Coach Me, Coach
By Jeremy Lee

Anybody who has ever worked in an inbound contact center knows the environment is high pressured and performance orientated. The performance targets are high, the calls never stop and rest breaks are far and few during every shift. On top of all this, each call needs to stand up to the high call monitoring standards and agents are consistently reminded of the need to keep talk time to a minimal; a feat even for the most experienced agent.

The scene mentioned above is all too familiar for many agents: the need to constantly give their best, to be polite, to maintain their composure and to be focused for each and every call during the entire shift. To operate at levels of such high expectations, many contact centers have turned to coaching as a tool; usually with the team leader being a coach to their agents.

Coaching unlike counseling is targeted at a specific area of performance with predefined objectives and target. For any successful coaching, 4 principles need to be present to ensure success.

In a successful coaching session, it is imperative that the agent respects the coach. It should never be forced, as respect needs to be earned. A good example of this appears in the movie “Star Wars V: the Empire Strikes Back”, Master Jedi Yoda only earned Luke Skywalker’s respect when he used his knowledge of the “Force” to raise Luke’s spacecraft from the swarm. Prior to that, Luke doubted Yoda’s ability and intentions. The same happens in the contact center; has the team leader earned the respect of the agent? Is the intention of the coach clear, is he or she really wanting to develop the agent, or is the coaching conducted for the sake of meeting their performance indicators?

Coaching is also very much about providing feedback. As the coach, team leaders need to appreciate that feedback good or bad must be honest. It should come from the heart and be of value to the agent involved. After all, coaching is about being people orientated, not task focused. Furthermore, constructive feedback is an extremely powerful process and must be communicated delicately. Additionally, it is important that the agent acknowledges and accepts the feedback before the coaching session can proceed further. As a coach, we must also be willing to receive feedback ourselves, if any is given.

The ultimate objective of any coaching session is for the purpose of development. Team leaders need to ensure continuity and that the coaching session is solution focused. At the end of each session, the agent must leave with the knowledge of their performance and what needs to be done to enhance their development.

Lastly, coaching sessions should never be perceived as negative. Always ensure that it is held periodically and not just when negative performance needs to be highlighted. Coaching is an integrated back of contact center operations. It cannot be seen in a bad light and the team leaders handling these sessions need to devote time and effort to the development of their people.

Last updated - 31 August 2004