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Effective leaders never stop learning. Whether you just completed your MBA, or have run a business for decades, there’s still more for you to learn about working with others, which is precisely what Earl Foote and Nate Spears talked about on this livestream.
As any business owner or manager can attest, in the first part of your career, it’s a lot of “fake it till you make it.” There’s so much you don’t know how to do without trying to do it first — you’re all theory and no experience.
That’s why it’s so critical to learn from mentors and peers. To harness their experience and insight. That’s what Nexus IT Consultants’ Earl Foote and ClearSource’s Nate Spears offered on this recent live stream:
Nate Spears comes from an eclectic business and education background. He was homeschooled and grew up working door to door sales with his father. After school, he worked as an outbound sales telemarketer and went on to study economics at the University of Utah.
After graduating, he managed customer service for BMW, where he made an important realization — call centers (and customer support in general) are focused much more on efficiency than quality. Recognizing this need, Nate knew then that he wanted to help any company create a BMW-quality service, and so, he and a business partner launched ClearSource in 2008.
ClearSource offers premium customer care services, including phone, chat, and support. They help companies develop and deliver high quality and highly efficient customer support programs.
As hinted at in the topic of this livestream, Nate’s MBA did not prepare him for a managerial role. Despite ClearSource’s success and accolades, he constantly worried about going out of business.
“Prior to my experience with ClearSource, I had zero experience managing or leading other people,” says Nate. “I found myself in over my head.”
Nate was struggling with the nature of employee performance in the call center and customer service world. Most managers only have basic incentives and punishment at their disposal to try to encourage better performance from their employees, which he found to be very limiting, and not very effective.
“I was miserable, my people were miserable, we weren’t getting any results,” says Nate.
Then, three years ago, Nate met someone who gave him a new perspective. They spoke about how much satisfaction they get from helping those they mentor to grow and succeed, and when Nate compared that to the ongoing turnover he saw at his company, he took it as a wake-up call.
“I thought, ‘Something has got to change’,” says Nate.
From there, Nate began a self-led curriculum of books and programs from recognized leaders, which helped him change and improve his approach. Based on his experience in running a business and growing as a leader, he’s developed a 12-part leadership series, and worked with leaders across the country to help them become better at what they do.
For the full discussion with Nate about ClearSource and his approach to leadership, make sure to check out the full livestream recording.