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Challenged by managing & motivating a culturally diverse customer service team a continent away?

I am a customer service manager at Voice123.com, and a challenge I face is managing the staff we employ in Bogota, Colombia from the offices we have in New York City, NY. When I took this job as Customer Service/Quality Assurance/Blogger/Public Relations manager at Voice123, I understood ahead of time what challenges were ahead of me. I was not told what the challenges were, but my past experience in traveling to other countries filled me with the knowledge of how businesses in the United States were viewed internationally. I also understood that there are countries that view the United States as ‘1st World’, as if to say that their own country must be ‘3rd World’ by comparison. Luckily, traveling has also taught me that many times people who believe their country is inferior to the United States, may simply need to be reminded as to how the world is pretty much the same no matter where you go. Back in 1992, I read a book called ‘Think and Grow Rich’ by Napoleon Hill. In this book, he describes very basic needs shared by all human beings, or at least, that is my interpretation of his writing behind his Philosophy of Success: Read more »

Leadership

Support organizations that deliver exceptional customer service and business value have, at their core, something in common: Leadership.

But what does leadership look like? It’s business-focused people who approach their responsibilities with energy, passion, and intelligence. They never forget where they came from and what it took for them to get to where they are. They take with them the lessons they learned and the people that influenced them along the way. They are resourceful and thoughtful. They are unafraid to seek advice, direction, and support.

Most importantly, they share the most important characteristic of all – they are servant leaders. They never let their egos convince them that they are the smartest people in the room. And they never let arrogance stand in the way of being a good listener and a continuous learner. Read more »