In walks T-Money...

Being one sup down, I took on the task of assuming his (the Pretender) opening role in the site. The first full day after his separation it was clear that the environment had changed. It felt like a big weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I didn’t have to worry about his (the Pretender) commitment to the team, or his involvement with reps outside of work, or worry about his poor decision making skills. I didn’t have to worry about him at all, and if felt pretty good.

I began to cross-leverage my trainer to help support the floor in a more operational capacity. The good side was that he was very effective, with the down side being that he was forced to neglect some of his training responsibilities. I would pay for this move later.

Things were moving along, and I escalated the search for a new-supervisor. We posted online, in the papers, and internally. Applications flowed in and out. The site and it’s “culture” was different than anything I had ever dealt with and new that a professional from the outside would feel the same way.

I needed someone tough, politically correct, and able to handle intense, emotionally charged issues the same way that I could. I kept my standards high, and disqualified a lot of candidates as a result. This wasn’t a bad thing, but it did make for slow progress. Day after day, week after week, the search went on. My search was supported primarily from corporate.

Finally a possibility stood out of the crowd. A preliminary interview was conducted by corporate on one candidate, and it seemed he might be a winner. His information was sent to me, and I reached out to him to set up a meeting. Let’s refer to him as T-Money. T-Money was in his late forties and had a military background in Human Resources. He had worked in a call center before as a supervisor and possessed in-bound and out-bound experience. I interviewed him onsite. He had a very professional demeanor, and came across well. The interview was strong, but I needed more confirmation of what his guy was all about. I wanted to see how he responded in different environments, and if he was going to be consistent in his answers to my questioning.

I set up a second meeting at a local restraunt. I got to know him, and he got to know about me. I began throwing some wild scenarios at him to see how he would specifically handle them. As wild as the scenarios were, they were all real examples of what I had already dealt with at the site. It was after this meeting that I began thinking this guy could be the one.

Back at the site, the reps wanted to know why I hadn’t filled the position. I explained that this was the most important decision that I had to make at this time, and it required that I find the right person, and refused accept a lower qualified applicant.

I was sure T-money was the most qualified player that I had interviewed but it was important that my team was bought into him as well. I set up a third interview with my core staff and T-money. It was via phone, and other than doing a round-robin introduction, I didn’t participate in their interview.