Team Leader Selection The Democratic Way

The Top performer may not be the best person suitable to be a Team Lead. Read on for insights on how one can go about finding the right people, which includes a vote from team members.

In an industry where flat structures are the norm, where the workforce is young and energetic and is looking at a rapid career growth, where attrition figures sometimes seem to touch the three digit mark, where a fundamental disconnect exists between the aspirations of the workforce and the actual career paths available in the organization; we at Immaculate Interactions have initiated the policy of selecting Team Leaders through Internal Promotions….in line with the belief:

“The top performer on the floor or the top sales person in a telemarketing project may or may not be the best person suited to lead a team” this is the basic premise on which our selection process has been designed. This is the premise, which is unique to immaculate interactions. How does an organization ensure that the person being promoted possess the core competencies required for a position?. In the case of team leads, we identified the following critical attributes as the key requisites:

1. Problem Solving & Decision Making

2. Managing Change.

3. Setting Goals and Objectives.

4. Planning and Scheduling Work

5. Handing Discipline

6. Time Management.

These competencies are more important than being the top performer in terms of achieving specific personal targets on a regular basis. In our efforts to identify the core competencies mentioned above, we came up with Assessment Center Design to effectively evaluate the suitability of a candidate for the role of a Team Lead. The typical assessment center consists of the following components:

1. Case Studies.

2. Presentations.

3. Personal Interviews.

4. 360 degree feedback.

Process /Activity Flow:

There were 8/9 Case studies that are administered, each measuring the above competencies on a rating scale of 1 to 5.

The presentations are held on topics ranging from “ways to increase agent productivity”, “controlling absenteeism” to “mentors and their roles” etc.

The Personal Interviews are conducted by a panel consisting of the leadership team and each interviewer quizzes the applicant on specific attributes like task vs relationship orientation, technical competence, motivating the team etc.

A vote is also taken from each agent to determine the acceptability of the applicants. Each team member indicates his/her preference for working with a person as a Team Lead. The name of the team member is not mentioned in the vote. The scores are consolidated and the finalists awarded the mantle of acting Team Leads for a period of 3 months.

The Team Lead selected gets the mantle of Acting Team Lead for a period of 3 months and based on his/her final performance review gets the promotion with retrospective effect.

It is not necessary that the selected team lead, lead the same team as the one, which elected him/her. As the teams’ composition keeps changing, he/she may get a few members from the earlier team and few members from new teams.

This is a unique methodology adopted by Immaculate Interactions as compared to the more common method of promoting the top performers based on appraisals. We have found that we have been able to achieve levels of employee integration that were earlier not present. We have been able to provide the deserving applicants a degree of autonomy and control that they ask for. This new management focus and philosophy has been appreciated in the employee retention initiatives.

There are issues with Top performers aspiring to become team leads, who do not get selected by this process. We are currently rewarding the high performers with more money. Sometimes they are disheartened but we ask them to apply again as and when the positions open up. We also give them alternate career paths; currently some of them get Quality Assurance positions. We however are still working out more options for them.

The results achieved however has validated the innovations we introduced, specially in an industry, where turnaround was sometimes 120% and where each transaction meant a great opportunity….won or lost and this is the new economy in which the world is going to compete!

(This article is very interesting and throws open a lot of thoughts for discussion. Feedback is welcome, do send it to voteimmaculate@businessgyan.com Immaculate Interactions is an offshore provider of outsourced IT Enabled Data Services, based in Bangalore, India and having an office in US. They offer clients Program Management, Business Process Outsourcing and Call Center Support Solutions)

Issue BG23 Feb03