Dear Affy,

In the previous issue of Contact Management, you wrote to "ensure that side by side with agents is a minimum 60% of supervisors’ time expectation." How do I get there? How can I free them from other administrative duties and their reluctance to do this?

Sarah G

Sarah, many managers are grappling with this – skills coaching is now well understood as the key strategy to increase results but how to transition successfully is more elusive. You have to manage several areas: Work redesign, change management, and coach training.

Here are the steps we use when installing a coaching culture:

• Time Analysis: Review a “week-in-the-life” of your coaches and document where their time is spent. Determine what you will eliminate or handoff to others and map out a timeline for the transition. Depending on your current team design, this may include creating a new support role(s) on your team.
• Training the Coaches: The biggest challenge is that your front line leaders do not all have the coaching skills that allow them to improve the skills and motivate front line agents. In our coaching clinics, we have found that about 1/3 have both the natural talent and desire to learn quickly. Others need more time to become proficient. You need to invest in their skills. There is a best practice methodology to train the coaches and keep improving their skills.
• Change Management:
  • Help them see their “What’s In It For Me?” – New transferable skills, better results (and bonus?), better relationships with agents, and less routine.
  • Dealing with Anxiety: They will have some bumpy moments to start. At first, it may feel strained, they will say it wrong, and agents may be reluctant to take advice. Installing a coaching culture includes you offering support through early discomfort and mistakes.
  • Readiness for change: There can be culture shock if you go too quickly -- both for the coaches and agents and concerning the effective handoff of duties to others. Consider a graduated program that leads to 60% within 3-6 months. You can also pilot it with your top 2 “influencers”, get some early wins, and then use that to expand it to the “more reluctant”.
  • Attrition: You can typically expect 20% of coaches not to make it to coaching successfully – be prepared that some will move on.

Sarah, installing a coaching culture can be a challenge with many moving parts but the payoff has been proven time and again to be significant. Best of luck!

Afshan Bye