Agents aren’t motivated? Leaders may be to blame if they have any of these bad habits.
Many managers are overstretched. In their efforts to get everything done, some have picked up bad habits that negatively affect their employees, according to experts at CareerBuilder.com.
Here’s what you want to avoid (or quit doing) before agent morale takes a nosedive:
- Giving ill-mannered criticism. It should go without saying, but the bad habit of humiliating or demeaning employees still exists. Always speak to them with respect.
- Failing to have regular one-on-one conversations. Chat at least once a week in a personal way to build trust and create productive relationships with agents.
- Assuming your team knows what success is. Managers need to define, clarify and refine what excellence looks like for their teams and individuals. They can’t be expected to know what the ultimate goal is if management doesn’t define it regularly.
- Failing to give the reason behind decisions. Poor managers often tell employees what to do because “that’s what upper management said,” or because “I said so.” Blaming upper management or not explaining reasons behind decisions is a cowardly approach. Help agents understand why you make the decisions you did . Explain the facts and circumstances that went into it.
- Making praise about you, not them. Consider what individuals and teams would want to receive and how they’d like to receive it before handing it out. You might like a ceremony and victory dance at a team meeting, while the recipient might prefer a quiet accolade and big bonus.
- Speaking negatively about others in your company. Whether you have a problem with the CEO, janitor or fellow manager, it’s not up for discussion with agents. Period.
- Giving sandwich feedback. Saying something good before and after a criticism doesn’t make the criticism taste any better. Instead, agents sometimes don’t even get that they did something wrong. Get to the point.
- Stopping recruiting. Keep wooing your agents. They need to feel like you still want them. It’ll help re-energize them.
