Transforming Field Leadership: Luke Freeman’s COE Journey

In the world of telecommunications, field leadership plays a pivotal role in ensuring smooth operations and high performance. Luke Freeman, Senior Field Lead at a leading telco, found himself facing significant challenges before embarking on his Core Operational Excellence (COE) journey. The issues were pressing, with low team engagement, unit cost rate reductions needed, and production falling short of stretch targets.

Challenges Faced:

Facing numerous challenges, Luke and his team grappled with low engagement levels, adversely affecting both morale and productivity. The imperative to reduce unit cost rates added financial pressure, while consistent production shortfalls hindered operational efficiency. Key performance indicators languished at a mere 55%, falling far short of the coveted 95% target. Previous attempts to address these issues through discussions and performance evaluations fell flat, leaving the underlying issues within the ecosystem unaddressed.

How COE Made the Difference:

COE provided Luke with a structured and scientific approach to managing his team, instilling a sense of engagement and purpose. The results were nothing short of remarkable:

Boosted Engagement: Luke achieved the highest engagement levels in the field, an impressive increase to +81%.

Reduced Unit Cost Rates: Rates dropped to their lowest, surpassing expectations by 25%.

Exceeded Production Targets: Production soared, consistently exceeding stretch targets.

Enterprise SLA Focus: The last quarter saw a significant focus and improvement, with the Enterprise SLA rising to 70% and beyond.

Key Takeaways and Learnings for Luke and his team:

Luke’s COE journey yielded several valuable takeaways:

Permission to Lead: He learned to give himself permission to lead effectively and make impactful decisions.

Leadership Support: The COE journey was greatly supported by his leaders, emphasising the importance of leadership backing.

Succession Planning: A structured and visible approach to succession planning not only enhanced leadership development but also created opportunities for career progression among team members.

Overcoming Challenges:

One of the primary challenges Luke had to surmount was effective time management, a crucial skill for any leader.

Luke Freeman’s COE journey serves as an inspiring testament to the transformative power of structured operational excellence programs. By addressing critical challenges and fostering leadership excellence, Luke not only achieved impressive results but also contributed to the growth and development of his entire team.

“It has really been a great journey, one that was very challenging I must admit, but also of great value to me being new in this senior lead role when I started it.  It certainly gave me many valuable tools and practices to apply in my day to day work and benefitted not only myself, but I feel also the whole team. It is something I am proud to have accomplished (at times I doubted I would). There is great support.  The facilitators have a fantastic way of teaching and making the sessions so engaging and a lot of fun.” Luke Freeman

If your low engagement levels, morale and productivity challenges sound like your everyday experience, then it might be time to get strategic in solving the problem. Book a call with QBS here.