Leadership In Action

A.  Introduction

The paper to be shown herein particularly highlights the leadership skills of an IT Operation’s Team Chief in a Call Center Agency.  Call Centers are primarily known for assisting clients in facing troubleshooting issues with the client’s computer-operating procedures. Through a phone call from the client, the agents are able to connect themselves with the problem and thus be able to solve the issue though instructional details given over the phone towards the clients.

The work of Call Center agents is most likely ranging from 24/7. This means that the shifting of schedules are reshuffled every now and then for the agents to be able to meet the 24-hour operation of the company. Indeed, seeing this situation, it could not be denied that this type of organization certainly needs an enthusiastic set of managers who are supposed to lead the tea, in getting the best results of the company while giving the clients the best service that they ought to receive.  In this particular manner, the author of this interview report decided to talk to one of the managers of the said Call Center Agency so as to be able to look deeper on how managers of the said type of organizations keep up with the challenges of meeting the different responsibilities left in their care which includes keeping up with business competition and empowering the workers in giving a quality performance for the entire organization.

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B.   Manager’s Basic Informations

For the sake of privacy purposes, the manager noted here in would be referred to as “Mr. Team Chief”. The said individual agreed with the said title to be used in behalf of his identity to be able to cover his true name. He is among the ten other team chief managers of the IT operations management team. Like the others, he is assigned to a certain pool of agents whom he has to work with everyday. For at least two months, they are given the chance to empower a certain group, then after which they are transferred to other groups for the sake of establishing camaraderie among all the workers and inciting better motivational procedures to all the employees. (Goleman, 2000)

Each pool of agents consists of at least 15 members each. The organization gives incentive to the agents who are able to reach an 80% performance level with the calls that he or she assists each wee. It is then the responsibility of the Operational Management’s Team Chief to help the employees reach this particular goal. Through assisting them with the difficulties of answering some of the most technical questions, the manager is able to give them the support that they need at work. However, the responsibility of a Team Chief does not end there. Aside from particularly supporting the team, he is also responsible for motivating them in a way that although the work id quite tiring, the agents would feel that what they are working for is all worth the efforts. Facing the different conflicts that the employees engage with every now and then is also left in the care of the team chief to resolve.

C.  Organizational Behavior Management Section

It has been mentioned earlier that the manager interviewed herein is held responsible for motivating, assisting and disciplining at least 15 call canter agents left in his care every time he goes to work. Not to mention that his job also requires him to possess a certain amount of considerable knowledge about IT operations, he also is accountable for having and applying sound judgment when several difficult situations arise. TO breakdown the topics on management that have been discussed by the author of this report with the manager, the following subtitles shall separate the issues basing from their impact on human behavior management procedures:

People Motivation

It is the company’s protocol to reward a call center agent who was able to reach at least 80% satisfaction on the calls that he or she received in a week. It is then the responsibility of the team chief to assist others in reaching that particular goal. To be able to do so, “Mr. Team Chief” said that he opt to have empowering meetings 15 minutes before each shift. Once he is on the floor, he makes it a point that he is not just staying in his sit but instead he roams around the work areas of his team and sees to it that they are simply doing the right thing, Once a successful call has been delivered by an agent, he never forgets to acknowledge them and give them commendation. He added that in this job, he learned that making the people feel that they are of great worth to the company and the hard work that they put forward for the organization is given high regard is much better than motivating them in terms of monetary allowances.

Punishment and Policies

Since the shift of the agents is reshuffled every now and then, the organization allows at least a lee-way of three minute on floor preparation before the actual job. This means that the time listed on the schedule sheet given to the agents are at least three minutes earlier than the actual hour of operation. Hence, there is no excuse for being late. However, there are at times those agents who simply cannot arrive early because of some circumstances. Hence, what he does is to allow them three times of being late then on the fourth, they are held form work for at least an hour away from their schedule, this way they would not be paid for the first hour of their job even though they would work. This is just among the policies that “Mr. Team Chief” deals with. He usually deals with this particular problem making it one of the most overused policies in his team.

Decision Making

The usual; decision made by Mr. Team Chief is naturally on the track of whether to consider a call successful or not. The 80% satisfaction in the customer service given by the agents to their clients is scaled by the managers themselves. There is not a machine-based program that determines this particular progressive report. Hence, it is in their discretion if they are to flag a certain call successful or a failure. This then subjects them to being highly objective, not being influenced by favoritism and is completely guided by the essence of professionalism in their job. (Collins, 2001).

Facing Conflicts

At some point, the employees get stuck with conflicts with each other, particularly because of their individual dispositions at work. Form this particular perspective, Mr. Team Chief tries it so hard to become much objective in listening to the disputes of the employees while trying to assess the roots of the problem. Once the root of the dispute has been resolved, the manager tries to fix the issue through helping the employees see the situation in each other’s perspectives, putting each other in other’s shoe on the aim of helping them see the situation in the implication of values depending on the personality of each employee. (Gottee, 2000)

Pursuing the Breaking Ground for Teamwork

It is very important to work as one towards one [particular goal for this type of organization. This is the reason why for the manager, it is important to understand what is it that actually empowers his people to work on their performance in giving their job the best shot that they could provide the clients and the organization as well.  (Brown, 2002)

The Implication of Leadership Principles

In the book Spiritual Dimension of Leadership, the authors of the said reading material deliver their points of views on how to develop the intellectual insight regarding and spiritual beliefs. Based on the achievements of the authors Dr Paul D Houston and Dr Stephen L Sokolow, their main points are to express by public education the true meaning of faith in leadership and how to become a more enlightened leader, by having a common purpose and common vision. Through the said book, they discussed their hopes and dreams for themselves as well as for the public education, for the different leaders and for the world.

Their major goal is to build a strong public education that will help the children to easily enhance their skills, and to support the needs of the students primarily with regards the moral and spiritual values. Thru public education, the different kinds of beliefs can easily be discussed in formal and legal ways, and public education is the best opportunity to build different essential concepts that will connect the people within the human society. Another goal that these two authors frequently develop is the “Dimension of Leadership”, though leadership is a great privilege to a person who has the chance in having the skills needed for it, the authors define the exact value of what are the valuable insights that a perfect leader should have. Also the responsibilities of the leader, which should always be his major priority for the benefits of his community; this will lead to a wellness and successful organization in the society that he serves. Wise leadership in spiritual, moral, and educational program is one of the major keys in a certain country’s future success; it is the best way to create a fruitful result that can give hope to the citizens of a particular society.

Moreover, in order to build and have better leadership status in the future, the authors of book entitled “Spiritual Dimension of Leadership” provide some important guidelines that will fit to the prospective leaders. They offer the eight key principles that can lead to a prospective leader to become a valuable and enlightened leader, it is important to discussed this eight key principle in order to understand and enlightened the important point of views on how to become a better leader and spiritual adviser to the societies and communities. These are the following guidelines that a prospective leader should have to seriously apply and understand carefully in order to empower his leadership.

Intention- In leadership it is important to know what is the real intention of the leader in his activities and programs, because all the related activities that are usually directed by the leader and provided by the members will always reflect his physical and moral values.

Attention- A true leader must always visualize the needs and benefits of his team; in order to develop a progressive idea the leader should always give his full attention to the programs and activities that are very beneficial to the community.

Unique Gifts and Talents- Special skills and talents are God given gifts to every individual; it is also temporarily stored to human body, by building and developing a set of better programs and activities, leaders are extending their best to use their skills and intellectual thinking to provide a humanistic and unbiased leadership to his community.

Gratitude- Leadership is not all about the giving of commands and duties, in order to achieve the main goal; an acting leader should have an interpersonal emotion, greater acceptance, and dipper appreciation for handling a serious obligation, also by receiving a lively sense of favors grateful acceptance is also required in order to have a better leadership practice application.

Unique life lessons- Though leadership is always creating some comparisons, developing uniqueness is a big factor to create a better relationship towards other members, by using personal experience to provide a useful knowledge, “Unique life lessons” is a big contribution in having an enlightened leader.

Holistic Perspective- This kind of principle is also required to inspire the members to also achieve their goals. By emphasizing the importance of the members in the society, through the implementations of the holistic perspective true leadership will be more effective.

Openness- To achieve a wise leadership especially in education, openness is a big impact to create a better leadership. Leaders should always be open-minded in terms of the ideas and theories that are represented by the members of the public constituents. Any problems should seriously be discussed properly.

Trust- The most important things that the leaders in spiritual and educational area should apply is trust, leaders should always create their different perspectives as well as the progressive idea on how to lead a certain group; however, trust is the major factor in continuously aiming and becoming a leader. However, trust remains to be the core reason needed for the leadership skill applications to be successful enough for the organizations being served.

If the insights written within the pages of the book being discussed in here will always prevail within the society’s leaders, it could be easily expected that better days are ready to come ahead as the future generation of human civilization sprouts out to serve the different countries around the globe. The book indeed provides the most necessary inspiration that leaders need to posses in leading the nation or any other social organization, trust and knowledge that would lead to a more successful future and a more effective leading procedure.

Conclusion

From this particular presentation, it could be noted that managers are expected to deal with different arenas considering human resource empowerment as well as improving their performance level for the sake of establishing a fine reputation for the organization through the works of the agents. It is very much appealing how Mr. Team Chief insisted on the fact that what managers usually forget is that the motivation needed to fire up the interest of the workers in performing at their best is not at all times based on monetary measures. Sometimes, simply acknowledging them for a job well done already does the trick of motivating them to work well. The sincerity of the manager to help the employees bring out their best makes the essence of management a real gift to any business organization.

Interviewee:

Patrick Mendoza. (2007) Clientlogic Philippines. (Online Interview Through Chat Permission from the Clientlogic Administration). Loakan, Baguio City, Philippines.

Further Readings:

Collins, J. (2001). Level 5 leadership: the triumph of humility and fierce resolve. Harvard Business Review, 79(1), 67-76.

Goffee, R. & Jones, G. (2000). Why should anyone be led by you? Harvard Business Review, 78(5), 62-70.

Goleman, D. (2000). Leadership that gets results. Harvard Business Review, 78(2), 79-90.

Brown, L. M. (2002). Click here to access a review of Kouzes and Posner's book, The Leadership Challenge.

Paul D. Houston , Stephen L. Sokolow. (2006). The Spiritual Dimension of Leadership: 8 Key Principles to Leading More Effectively. Corwin Press.

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