Contact centers face a multitude of challenges every day, week, and month of the year. Expectations of customers, employees and shareholders seem to be constantly increasing. In order to meet and exceed these expectations, great leadership is needed at all levels of the contact center operation, from frontline supervisors to the C-suite.
Why is leadership important?
Leaders at all levels within the contact center establish direction and targets for the organization, whether for the entire enterprise, or just their own team. They also set the culture, provide support, develop employees, and resolve conflict. Leaders have a huge responsibility, and much is at stake if leaders aren’t prepared and don’t have a leadership game plan.
The 7-T Success System
The 7-T Success System is an easy-to-use guide for leaders at all levels of the organization, from supervisor to CEO. What are the seven T’s?
- Targets
- Talent
- Technique
- Tools
- Tone
- Training
- Tracking
“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” – Sun Tzu
These are the components that make up all organizations, from billion-dollar global corporations to little league sports teams. A leader’s job is to ensure his or her organization is aware of each of these components and constantly working together to optimize each of them. The process for optimizing these 7 components includes the following steps:
- Identify the key elements of each “T”
- Perform a Gap Analysis for each element (of each T)
- Prioritize the Gaps to be addressed (current state vs. desired state)
- Develop and Execute Action Plans for Gap priorities
Great Leaders Focus on Details
By breaking down an organization into these 7 components and listing just the top 3 (for example) key elements of each component, a leader will have quickly identified 21 areas of opportunity for improvement. By making just slight improvement to each of these elements it can dramatically improve the overall performance of the organization. That’s the magic of the 7-T Success System!
“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” – John C. Maxwell
Most people in leadership positions don’t do everything poorly. They also don’t do everything well. Most leaders are strong in some respects and weak, or even absent, in others. The key is to recognize and continue to do things that you’re doing well and work continuously on things that need improvement. Most leaders, and especially frontline supervisors, don’t have a plan or process for managing their teams—all seven key components that make up every organization—and tend to focus on those that seem most urgent or high profile. But neglecting any of the key components puts the team at risk of losing alignment and developing inefficiencies, like counterproductive team members, processes, or tools.
Having the desire and ability to manage all components of an organization (or team) is the primary differentiator between a good leader and a great leader. Many believe that keeping a strategic eye on the big picture is a leader’s primary role. But paying attention to details is equally important in ensuring that you’re doing the right things and doing things right. And maybe, most importantly, it establishes the tone for others within the organization to do the same. Setting the example that every detail deserves consideration and can be developed to its fullest potential is crucial to leading a winning organization.
The 7-T Success System is designed as a guide for those who have the desire and drive to become a leader who inspires others to work toward a common goal. Within this comprehensive framework, frontline leaders will be able to identify the right things to focus on and have a roadmap for doing those things in the right way. The 7-T Success System helps identify what comprises great leadership, how to achieve it, and how to leverage it to drive accomplishment and build high-performing teams.
In the next blog, we will dive into some highlights of each “T” and introduce several valuable techniques all leaders can use to build winning teams.
The 7-T Success System book can be purchased at www.7tsystem.com
Casey Kostecka is an award-winning thought leader and expert in sales, customer experience management and contact center operations within BPO/outsourcing, healthcare, travel/hospitality, and government arenas. His proven track record in leading $500M+ organizations to record-breaking growth and profitability makes him a sought-after speaker and consultant. Casey’s extensive experience with process engineering, leadership cultivation, and team and customer engagement led him to develop unique, highly effective tools. Casey is the founder of TouchPoint One and its award-winning ACUITYTM Performance Management System, multiple proprietary gamification applications, and the 7-T Success System™ are all of which are employed by Fortune 500 companies throughout the United States. Learn more about his work at www.touchpointone.com and www.7TSuccess.com.
