Help Contact Centre Team Leaders do better by understanding what gets in their way.
This is Part 2 of a 2-part series. Read Part 1 here.
This article is part of our Team Leader Resource Series — a collection of practical articles to help Team Leaders grow their skills, shift their mindset, and elevate the way they lead.
In Part 2, I explore the final two barriers to Team Leader success — mastering meaningful conversations and building critical know-how.
Common Barriers for Contact Centre Team Leaders
In Part 1, I introduced five common barriers to Team Leader success. Here they are again:
- Senior Leadership sets or pursues the wrong metrics
- Team Leaders are busy but not sure how to rethink where their time goes
- Being a great Agent doesn’t mean they’ll be a great Team Leader
- Many important conversations between Team Leaders and their people don’t happen often enough or well enough
- Team Leaders lack critical industry know-how to power their decision making and develop their people
Though the mix and relative impact of these barriers varies from centre to centre, these are the ones I see most often in our global work.
In my Part 1 article, I covered the first three barriers in detail. You can read Help Your Contact Centre Team Leaders Do Better Part 1 here.
In Part 2, I’ll focus on the final two barriers (4 and 5).
Barrier #4. Weak or Infrequent Conversations
If the Agent’s role is to have great conversations with Customers, then the Team Leader’s role is to have great conversations with their Agents.
Here are key conversations we practice in our People Management training:
Recognition & reinforcement
- Praise
- Gratitude
- Something “good”
Performance & correction
- Something “not so good”
- It’s not getting any better
- Quality coaching (both evaluative and performance improvement)
- Performance appraisal
Structured interactions
- Team reviews
- One-on-one reviews
- Team huddles
Leadership presence
- Boss as Leader
- Boss as Manager
- Boss as Person
The unspoken
- Things you don’t talk about (the “un-conversation”)
This toolbox of conversations is at the heart of building relationships, earning trust, and developing the people who work for you.
Having great conversations with people is a learnable skill.
In the same way your frontline people learn to have great conversations with Customers, Team Leaders can learn to do the same with their teams.
Planned vs. Triggered Conversations
Each conversation is either:
- Planned — scheduled into the calendar
- Triggered — prompted by something that happens
Team reviews, one-on-ones, and coaching sessions are usually planned.
But conversations like praise or “something not so good” depend on observation.
I call these triggered conversations — and they only happen if the Team Leader notices what’s going on.
And here’s why this matters.
If Team Leaders aren’t observant, a large portion of meaningful conversations simply never happens.
I’ve met agents who told me their Team Leader rarely talks to them.
Or that when they do, they don’t really have anything useful or meaningful to say.
If we care about people — and want them to do better — we talk with them.
Team Leaders need to know what they’re talking about — and communicate it well
In Part 1, we saw that Team Leaders need to know what they’re talking about.
They also need to know how to talk about it — the tone and structure of the conversation.
Which is why we study and practice all the conversations that go into our conversational toolbox.
We expect our Frontline Agents to use proven patterns, techniques and specific language in their conversations with Customers.
So it’s reasonable to expect Team Leaders to also use proven patterns, techniques and specific language with their Frontline Agents.
Now on to the last of our five barriers.
Barrier #5. Lack of Critical Know-How
The Contact Centre environment is complex.
It’s an ecosystem that combines the needs and wants of employees, customers, and the organization — with the disciplines of operations, leadership, business performance, technology, strategy, experience management, and more.
It’s demanding work — but as Tom Hanks put it, “It’s the hard that makes it great.”
Help your Contact Centre Team Leaders do better by formalizing your approach to their development.
They shouldn’t be left to pick it all up on the job.
If your Management or Learning & Development team doesn’t have the competency or background to teach this type of know-how, get some help.
The Expertise Team Leaders Need
To succeed, Team Leaders need expertise across four key areas — each with its own domains.
Management Know-How
Contact Centre Operations
Team Development
Leadership & People Management
Customer Orientation
Quality Management and Customer Experience
Personal Growth
Self-Management
Here’s a summary overview of the individual domains:
Contact Centre Operations
- The operational foundation of a Team Leader’s role. Without it, performance and quality cannot be managed effectively.
Leadership & People Management
- Focuses on how Team Leaders guide, support, and influence their people day to day — setting direction, building trust, and driving performance through clear expectations and consistent leadership behaviour.
Quality Management
- Defines what “good” looks like in service — and ensures it is measured, coached, and improved consistently.
Customer Experience
- If your centre claims to deliver “Customer Experience,” Team Leaders need to understand what that actually means and what aspects apply to their role. It is a discipline — not just another name for Customer Service.
Self-Management
- It’s not just what you do — it’s how you show up. Self-awareness, resilience, and emotional regulation directly influence leadership effectiveness.
Help Your Contact Centre Leaders Do Better
Across these two articles, I’ve outlined five common barriers to Team Leader success — all drawn from what we see in real-world operations.
Start with one barrier — and address it properly.
The impact on your Team Leaders, and their teams, will follow.
Thank You for Reading
I regularly share stories, strategies, and insights from our work across Contact Centers, Customer Service, and Customer Experience. If this resonates, I’d love to stay connected.
You can drop me a line anytime, or subscribe via our website.
Daniel Ord
[email protected]
www.omnitouchinternational.com
