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The 1980s Management Style Is Officially Dead
There’s a certain type of manager every workplace recognizes immediately. The one who believes visibility equals productivity. The one who thinks pressure automatically creates performance. The one who only shows up when numbers dip. For years, that leadership style dominated workplaces everywhere. Employees were expected to tough it out, stay quiet, and keep producing no
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Compliance in Debt Collection: Essential Strategies
Legal risks, customer complaints, and operational inefficiencies are some of the many concerns that debt collection agencies have to stress about. Determining your most pressing compliance needs can seem overwhelming. Tonia Brown, VP of Compliance, joined us on the Contact Center KPI podcast to dive into the top compliance requirements you should be aware of.
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Preparing for the Next Generation of Agents
The next generation of agents doesn’t know how to talk on the phone. They grew up texting. It’s a bold statement. And honestly, a lot of leaders hesitate to say it out loud. But spend enough time listening to calls, sitting in on QA sessions, or reviewing performance data, and it becomes hard to ignore.
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The Manager’s Guide to Addressing Conflict
Most workplace conflict doesn’t start with an argument. It starts with something smaller: And that’s exactly why it gets missed. By the time conflict becomes obvious, it’s already affecting performance, morale, and trust across the team. If you’re only addressing conflict when it’s visible, you’re already late. The real job of a manager isn’t resolving
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The Most Common Mistakes That Kill Deals
Most lost deals don’t fall apart at the end. They’re lost in small moments – early missteps, subtle signals, and decisions that feel harmless in the moment but compound over time. What makes this dangerous is that these mistakes don’t look like mistakes. They look like effort. Like thoroughness. Like “good selling.” They’re not. They’re
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Developing Future Leaders Inside Your Company
At 7:12 am, Jason’s dashboard was already red. Two escalations. One compliance exception. A performance metric is trending in the wrong direction for the third straight week. And a Slack message from leadership that read: “Do you have a few minutes today? Want to talk about some things.” Three months earlier, Jason had been the
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A Culture of Nonperformance
Nonperformance rarely starts with incompetence. It starts with tolerance. Then it spreads. Inside most organizations, cultural drift happens through three forces: And in most cases, the group that ultimately decides the direction of the culture isn’t the top performers or the bottom performers. It’s the middle. Before nonperformance becomes a real problem, it shows up
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Managing Up: How to Influence Senior Leadership
A director I once worked with had a solid plan. Her team had identified a process gap that was costing the company money. The data was clean. The analysis was tight. The ROI was obvious. She built the deck. Presented to senior leadership. Answered every question. The meeting ended with, “Great work. Let’s revisit next
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The Hidden Cost of Keeping C Agents
After analyzing performance distribution patterns across dozens of contact center environments, one truth shows up consistently: Performance tiers aren’t the problem. Tolerating inconsistency is. Every call center has A, B, C, and D agents. That distribution is normal. What separates high-performing operations from stagnant ones isn’t whether C players exist; it’s how long they’re tolerated
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What Struggling Teams Reveal About Leadership Priorities
The meeting usually goes the same way. Targets were missed. Execution stalled. A few decisions didn’t land the way leadership expected. After some discussion, often longer than planned, the conclusion quietly forms: We need stronger people. It’s a reasonable instinct. Talent is visible. Hiring is actionable. And replacing people feels like progress. But here’s the
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AI in 2026: What Should Keep Leaders Up at Night
For years, AI was discussed in extremes. Either it was going to transform everything overnight, or it was something to be feared, regulated, and postponed. Now, those narratives are no longer useful. AI is already embedded in everyday business operations. From prioritizing work, scoring risk, summarizing information, guiding decisions, and shaping customer experiences. The question
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How to Build a Culture You Can Feel From Anywhere
There’s a moment that tells you everything you need to know about a company’s culture. It’s not the values slide in the all-hands deck. It’s not the “we’re a family” line in a job description. And it’s definitely not the perks. It’s the pause. The pause after someone admits they made a mistake on a
Leadership
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