I’ve always been a glass-half-full guy. And right now that’s been really helpful as there’s plenty of bad news and hard decisions in our lives. But, there’s something about a common enemy or a universal challenge that brings out the best of us. Inspires us. Motivates us. As we navigate through our new challenges we are also learning about great acts of humanity, community, creativity, and leadership. And perhaps it offers us a path for moving forward.
So today I’d like to talk about leadership.
Leadership is the lifeblood of an organization. Great leadership, the pursuit of excellence and a desire to spread success has tangible impact. Strong organizations are built and sustained by highly-effective leaders and solid leadership throughout the organization. I’ve interviewed numerous executives on the topic of leadership in the contact center. They’ve shared their perspectives and how their own experiences impact the people and performance of their organizations.
In these conversations there are common threads that run through their stories and an obvious consensus around three major areas of impact. Strong leadership builds culture, fuels performance and helps sustain the business. In a recent conversation Jason Mercer-Pottinger, RTS Operations Director with RTS US Inc. (Baxter International) shared some perspectives on leadership that have been a foundation for his success.
“It is really key to ensure that any organization has a talent pipeline that’s encouraging and developing our leaders of the future. Within the contact center industry it is so important because most of us don’t plan to start out as contact center leaders. This typically develops over a period of time. So you really need to ensure that whatever level you’re at you can see there are opportunities and the ability to move up within a contact center environment.”
We also talked about how sharing knowledge and inspiration is fundamentally important in our professional lives. “One of the best ways to continue to grow your own leadership abilities is to work with the emerging leaders in your organization. Giving back the knowledge I’ve gained over nearly 30 years in this industry is really rewarding. And mentoring for me is really key.”
You can listen to the full interview with Jason online as part of the Perspectives on Leadership webcast series on the CCNG Webcast Channel. And we encourage you to share it with your teams.
When we’re faced with a challenge you can lean heavily on the experience and knowledge of your network. I consider this blog a forum for recognizing and celebrating those leaders and organizations who have demonstrated excellence, and those that are striving to join their ranks. Let’s bring a little visibility to great customer care organizations and customer service excellence in all forms.
