Ensuring that the team managers in your contact center are performing at high levels is essential to the success of your entire operation. Team managers work in close contact with your agents, so strong leadership skills are vital in inspiring them to do their best as well. Unfortunately, agents often cite incompatibility with team managers as a reason for high turnover rates.

What can be done to improve the leadership skills of your contact center’s team managers? We’ve put together a list of several ideas that can help.

1. Show respect. When an entire organization has a culture of mutual respect, it shows. If you make a point of being courteous to your team managers and everyone else you come in contact with, they will treat their teams the same way. When people are made to feel important and treated with respect – whether agent or team manager – they are more likely to take real pride in their duties and achievements.

2. Match personalities. If at all possible, try to custom-build each team to mesh well with its team manager. By observing your managers’ personalities, as well as their strengths and weaknesses, and then matching those to the personalities, strengths, and weaknesses of your agents, you should be able to create teams destined to work well together from the start.

3. Offer help. Team managers may be unwilling to ask for help when they need it, to avoid appearing incompetent or weak. Be sure that team managers understand that your door is always open, and that your contact center values communication. The more comfortable they feel reaching out to you in tough situations, the more they’ll be able to learn, and the better they’ll perform.

4. Reward good performance. Just as agent motivation can be increased by offering prizes, so can team managers’ performance be improved through some sort of tangible reward. Whether that’s some sort of public recognition, like a certificate presented during a meeting or the team manager’s picture on the wall, or a gift, like a mug or even a small bonus, attaching good leadership skills to prizes will really make them something to strive for.

5. Stay positive. Even if there’s bad news to be shared, staying positive will not only help your team managers to keep up their own morale, but it will give them the ability to spread that positivity among your agents, as well. Nothing can be gained from negativity, so setting a good example for your team managers is the best course of action.

6. Provide them with the right technology. Even the best team managers can’t do their job well without the right tools. Make sure that yours have access to workforce management solutions that allow them to easily schedule, train, and monitor their agents. KOVA offers a fully integrated, completely customizable software solution that will give them the ability to do just that. Whether you’re looking to analyze customer interactions, improve workforce performance, or optimize service processes, our Impact360 Workforce Management solution will provide you and your team managers with the right tools to get the job done. Contact KOVA today for more information!