Team Leaders, is your contact centre team prepared for the challenges of peak seasons and ready to emerge stronger?
Join us for a discussion on resilience – a crucial trait for thriving in the demanding environment of a contact centre. We’ll tap into Dr. Kenneth Ginsberg’s insights on the Seven Cs of resilience, covering competence, connection, coping, and more.
Discover how to boost resilience in your team, with a focus on the pivotal role of team leaders in recognising and enhancing resilience, from honing skills to fostering creative problem-solving.
Next, we explore the power of connection within teams, highlighting open communication, clear roles, and the impact of storytelling. We’ll also address coping mechanisms and the significance of taking ownership of decisions, showcasing how resilience transforms contact centre dynamics.
By the end, you’ll grasp the importance of resilience and gain a roadmap for creating a supportive, growth-oriented workplace.
Tune in to empower your team not just to survive but thrive!
Find more useful and essential contact centre development from realitytraining.com
Team Leaders, is your contact centre team prepared for the challenges of peak seasons and ready to emerge stronger?
Join us for a discussion on resilience – a crucial trait for thriving in the demanding environment of a contact centre. We’ll tap into Dr. Kenneth Ginsberg’s insights on the Seven Cs of resilience, covering competence, connection, coping, and more.
Discover how to boost resilience in your team, with a focus on the pivotal role of team leaders in recognising and enhancing resilience, from honing skills to fostering creative problem-solving.
Next, we explore the power of connection within teams, highlighting open communication, clear roles, and the impact of storytelling. We’ll also address coping mechanisms and the significance of taking ownership of decisions, showcasing how resilience transforms contact centre dynamics.
By the end, you’ll grasp the importance of resilience and gain a roadmap for creating a supportive, growth-oriented workplace.
Tune in to empower your team not just to survive but thrive!
Find more useful and essential contact centre development from realitytraining.com
Speaker 1:
Contact Center Focus the reality training podcast. Hello and welcome to another episode of Contact Center Focus. This episode is focused on Contact Center, called Center Team Leaders, and we're thinking about resilience. We're thinking about how you, as a leader, can build, create and install a feeling of resilience in your team, because we're recording this now in December and we know that there are some very busy peak periods around at the moment. We just had Black Friday, we're moving in towards the festive season, then we've got January sales and interesting economic things taking place at the moment. So there are always busier times than others, seasonal fluctuations and some of those times can be pretty tough, and one of the things we all know about working in a Contact Center is that you need a bit of resilience to keep you going through those difficult times. So we've got a few tips and ideas that, as a team leader someone who's closest to those who are actually engaging with customers how you can actually make sure that that resilience is built. Jeremy.
Speaker 2:
Yes, indeed. Well, mine is just one single piece of research, but I could dart between mine and yours. I'll set mine up and give you the first. So I started to research this topic of resilience and this one thing stood out to me above all others, and it's a doctor. He's called Dr Kenneth Jinsberg and he has been studying resilience in teens for years and years, but of course, his work extends to adults all of us how do we become resilient? And he's created a thing called the Seven Seas. He's a pediatric professor at the University of Philadelphia and he also practices in all of this, adolescent medicine.
Speaker 2:
And I thought this is amazing and I haven't come across this, and this can be incredibly useful to me, my teens, but to anybody listening, it's just so clear on how you foster resilience and how, as a team leader, you can help your team build, if you like, these Seven Seas. So I'll kick off with the first one, and that it's really simple. It's competence. If you've got a team member that isn't equipped to do the job they're going to do, they're going to be less resilient. So if it's, their listening skills are poor, they don't understand the product well enough, they struggle to sell, they hate negotiating. It's so obvious, but it's so brilliant that we just start with what is the level of competence, because if the person isn't equipped, they're going to be less resilient. That's my number one of the Seven Seas and I'll cut back to you, bobby, and I'll dart in and out of the rest of the six.
Speaker 1:
So my first one is around the team leaders focus, and team leaders may feel that they are very resilient themselves. Maybe they are a team leader because they're so resilient. Part of your job, though, is to look at your team and consider the stages or the level of resilience of those five 10 people that you're managing at the moment. Through empathy, you can look at those individuals and go okay, this person's good, they're solid, they've got a good level of resilience. They need to be encouraged. This person has a lower level of resilience.
Speaker 1:
I need to make sure that I understand what motivates and helps them through a tougher time. Now, that's just the team leaders point of view, but actually, if your entire team understands the different levels that people are operating at, that is going to help everyone move forward. So, to actually have a conversation about this about through tougher times, things get pressurized. We have a lot of things placed on us. If your team is aware of that and understands that, but also understands the different types who are within that team, that's going to empower a feeling of more resilience through those times.
Speaker 2:
Jeremy. Number two is confidence. So if you've got enough belief in your own abilities, that's what I just talked about a minute ago. Competence the thing that gives you confidence is demonstrating you can do it. So when you do it and other people hear you, hey, wow, that was good, that was beautiful, I could hear it. Oh, so clear. It's the demonstration of your competence that builds your confidence. So you can't do this alone. You need to be watched, listen to shown. Other people can see you have ability. Then you go hey, and then you start to grow in confidence. So it's allowing somebody, if you like, the feedback and the fact you've noticed they are competent. That's what makes somebody growing confidence.
Speaker 1:
My next one is as a team. It's great to understand how you, as a group, respond to challenges and challenging times, and it's not just a case of well, it gets harder. Therefore, we need to work harder or work longer or whatever it may be. Through these conversations, we can engage creativity, because within a group of people will be ideas of how to do things differently, how to prioritize things differently, how to Help each other through tough times, and those creative conversations can be very, very motivational. So how to respond to those challenges using creative solutions and creative discussions will be helpful.
Speaker 2:
Great. My number three is connection. The third C is connection. So if you imagine Anxious or people who are struggling to fit in, if they'd have enough connections, then they don't feel connected. So one of the team leaders jobs is to connect the team up. This doesn't have to be done on a team night out, it could be just done at work, with Beginning to sort of introduce people, getting to know each other a bit more, bringing the shy one in more, all that sort of stuff. If you can build connections in your team, then you're going to have a team that feels they've got somebody's got their back. So I really see that as an important job rather than hey, guys, here you all are, get on with it. You're building those internal connections.
Speaker 1:
Well, that feeds into my next one as well, which is being absolutely clear on when, who and how you ask for help. So that's really, really important that people are able to share their knowledge and skill, but also that people are able to say, look, I'm really struggling with this, can you help me with it? And the team will rally around that person and share their experiences. So that's important.
Speaker 2:
Contact Center agents. Make sure you're sharing CCF with your colleagues. The short podcasts from reality training are perfect for huddles, buzz sessions, learning sessions and group coaching. For more info on how reality training transforms contact centres, visit realitytrainingcom and get in touch. My next one is character. When we talk about characters, haha, it's just like somebody is funny or amusing. That's part of it. But the other thing is having a very strong, defined character. Everybody in the team knows what is right and what is wrong. Everybody in the team has some values that are clear, and then we know their character. They're a person of character because of what they're showing to be the right way to do things, and that's, of course, modelled by the team leader integrity and so on. So if you can strengthen the self-esteem of your team, get them to realise what is the right behaviour, they all grow in character Because they may not have got this from home, they may not have amazing characters around them showing great behaviour. So it's part of your job to model what is the right way to be.
Speaker 1:
One of the things you can do to help this entire objective. You can get observers to sit in on meetings or sit in on mornings and see how the team are interacting, because when you're busy and working, you don't know what you don't know, and sometimes it's great to have a third party sit there, observe certain things and see the things that you don't, and I think that's a really good tip.
Speaker 2:
Jeremy. My number five C is contribution. So if you're the leader that is doing all the work for them, they're just receiving actions or receiving work. They're not contributing. We want to feel better to the world because we're in it, if you like. So we want to know we have a contribution and a direct purpose. So listening to people's ideas, building their ideas into the way you now do things in the team, that will make people feel really good, because they said I made a contribution to that. That builds on that sense of connection. When you thank somebody clearly for something they've done, they are clear their contribution mattered. So thanking somebody for what they've done goes right. I didn't, just I'm really valued here, my contribution mattered. So the fifth C is the power of contribution.
Speaker 1:
Now the next thing you can do and this feeds on from this idea of personal connection is being able to share personal and work related stories, because through storytelling you understand different people's experience, where they come from or their motivations are, and through those various stories you learn a hell of a lot about them. This fosters this feeling of communication and openness, but it also means that when you know more about someone, you also know that you can rely on them more effectively through more difficult times.
Speaker 2:
I have two more C's. My next one is coping. So, again, that leads directly to this topic of resilience. People who can't cope and don't have any coping mechanisms, if you like, will struggle. What are your social skills to be able to, as Bob just said, to ask for help as well? We talked about that. How do you reduce your stress? What do you do? Do you need to go for a walk? I think just having a cigarette and a can of monster is one strategy, but it isn't necessary all of it. What is the range of coping methods? Everything about it? Shaking it off, watching a video, listening to a song, doing some exercise, doing some meditation?
Speaker 2:
There's so many coping mechanisms, but what most people don't do is access any of them. They might just get angry instead. So, as a team leader, you might recognize that when somebody's under stress, the way they seem to cope in adverted commas is they get angry and walk out. Well, that may not be the right way of coping. So one of the things you can build with your team is when you get this, what do you need to cope with it?
Speaker 2:
I need time, I need to reflect, I need to talk about it, I need to get out, change my environment, okay, well, let's help you tap into that coping mechanism rather than just saying get on with it. You need something to do, which is partly distraction, but it's also partly putting it to bed, being able to move on. So good team leaders help people cope with difficult customers horrible things, because some people listen. This might work in contact centers that are public health contact centers. I'm recording it with Bobby. He is a Samaritan. When he's taking calls, he needs coping mechanisms and he's given great training and maybe part of the seven C's are even in the training. Coping with what comes at you vital, vital skills to build a new team.
Speaker 1:
Part of that is my last one, really, which is called owning the challenge, because as a team, rather than just wait for these things to appear and then see how we get on, let's absolutely understand that is where we are and as a group we will accept it and are ready to face it together, because then it's just going to become so much easier. So by owning that challenge, you will become more resilient and better at dealing with them anyway.
Speaker 2:
It's almost identical to Dr Kenneth Jinsberg's Seventh Sea, which is control, and it's the fact that when you realise that you actually have control over decisions and actions that you take, you start to realise I'm in control of my destiny more, you're more likely to make choices that are more positive and that you can bounce back from, because actually, yes, you're in a team, but you've got a lot more control over how you speak, when you make the call, how you reflect. Do you know I'm actually childless. My customers aren't running me or my team are not in charge of me. Of course, starting off as a child in the world, we don't realise that. We just think our parents control our entire life. But as we become adults, we break the cords. We realise actually, I've got to control this, it can't be pushed around.
Speaker 2:
And it's making your own decisions, becoming more confident about the decisions you make, because you're inferring your character from the decisions you make, and so a good team leader, in a sense, doesn't pull all the strings. They say to the team hey, you make the decision, you're in control of how you put that across, you're in control of that. That grows the resilience. You can see the connection Now if you want to look more about that. He's written a number of books and I found it while doing research and I just thought the Seventh Sea is very, very powerful and why not use it in the world of work?
Speaker 1:
Back to you, bobby. So when we all commit to building resilience within our team, what that means is that everyone is co-elevating everybody else, and that's a really nice way to think about it, and so we're all gently lifting ourselves up and forward. Co-elevation is a nice way of thinking about it. So this is the final Contact Center focus of 2023. Thank you for listening to our podcast for the last year and please make sure you're forwarding these podcasts to people that you think will find them useful, and thank you for forwarding them those that have done it already. We will be doing more of these Contact Center focused podcasts next year, but in the meantime, we wish you all the very best for the festive season. Anything else from you, jeremy.
Speaker 2:
No, we're going to create a little resource to help you kick off the new year. We're going to be giving away a freebie at the start of the new year, a helpful way to have a bit of a reflection and reset before you plow through the rest of the 12 months, and we'll be bringing that out in January.