YOU CAN ' T EXPECT TRUST TO FORM EVENLY IF WHAT " GOOD LEADERSHIP " LOOKS LIKE DEPENDS ON WHICH SUPERVISOR YOU’ RE ASSIGNED TO.
LEADERSHIP
BY JIM REMBACH, CALL CENTER COACH
ILLUSTRATION PROVIDED BY ADOBE STOCK
REVERSING THE CONTACT CENTER LEADERSHIP DRIFT
HOW AI-ENABLED LEADERSHIP CAN IMPROVE AGENT SUPERVISION AND PERFORMANCE.
Here are two connected conversations that broke employee trust without anyone noticing:
• A Filipino agent is coached for mishandling a timecard issue.
• Later, a Honduran agent receives the same coaching from the same supervisor: same tone, same words, and same intent.
Both agents nodded. Both say they understood. But one leaves feeling dismissed. The other, micromanaged. The supervisor leaves thinking it went well.
18 CONTACT CENTER PIPELINE
Nothing looks wrong on the surface. No red flags in the HR system. No policy violations. No complaints. But something happened. Trust fractured. And employee engagement and morale just dropped a few degrees colder. This is how Supervisor Drift begins— not with a blowup- but with a whisper.
It’ s not just a mismatch in communication style. It’ s a mismatch in how leadership inconsistency is experienced— a quiet case of Execution Drift— where leadership behavior misaligns from cultural expectations. What happened in that conversation wasn’ t obvious, but it wasn’ t harmless.
YOU CAN ' T EXPECT TRUST TO FORM EVENLY IF WHAT " GOOD LEADERSHIP " LOOKS LIKE DEPENDS ON WHICH SUPERVISOR YOU’ RE ASSIGNED TO.