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Amazing Team Leader Scoring Model

Team Leaders are the backbone of any call center and depending on who you have in that critical role can make or break you.  

Many Call Center Managers usually promote a really good operator as a Team Leader thinking they should be able to show others how to be as good as they are, but the sad reality is that not all really good operators have the characteristics and traits of amazing Team Leaders.

In this article you’ll discover a great tool for scoring Team Leaders against the 43 traits and characteristics of amazing Team Leaders to identify gaps to work on with them and also use when selecting new Team Leaders.

Over the years I’ve been managing call centers and consulting with small to large businesses around the world, and having owned a call center myself, one of the biggest challenges I’ve seen that call centers face is ineffective Team Leaders.

The major problem is that many of the people responsible for running call centers don’t really have a firm grasp of all the best traits and characteristics of really successful Team Leaders.

As a consequence, they don’t have all the information they need to identify amazing or potentially amazing Team Leaders.

To fix this I created a scoring model based on my 35 years’ experience running and consulting on call centers, and a lot of research where I came across the Lominger Standard 67 Competencies and Definitions of Great Leaders.

I deconstructed those competencies to come up with the 43 characteristics and traits of amazing Team Leaders used in this scoring tool, which I share with those who enroll in my Creating Amazing Team Leaders live and online self-pace courses.

With this scoring model you can quickly identify how each of your Team Leaders rate against each of the criteria and subsequently identify areas that you can work with them to improve on.

The tool also includes a tab with my top 15 characteristics and traits, together with a list of open ended interview questions one can use to gather the information needed from prospective candidates to determine their scoring.

The first thing you’ll notice with this scoring tool is that I created it in Excel to make it easier for every to use and make any changes they wanted to customise it their specific needs.

In the first column is a list of each of the 43 traits and characteristics of amazing Team Leaders along with a description of each.

The next column is the Criteria Rating, and as you can see I’ve set each trait with a high score of 10, but you can change these scores for each individual trait if want to give greater weight to certain traits over others.

And, you can see on the row next to the Criteria Rating is where you’d list all your existing Team Leaders.

Then all you do is give a rating from 0 to 10 for each trait in each Team Leader’s column and their final score will automatically tally up in the Team Leader Score cell.

You’ll also see I’ve included a Criteria Rating % that calculates each Team Leader Score against the accumulated score value set in the Criteria Rating column.

This helps you quickly see how each Team Leader compares with each other against a perfect score to quickly identify those that need the most help first. Or, if their score is just awful, maybe indicate that a change needs to be done quickly.

Now when you’re looking for a new Team Leader, usually promoting from within is the best place to look before looking outside, and when assessing their suitability, just be careful of any bias you may have in scoring them.

If you feel you’re too close to them, consider scoring them with someone else or have someone else do the scoring instead. And, if they score higher than the minimum mark set for the scoring model that should give you more confidence about selecting them for the role.

However, as you would with any outside candidate, you should still conduct a formal interview.

When you do conduct interviews make sure you ask a series of open ended questions that speak to the top traits you’re looking for in a Team Leader. The answers to your questions will give you important insights into a candidate’s suitability and give you more confidence in selecting them.

In the 3rd tab you’ll find 26 open ended questions you can use for interviews and an explanation for each question to help you get the information you need to effective score them on.

Now before you start using this tool it’s very important that you calibrate the scoring and determine what a minimal acceptable score would be, either with current Team Leaders and definitely when bringing on new ones.

How you do that is by pulling a group together from different levels in the organization to get 360 degree view of what the team thinks each different trait and characteristic should be scored for either exiting team leaders or future ones.

When you pull the group together, make sure you have the person who the Call Center Manager reports to, the Call Center Manager of course, and also be sure to include at least one high performing Team Leader and a high performing team member.

When the groups together go through each trait and characteristic, discuss its relevance and decide on the maximum rating number for it. After you’ve done this, see if you can come up with a really good Team Leader who worked with you in the past and have the team score them.

And, based on that score you can determine the minimally acceptable overall score. 

Now, if you can’t come up with someone who used to work there to use for calibrating, then simply list each current Team Leader and score them. See what the overall ratings were for each of them and from there; determine the minimally acceptable overall score.

Make any changes you feel are required and you’ll be ready to go!

Of course, after you’ve used the tool a few times review it for your needs, and make any necessary changes.

Now that you know the traits and characteristics of amazing team leaders and how to score them, you should consider how to identify these traits in people you’re looking to recruit as Team Leaders.

Usually, promoting from within for a Team Leader is the best place to look before looking outside, so let’s start there.

And, as you already know the person you’re considering promoting for the role, you should be able to score them against the Scoring Model. Just be careful of any bias you may have in scoring them.

If you feel you’re too close to them, consider scoring them with someone else or have someone else do the scoring instead.

Now, if the person you’re thinking about hits the minimum mark on the scoring model that should give you more confidence about selecting them for the role.

However, as you would with an outside candidate, you should still conduct a formal interview them. When you do, ask a series of open ended questions that speak to the top traits, behaviors and characteristics you’re looking for in a Team Leader.

And, when asking open ended questions that require them to discuss situations where they’ve demonstrated these traits or characteristics like:

Would you let me know how you go about organizing your work week and the activities you make sure you set time aside for to get the best out of your team?

Their answers to your questions will give you important insights into their suitability and give you more confidence in selecting them.

Here are 10 traits and characteristics I look for when interviewing to give me confidence in selecting a candidate, whether I’m promoting from within or looking outside the team: 

1. Action Oriented
2. Approachability
3. Customer Focus
4. Developing Team Members
5. Directing Team Members
6. Ethics and Values
7. Integrity and Trust
8. Motivating Team Members
9. Effective Team Builder
10. Time Management 

Want to learn more?  

Want to learn more on how to develop a proven, practical and easy-to-implement training program to create amazing Team Leaders with a clear understanding of their role, and the practical skills needed…

to turn underperformers into high achievers, who regularly reach (or even exceed) their monthly targets and KPIs?

Simply enroll in my free online course - 7 Pillars For Creating Amazing Team Leaders using this link (https://7pillarsmembers.marccarriere.net/.

You get instant access to this free course PLUS 15 Bonus Micro Training Videos AND free download of the 7 Pillars For Creating Amazing Team Leaders Guide.

After this Free Training you’ll understand all the vital elements you need to develop your own structured Team Leader training program and deliver it. 

Just imagine how confident you’ll be training your Team Leaders with all the skills they need to turn low performing teams into high achievers that hit (or even exceed) their targets and KPIs every month!