Steve Pope, Head of Contact Centre at Harlands Group, shares three methods of improving leadership throughout the contact centre team.
Harlands 集團聯絡中心負責人史蒂夫?波普分享了提高整個聯絡中心團隊領導力的三種方法
One basic aim of leadership is getting the best out of other people and this is crucial in contact centres because we’ve generally got so many people to lead.
領導力的一個基本目標是讓其他人發揮最大的作用，這在呼叫中心是至關重要的，因為我們通常需要很多人來領導。
With ever more demanding generations entering the workforce, it’s imperative we find new ways to engage, develop and empower them, so they do their very best work with us, every day.
隨著更多要求的新一代員工步入職場，我們必須找到新的方式去讓他們更好地參與，并培養和賦能于他們，從而使他們每天都能有最好的工作狀態。
In my experience, putting agents first results in high employee engagement and great customer service. Embodying a culture that develops leadership skills for everyone on the team always produces better performance results. There are better methods than old-school command and control management.
以我的經驗，把員工放在首位將會帶來較高的員工參與度和良好的客戶服務。具體體現為在團隊中發展領導力技巧將產生的更好績效結果的文化。總的來說，相較老式的指揮和控制管理，有許多更好的方法。
Over my 19 years of contact centre management, I’ve adapted three sure-fire engagement methods to develop leadership at every level, which are presented below.
在我19年的呼叫中心管理生涯中，我采用了三種有效的方法來培養各層級的領導力，如下所示：
1. Find Meaning in the Work – Tell the team why what they do is so important
1、尋找工作的意義——告訴團隊為什么他們所做的事情如此重要
In his well-known TED Talk “How great leaders inspire action”, Simon Sinek explores how leaders can inspire cooperation, trust and change with a simple leadership model. Applying this model in the contact centre creates an environment which helps your agents to do their best work for you.
Simon Sinek在他著名的TED演講“偉大的領導者如何激發他人更好地行動“中探討了領導者如何通過簡單的領導模式來激發合作與信任，并用簡單的領導力模型來進行改變。在聯系中心中應用此模型可以創建一個幫助客服代表盡他們所能做好工作的環境。
Every company knows what they do. A product or service is provided to generate value. And contact centre exist as a support for customers who need help to get what they need.
每個公司都知道他們自己在做什么。提供產品或服務是為了產生價值，而聯絡中心的存在是為了幫助那些需要幫助的客戶。
Some organization know how they do what they do to set them apart from the competition. Contact centre management should have standards(For example the 4PS standard) which tell their team how they’re going to deliver service including quality assurance and call handling metrics.
一些組織知道如何做才能在競爭中脫穎而出。呼叫中心管理層應該有標準（比如4PS標準）去告訴他們的團隊他們將如何提供服務，包括質量保證和呼叫處理指標。
Not every organization knows why they exist in the first place. What is the purpose of the business? What does it stand for and why does this matter? This same principle applies to the contact centre team – they need both a purpose and a set of values to help them create their identity and be clear on how their success is measured.
并不是每個組織都知道它們最初存在的原因是什么？商業的目的是什么?它代表什么?為什么這很重要?
其實，同樣的原則也適用于呼叫中心團隊--他們需要一個目標和一套價值觀來幫助他們創建自己的企業形象與特性，并清楚地知道如何衡量他們的成功。
If I want to get the best out of my team, then I always need the business to agree a vision of the contact centre’s purpose. In my current organization our purpose is summed up as; “Making every client’s life easier”.
如果我想從我的團隊中得到最好的東西，那么我需要同意聯絡中心對于自己目標的憧憬。在我目前的組織中，我們的目標總結為:“讓每個客戶的生活更輕松”。
My contact centre team has broken this down into a strap line which is: “Get it right first time and build a positive relationship with every member, on every contact”. This is supported by a set of behavior and high standards which we’ve committed to living every day.
我的呼叫中心團隊已經把這句話落實為：“第一次就做好，在每一次聯絡過程中與每一位成員建立正向積極友好的關系。”這是由我們每天所致力的一系列行為和高標準來支持的。
For example, in our daily team huddles, one of our priorities is to continuously improve customer processes. Each leader will ask their agents:
例如，在我們的日常團隊會議中，我們的優先事項之一是不斷改進與客戶相關的流程。每位管理者都會問他們的下屬:
· What’s stopping us getting it right the first time?
· 是什么阻止我們第一次就為客戶提供正確而良好的服務?
· What’s the root cause?
· 根本原因是什么?
· Is it a bad process?
· 這個流程不好嗎?
· Do our systems make it hard for you or is our behaviour getting in your way?
· 我們的管理體系或工作行為是否又礙于為客戶提供良好的服務？
· How could we do this better than we do today?
· 我們怎樣才能做得比今天更好呢?
We take their ideas, do an impact analysis, then work with our clients to implement the change.
管理者會接受員工的反饋與意見，并進行影響度分析，然后服務客戶的過程中改變流程。
Asking for feedback from the team helps them feel included as decision makers in day-to-day operations.
從團隊中尋求反饋與建議，將使團隊成員在日常運營感覺自己是決策者，從而更有利于開展工作。
2. Building High Standards – Agree how you will behave to get the work done
2、建立高標準-同意你將如何表現來完成工作
I think we can all agree that Jeff Bezos has set the bar for high standards within a company. In a recent letter to Amazon shareholders, he explained that building a culture of high standards is well worth the effort as it enables the business to create better products and services for its customers and it can help attract and retain high-calibre employees.
我想我們都認同亞馬遜CEO杰夫·貝佐斯為公司所設定的高標準。在最近給亞馬遜股東的一封信中，貝佐斯解釋說，建立高標準的企業文化是非常值得的，因為它能讓企業為客戶創造更好的產品和服務，還能幫助吸引和留住高素質的員工。
The standards are teachable and domain specific which means we need them to be crafted explicitly for the contact centre.
這些標準是可傳授可培訓的，并且它是適用于特定領域的，這意味著我們需要為聯絡中心明確制定這些標準。
Here are three practical examples of high standards in my current team:
以下是我目前團隊中三個高標準的實際例子:
i. The Daily Team Huddle – In project management, management know the value of spending 15 minutes every morning with the team. This can be applied in any work environment.
一、每日團隊會議——在項目管理中，管理者知道每天早上花15分鐘與團隊在一起開會或交流的價值。這適用于任何工作環境。
Group huddles are a popular way of communicating with the team, with contact centres like Fat Face’s in Havant?also using the initiative.
小組碰頭是與團隊交流的一種流行方式，哈凡特的Fat Face等聯絡中心也采用了這種方式。
Everyone gets a chance to speak about what they’ve been working on, how they’re managing their time, and what their work priority is for the day. It’s a team coaching session where agents can ask for help with a problem and get advice from their peers.
通過這樣的碰頭會，每個員工都有機會談論他們在做什么，他們是如何管理時間的，以及他們當天的工作重點是什么。這是一個團隊指導會議，在這里，客服代表可以就問題尋求幫助，并從他們的同事那里得到建議。
ii. Weekly Lunch and Learns – A common trait among good leaders is the willingness to learn and consider new ideas to drive efficiency. Every week, a new topic is discussed with a recent session being focused on “process automation”.
二、每周午餐和學習——優秀領導者的一個共同特點是愿意學習和考慮新想法來提高效率。每周都會有一個新主題被討論，最近的一個會議的主題是“流程自動化”。
From their front-end experience, our agents came up with three ideas to improve the service they give to clients. These ideas led to systems being automated which resulted in a cost saving of one FTE per day. This practice empowers agents to come up with improvement solutions where they’re really needed.
因為具有豐富的一線經驗，我們的座席代表提出了改善提供給客戶的服務的三個想法。
這些想法導致了有效的系統自動化，并因此每天節省一個FTE（全職 員工）的成本。這種實踐授權和鼓勵員工在真正需要的地方提出改進解決方案。
iii. Monthly Leader/Agent meeting – These crucial meetings help us understand where an agent is in their career development. Agents share their achievements and struggles, and we focus on helping them find their true strengths – the parts of the job that light them up and help them do their very best work.
三、每月領導/座席代表會議 --這些重要的會議幫助我們了解客服代表的職業發展。客服代表分享他們的工作成就和奮斗，我們專注于幫助他們找到真正的長項--工作中讓他們耀眼而有成就的那部分，從而幫助他們把工作做到最好。
3. Strength Spotting – How we help agents motivate themselves to do their best work
3、發現優勢--幫助員工激勵自己竭盡所能做好工作
One good outcome of having these types of high standards is the relentless focus on personal development.
擁有這些高標準的一個好結果就是對個人發展的不懈關注。
Over the years, I’ve noticed that many leaders focus their agents on developing weaknesses which are directly relevant to the job such as having high average handle times or poor customer satisfaction scores.
多年來，我注意到許多管理者將注意力集中員工如何提高與工作直接相關的弱點上，比如平均處理時間長或客戶滿意度得分。
Whilse these are important performance gaps; they shouldn’t dominate conversations between leader and agent otherwise you might end up with a parent/child relationship.
雖然這些是重要的性能差距，但他們不應該控制及支配管理者和員工之間的對話，否則你可能會以某些父母和孩子的糟糕對話而形成的不好關系結束。
Strengths spotting – a deliberate practice where leaders look for the
發現優勢--領導者尋找優勢的一種深思熟慮的做法
Behaviors that drive positive outcomes.
驅動積極結果的行為
I help my teams improve their performance by actively helping each person understand where they are excellent and giving them the chance to exploit this as an opportunity to shine. This is strengths spotting – a deliberate practice where leaders look for the behaviours that drive positive outcomes.
我通過積極幫助每個人了解他們的優秀之處來幫助我的團隊提高他們的表現，并給他們機會來發揮長項。這就是發現優勢--一種經過深思熟慮的做法，領導者通常擅長于尋找那些能帶來積極結果的行為。
Over the last 12 months, more than 20% of my contact centre team has been promoted to bigger roles across our organisation. This has happened because their leaders helped them identify what motivates them to do their best work and then gave each of them the opportunity to showcase this strength.
在過去的12個月里，我的呼叫中心團隊中有超過20%的人被提升到公司的更高職位。之所以會出現這種情況，是因為他們的領導者幫助他們找到激勵他們盡最大努力的動力，然后給他們每個人展示這種長項的機會。
Contact centre agents are invaluable not just because they directly interact with your customers but also because they can provide insights into how the company really works, what customers think and how processes can be improved. And it creates a real sense of pride in their work which is a sure sign of engagement.
聯系中心的員工是無價的，不僅因為它們直接與客戶交互，還因為它們可以洞察公司的實際運作方式、客戶的想法以及流程如何改進。這為他們的工作創造了一種真正的自豪感，這是一種參與的跡象。
Summary/總結
Over the years, I’ve found that employing three leadership tactics in the contact centre delivers a more motivated and more developed team.
多年來，我發現在呼叫中心采用三種領導策略，可以讓團隊更有動力、更成熟。
Firstly, give meaning to your people so they can connect with their work. Secondly, agree and commit to high standards so everyone knows what’s expected of them. Thirdly, deliberately look for strengths in each person so they can excel in their work.
首先，給你的員工賦予意義，這樣他們就能與他們的工作聯系起來；
其次，同意并承諾高標準，讓每個員工都知道你對他們的期望是什么；
