What skills does a good team leader need—and how Njuškalo made them possible for me

When you mention a call center or customer support, people’s first associations are usually “bad” ones—annoying people phoning others and disturbing them; the belief that call-center employees “don’t have a real job;” or comments like “no serious person works in support”—as if call centers were staffed only by students doing a stop-gap job until they finish university.

Yet anyone who looks a little deeper is usually astonished to learn that a call center is not just a student job: behind that name stands a whole machinery of really competent people—a team on the front line for customers—with one common goal: helping and delivering the best possible service. When your purchase, ad posting, or order goes according to plan, you don’t need customer support; but when something goes off track, timely, high-quality, professional support is what separates excellent service from poor service. Behind the Customer Support team at Njuškalo there is an army of people, each with their responsibilities—team leaders included. It’s not just about arranging weekly and monthly schedules, tracking various reports, typing an endless stream of emails, and ticking off KPIs.

Team leader role is more than a set of skills

This role demands a wide range of well-developed skills—and the best part is that their development never stops. You might think that finishing one training program makes you a professional—but that isn’t true. Times change, as does the market; in the last few years we’ve all witnessed rapid change after rapid change. A team leader has to balance and navigate those shifts while also caring for dozens of people on the team.

In reality, a team leader is wearing many hats and playing multiple roles at once trying to meet everyone’s needs. At the same time, a person must be a rock for the people she or he manages, has to know how to listen actively, sense when a team member’s motivation is dipping, and uncover each agent’s personal motivator. It isn’t just about money. Each team member’s intrinsic motivators need to be met for this “living organism” to function smoothly. And it’s the team leader who must get to know every person and understand what drives them from within.

It’s also the leader’s duty to track each employee’s development, guide them, and amplify their strengths. Beyond caring for people, a Customer Support leader must meet the company’s expectations while listening closely to customer feedback and balancing between those needs. That’s not an easy task.

Leading the Njuškalo way

But at Njuškalo it isn’t impossible. Njuškalo is a company with plenty to be proud of, and, for me, the most important thing to highlight is its investment in people—through diverse training. At Njuškalo’s customer support, people receive the training they need to strengthen their existing strengths and work intensively on their less developed traits. Something that Njuškalo nurtures generally, and especially in Customer Support, is empathy. It’s key to understanding both customers and the team; empathy lets us step into someone else’s shoes and, through open dialogue, arrive at solutions together.

Empathy, understanding, and the ability for people to speak openly about how they feel create a positive, comfortable working atmosphere—one that ultimately spills over to customers. It’s said for a reason that people will likely forget what you said, but they’ll never forget how they felt with you and because of you. That’s what Njuškalo cultivates: the feeling of being understood, safe, and valued.

Beyond empathy, a support team leader must be there for the team even when things aren’t running smoothly. Imagine the entire system goes down for a day. Support is flooded with calls, your team is working flat out, frustration and stress are rising. In those moments, the leader has to keep a cool head, calm people, and keep motivation high. And the crucial part—once the storm passes—is recognizing that the team did a huge, successful job and appreciating their extra mile. Gratitude is a powerful tool because people feel their effort has been seen. We all want to be seen, and it matters to celebrate small wins.

Amid all a leader’s responsibilities, another big expectation is solving problems under pressure. In those situations, you must quickly look at the issue from multiple angles and make a final decision. Some decisions are hard. Some seem hard at first but are better for the team in the long term. When deciding, you have to keep in mind that you may face people’s dissatisfaction. In those moments, it’s important to explain why the decision was made and how it will affect workload and the team going forward. In Njuškalo’s Customer Support team, we value open communication above all—untethered from titles. Everyone has an equal voice and the right to their opinion.

What has this job taught me?

As I’ve already said, it has taught me that transparent communication is vital—just like flexibility and adapting to the times we live in and the conditions we work in. I’ve also learned patience. And, most importantly, that people are the driving force behind everything. The most important thing is to develop people. There’s no greater reward than seeing a colleague, who at the beginning was too startled to pick up the phone and say ‘hello,’ is now mentoring new team members and serving as a role model. What’s special about Njuškalo is that it enables its employees, along their career paths, to acquire and strengthen the skills we all need—regardless of title—to reach a shared goal: delivering top-quality service to customers and increasing their satisfaction.