KARLA PORTER

It could be that there is no other indus­try that does a bet­ter job at pro­mot­ing from within the ranks than call cen­ter. That sounds great on the sur­face but it’s also an indus­try that tops the charts in turnover. We have all read the sta­tis­tics on why peo­ple leave their job.. the num­ber one rea­son never seems to change. Peo­ple leave because of their direct supervisor.

Cindy gets an entry level job as a rep and she’s a nat­ural. She works well inde­pen­dently, doesn’t need hand hold­ing, has great atten­dance and plenty of com­pli­ment calls. She meets the goals then exceeds them and becomes a top agent. A super­vi­sor posi­tion opens up and she applies. Man­age­ment is so enam­ored with Cindy she’s a shoo-in and gets the posi­tion. It’s party time.

It should be fright fest. The same qual­i­ties that made her a stel­lar agent may in fact not make her a fit at all for a lead­er­ship role. Her high need to please peo­ple, focus on one call at a time, work inde­pen­dently and never devi­ate from a script are not desired lead­er­ship qual­i­ties. Cindy is being set up for fail­ure not suc­cess unless before she jumps into her new role the com­pany has an estab­lished train­ing pro­gram for new lead­ers. Not only is she at risk, so is the staff that will report to her.

Lead­er­ship train­ing in the call cen­ter world where billing is per hour (or call or minute) per body is rare. It’s so fast paced most pro­mo­tions occur due to a painful sud­den vacancy or gap due to growth. The phi­los­o­phy of hir­ing from within an orga­ni­za­tion that has few lead­er­ship posi­tions is viewed as a huge ben­e­fit and keeps agents dan­gling and dream­ing. Most new lead­ers spend a few days job shad­ow­ing another over­worked under­paid col­league singing deja vu under their breath wish­ing the under­ling would go away so they could get some work done.

Call cen­ters are just an exam­ple that stands out in my mind from per­sonal expe­ri­ence of hand hold­ing new super­vi­sors and man­agers who don’t know the first thing about man­ag­ing peo­ple that are not on the other end of a phone line. Sadly, just like many of the agents they are dumped into man­ag­ing, they often don’t last very long and often they take peo­ple down with them. Sales orga­ni­za­tions and retail are sim­i­larly prone to pro­mot­ing top pro­duc­ers who lack admin­is­tra­tive dis­ci­pline (cool impres­sive qual­i­fi­ca­tion, huh?).

What if you find your­self in that posi­tion? I would sug­gest ask­ing about pro­fes­sional devel­op­ment oppor­tu­nity and train­ing in the inter­view. How­ever, if you know none exists you’ll shoot your­self in the foot ask­ing that. But do have a dis­cus­sion with your­self and some­one out­side of work that you trust to weigh the pros and cons of jump­ing into a fire face first. Because you’re going to accept the offer if extended to you, that was just an exer­cise in weigh­ing pros and cons, mostly for posterity’s sake.

Accept the offer and celebrate!

When you come down from cloud nine it’s impor­tant to rec­og­nize your strengths in prod­uct knowl­edge, per­sua­sive­ness, patience and abil­ity to learn new things and apply them quickly. It’s even more impor­tant to rec­og­nize you have a lot to learn and have been given a sig­nif­i­cant oppor­tu­nity to prove just how Hou­dini you are and sur­prise the masses.

• Assem­ble a per­sonal advi­sory board of pro­fes­sion­als you trust that are will­ing to men­tor you and be a sound­ing board
• Book­mark and devote time daily to The Free Non­profit Micro-eMBA℠
• Make a visit to your HR Man­ager and ask for a recur­ring weekly appoint­ment to learn how to deal with employee rela­tions issues and review com­pany pol­icy in detail until you’re up to speed
• Join the Amer­i­can Man­age­ment Association’s site for free and take advan­tage of as many free webi­nars as you pos­si­bly can
• Take advan­tage of any tuition reim­burse­ment avail­able through your employer to take man­age­ment and busi­ness classes at your local com­mu­nity col­lege where the funds will go much fur­ther than at a 4 yr school
• If not pro­vided to you, ask for a devel­op­ment plan with spe­cific SMART goals
• Ensure you under­stand guide­lines con­cern­ing employee / man­ager rela­tion­ships and act accordingly

The road can be pretty bumpy and can affect your per­sonal and home rela­tion­ships if you allow it so use your per­sonal advi­sory board and trusted friends you don’t work with to guide and lis­ten to you. Tak­ing your job home with you will cre­ate a train wreck and so will con­fid­ing in your ex-peers. Ask for fre­quent feed­back from your man­ager and request coach­ing ses­sions if they are not sched­uled for you for at least the first year.

Becom­ing a suc­cess­ful leader can be like climb­ing the moun­tain in The Lit­tle Engine that Could. It’s not for every­one and you just may find it’s not your thing after all. You’ll find out by giv­ing it all you have and an hon­est chance. You just might find it’s exhil­a­rat­ing, ful­fill­ing and rewarding.

Good luck, here’s to your success!