didn’t seek credit or reward for my contribution, at least not at first.  It just needed to be done and I knew in time someone would inquire about a process that I would have some insight to. Initially my motives for taking this action were not out of ambition or giving 100%. In truth, they were out of self preservation. But through difficult times often comes opportunity, which eventually allowed me to bring my skill set and business philosophy into a leadership role.

My initial thinking of what makes a good manager was to look back on all the managers that I didn’t like or things that were done or said that I would say or do differently. The things that I didn’t like or find helpful, I wouldn’t do. Seemed pretty simple at first, but I had primarily managed processes at the time. Processes can be challenging, but processes don’t have a bad day or bring their home problems to work. Processes don’t require one on ones or empathy. Processes won’t challenge you or require you to come out of your comfort zone. People will! They will not all share your business philosophy, no matter how obviously correct you believe yourself to be. It was my responsibility to serve my team, to ensure that I clearly articulate the corporate vision and that they understand our direction. Their failure was my failure and their success was due to their own contributions, and I did what I could to see that they were recognized for it.

My philosophy to show or demonstrate value never changed. I brought it with me as I moved up. But not everyone understood or supported this creed. A team member once vented his frustration that our team was a dumping ground for things people don’t understand or don’t want to do. My response was "Yes, but we are still here. We may be the only ones here that are capable of handling this task. We are developing an understanding that is scarce and holds value and people are taking notice."

I began to understand the mindset of my team, and in time I understood the mindset of the leaders I reported to. I would take notes on every question that was asked of me and try to anticipate these types of questions when creating reports and demonstrations. Value is to a degree subjective, and there are certainly people that work very hard that have experienced layoffs or have not gotten the recognition they deserve. I find that extending oneself out of the comfort zone, building a skill set and doing what one must to stand out from the pack will prove to beneficial more often than not.

Chris Truitt is an Email Deliverability Manager with over 11 years of experience. During this time, Chris has consulted with many clients, large and small on best practices and provided strategic guidance on improving inbox placement. His objective is to help businesses on realizing their full marketing potential by first understanding the customer’s needs and interests and structuring alignment of the marketing campaign to meet those needs. As a pragmatist, Chris has an analytical, result oriented approach to business. He believes a dive into data and historical performance can lead us to making well informed decisions. In his new role he has had an opportunity to offer insight to executive leaders and contributed to key decisions and business strategy. Chris resides in Raleigh North Carolina where he lives with his wife and their two sons.

Connect: LinkedIn | Twitter

Your Team Meetings Suck (But They Don't Have To)

By Matt Beckwith

Contact centers of all shapes and sizes often have lots of similarities. One thing I have found to be true across most companies is this shocker: contact center team meetings suck! And another thing that is generally true is that your team members may not tell you they suck. Why? Because they crave the time off the phones!

At the beginning of my contact center career I lived through some awful team meetings. Nothing got done, but again, it was time away from the phone. When I first became a supervisor, I vowed to change that. I just couldn’t take it anymore and I started the journey to improve my team meetings. I asked my team members for feedback, consulted with other successful leaders, and read everything I could on the subject of making meetings more effective.

Here’s what I learned: most team meetings suck because their leaders don’t take them seriously. So, no surprise, their team members don’t either. Nothing gets accomplished. There’s no follow up. No one gets to shine. Team meetings have just become one thing: time off the phone!

But, not any more. Your team meetings don’t have to suck! Here are 8 tips to make your team meetings more productive.

1. Determine why you need to have a team meeting in the first place. Don’t have a team meeting just for the sake of having a team meeting! Is the goal to communicate changes to everyone? If so, is a team meeting the most beneficial way to accomplish that? Are you trying to reinforce something? Do you have a guiding principle for your team meetings? In my organization, the goal of our team meetings is to communicate updates and give team members a chance to be part of the process of communicating updates.

2. Create ground rules with input from all of your team members. Do you want your team members to be engaged and to feel invested in your team meetings? Of course you do. Then ask them for input on ground rules. If the team thinks something is important, keep it, otherwise get rid of it. And review your ground rules every year. Some leaders wrongly believe they have to make all the rules. Ask your team members to help come up with the ground rules and they’ll come up with many of the same rules you would have and even some ones you likely wouldn’t have thought of. Here are some of our rules:

• Be respectful of everyone in the meeting. Don’t interrupt people when they are speaking.
• Limit distractions. If you need to take a phone call during the meeting, quietly excuse yourself from the room.
• Team meetings aren’t mandatory. Yep, you read that right. If you want your team meetings to get better, stop requiring people to come to them! There is already enough “mandatory”, “required”, and “compulsory” in the workplace. I have two requirements regarding this. If a team member doesn’t want to attend a meeting, they just need to let their supervisor know, and the supervisor won’t give them any grief. Also, the team member will need to read the meeting notes. There is real power in telling your team members that your team meetings aren’t mandatory. Try it! In more than 10 years of having this rule I have only seen it used two times.
• No candy means no meeting. Our team members came up with this one a few years ago and it always puts a smile on the faces of our new hires. Our leaders always make sure we have a full candy dish before any team meeting. And I’m not talking about wintergreen Lifesavers! Bring that and they will revolt. They like snickers (Fun Size, not the Minis!), M&Ms, and anything sour.

3. Always have an agenda. Yes, an actual agenda that includes a single owner or speaker per topic. I have seen amazing results when a team member is given the opportunity to be responsible for gathering potential agenda topics from the team and creating the agenda. Give team members the opportunity to present in team meetings. It’s a great skill in which to coach a strong performer. We generally have monthly team meetings, and the agenda process begins about two weeks before each team meeting.

4. Have an official note taker. Although it doesn’t have to be, I have had great success with the note taker being the same team member that is responsible for the agenda. The note taker isn’t “taking minutes” but rather, recording questions, answers, decisions, agreements, and open items and tasks. It is crucial to distribute the notes shortly after each team meeting. For fun, bury an occasional “Easter egg" in your published notes. Last month we added a random bullet point that read, “the first person to tell Matt that they like the number 11 wins a free lunch". This isn’t creating incentive for people to “just do their job", it’s helping to build a habit and having fun.

5. Close open items or agree on next steps. It’s not enough to just document open items in the meeting notes, you have to get closure on them. If someone asks a question and the answer needs to be researched, then document it. Very little kills trust in a leader faster than the perception that they just sweep team members' concerns under the rug.

6. Always allow time for questions and answers. Give your team members the opportunity to ask questions of their supervisor and teammates.

7. Ask for feedback! Talk to your team members. Ask them individually if they need anything additional from team meetings. I like to ask what we can do more of and what can we do less of, it gets more responses than asking, “do you need anything else from our team meetings?”.

8. Take meetings seriously but don’t take yourself so seriously! Have some fun! For many years, my teams have done “Two Truths and a Lie” at the end of team meetings. It’s a simple game. A volunteer or two writes down three things about themselves, two of them are true and one is a lie. Someone else reads the three things and the team guesses which one is a lie. It’s a fun way to learn about your co-workers. Team meetings can be a powerful communication tool for contact centers, provided that they are not a colossal waste of time and energy. Team members should want to go to team meetings, and not just because they want an hour off of the phones.

Matt Beckwith is proud to be a Contact Center Geek. Since putting on the headset for the first time as a 411 operator, he has spent more than 20 years leading customer service and sales call centers in different industries. His passion for customer service and experience, technology, leadership, and professional development has led him to his current role leading customer contact operations for Clark Pest Control, one of the largest and most successful pest control companies in the US. Matt also serves as a steering committee member for the Northern California Contact Center Association.

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