COACH’ S CORNER
Avoiding it is like seeing a colleague with toothpaste on their face and hoping someone else says something. It might feel more comfortable in the moment, but the respectful, human thing to do is to speak up with care.
To build a bridge you need the right tools. And every location where bridges are built is unique.
In this article, I ' ve highlighted some of the ones I ' ve come to rely on that help shape the conversation to the individual. I hope you find them useful as you guide your teams, build trust, and strengthen performance: one coaching conversation at a time.
TOOL # 1: SPEAK THEIR LANGUAGE: USING DISC
One of the biggest turning points in my coaching journey came when I realized this simple truth: not everyone thinks, acts, or responds like I do. And that ' s not a bad thing: it ' s just finding out what communication style works for the other person.
FIGURE 1
That ' s where the DISC model comes in( see FIGURE 1). Or as Thomas Erikson colorfully puts it in the Surrounded by Idiots book series, it ' s about understanding how people communicate based on four distinct behavior types: Red, Yellow, Green, and Blue.
Here is a simplified approach that I have adapted for call and contact centers:
I remember a coaching session with Janice, who is one of our experienced agents, but whose hold time was consistently higher than her peers.
At first glance, it looked like a performance issue. But I knew Janice; she wasn ' t careless or unmotivated. She was a strong performer in many areas, which made this trend a bit curious.
Through conversations and observation, I had a good sense of Janice’ s personality; she was a mix of Red( dominant) and Blue( conscientious). That meant she cared deeply about getting things right, but she also wanted to be in control and come across as competent with peers and callers.
THE DISC MODEL
Source: Thomas Erikson, Surrounded by Idiots, modified by Mark Pereira
So, I approached our conversation directly, not in a critical way, but with clarity and purpose. I told Janice, " Your hold time is higher than expected." I showed her the data for the month and even brought up a few specific calls from that day where the hold times were unnecessarily long.
As we talked, it became clear that the real issue wasn ' t that she was distracted or lazy. Instead, it was information overload.
Janice was placing customers on hold because she couldn ' t quickly locate the right resources or information.
Her desktop was covered in Microsoft Sticky Notes, with everything from system passwords to website links scribbled in different colors, all competing for her attention. Then she had two notepads filled with information, which she also used to help answer questions.
I didn ' t lecture Janice as I knew it would be of no use. Instead, I walked over to her desk and said, " Let ' s figure this out together."
I introduced her to OneNote: a simple digital tool that could help her organize and centralize all those scattered notes. Within minutes, she was copying her most-used links, key facts, and troubleshooting guides into a single, searchable document.
The result? By the following week, Janice’ s hold time was cut in half.
That experience reminded me of something important. Most people aren ' t just one color on the DISC spectrum. Janice had the drive of a Red and the structure-focused mindset of a Blue. That combination influenced how she processed information and how she responded to coaching.
And it ' s not always static. An agent might come across as a Yellow( influential) on the phone- energetic, chatty, full of personality- but shift to a Green( steady) style in team meetings, preferring to observe and maintain harmony rather than speak up.
FEBRUARY 2026 17