I started the day tired. I came from a 1-10 pm shift, and was not able to leave early the night before because I had to send a client some files. Then, we thought the schedule was at 8am. So, at the start of the day, I literally could feel my head spin. Then BOLT started, we met Aui, and I got more and more interested while she was discussing the module, to a point that I could barely stop myself from spouting my thoughts and ideas related to the topics we were talking about. It made sense. If there were any three words that I’d use for BOLT, it would be that. I was able to realize that some of the theories we talked about, I already applied in class, and at work. But it’s nice to have something to call it: REINFORCEMENT, Leadership by Example, MOTIVATION. There were several epiphanies as well.

On the first day of BOLT, I was reminded of the impact that I had on my trainees, the people I work with, and my superiors. In the daily hustle and bustle of life, we tend to get caught with routine that we forget they also have expectations of us. It’s at the back of my mind; however, getting a real-time reminder was like a wake-up call: “Hey, be mindful!”

Here were some topics that rang a bell through my mind. The first is Roles and Responsibilities of a Manager. I agree with every role and sub-role that was discussed, and noticed that at some point in my life as a trainer and a supervisor, I was representing that role.

Of all the basic expectations, I liked “Be a POSITIVE Leader” the most. I realized that it is important to maintain positive energy even at the lowest of times. This has a ripple effect toward your trainees. I remembered a topic that we discussed in college - Psych1 – Mirroring. Your people mirror your attitude towards them.

 I also liked Motivation – the fact that it made me realize High motivation does not always mean High performance.

We ended the day with me feeling exhausted but refreshed at the same time, and I am very eager to come in tomorrow.

It’s a Monday. And, what do we know about Mondays? I call it the post-rest day syndrome. It’s when you feel that the weekend’s not over yet and you still want to hang-out with friends and have fun, or spend another day in the spa, or be with your partner, or perhaps just shop and do something interesting.

Hey, I don’t feel that way at all. In fact, I got my groove back when Rommel started. The topic piqued my curiosity. How can TEAMS have that much theory and meaning involved? I mean, I’d compare it to brushing your teeth, or washing your hands. It’s very common, just like teams in our workplace and industry, but, to get an almost scientific breakdown, it’s like when nurses study hand-washing as part of their return demo. It’s a pretty simple routine, but they put a system to it, like a process, which is how we broke down the concepts of teams: what makes a team? What are the stages a team goes through? What breaks a team?

I loved the Stages of Team Development discussion because I could relate most to TMUK PST’s experience in the UK. Some experienced storming, others, forming (getting to know you stage), and at the latter part, norming.

When we got back to Manila, we went back to the storming stage due to change in location, environment, launching the new account, etc. Then we went through norming when we did the first few classes, we got assigned stations, rooms etc. When we got the hang of it, we went to performing stage that we were doing projects outside of Training classes, when our boss started to give us tasks. I’m proud to say that at present, our team is still in the  Performing stage.

I agree with the dysfunctions of a team, and how hierarchical the process is. It’s going through one dysfunction toward another that leads to the next and so on.

I also like Collaboration, how everyone is able to put in intellectual effort for the task to be considered as such. The competencies made perfect sense. And, the conditions too.

It was a very productive day, in terms of what I’ve learned. Waiting for tomorrow….

HR day. I’d have to admit, I miss Aui and Rommel. J But the topics were interesting; in fact, we apply these concepts to every agent or trainee we have. MAPs, PMDS, engagement, WFM (forecasting and staffing). The class was made to realize the impacts of not being able to adhere to these processes and policies. I browsed through the agenda for tomorrow and was very happy to see we were going to discuss coaching…

COACHING!!!! I was surprised that we had so many participants in the room. Oh, SME’s  from Optus. We were jam-packed in a small room. But Aui was very adaptive to the situation and she handled it with grace and care for her trainees. I was very impressed that she didn’t show one trace of frustration, in fact, she was smiling. It made me do a self-check. As a trainer, we experience a lot of hindrances like no room for the day, busted projector; we could not connect to our tools, but was consistent in not showing my frustration? I thought back and remembered an incident like the situation above. I had to excuse myself for 30 seconds to go to the washroom and just calm myself from being irritated. It made me smile that I had enough sense not to excuse myself rather that letting my frustration be evident to the class.

I like the structure we had on coaching. It was something that we apply everyday, and now, we have names to call it. Also, it made me think, how was I coaching my trainees? Had I been a victim or routine?

I also liked work-life balance. Rommel helped me realize I was putting too much of myself at work, maybe using work as an excuse to keep myself busy to cope with some things missing in my life, and some bad experiences.

I also liked Rienzi’s attrition management. It was very interesting; I got some points on how to retain a person. I’m glad that though he’s THE country manager and probably has something more important to do with his time, he takes the time and effort to get to know his participants. I wish we had more time with Rienzi too, because what he was discussing was the major pain-point of every BPO. I also loved observing his style of training, gestures, eye-contact, the “works” of every trainer. Although he employed discussion as his methodology, he kept the ball going by soliciting each participant’s idea about 50% of the time, and then he draws from that idea and relates it to something that another person had said. I felt that he was very good at customizing the topic to each of us in the room for us to be able to individually feel the relevance and impact of whatever was being discussed to our roles, and how what we do creates an impact to the business.

It’s day 5… assessment day!!!! Rommel discussed Prioritization, which made a lot of sense, not only in providing structure to our daily routine and enhance productivity, but also to create an awareness of the impact of what we do to other colleagues. Then we had a very long assessment, tsk. I check my phone every minute to see if I got a missed call or a text from Aui…. Hahaha. Then we had Olga who discussed compliance, which was needed mostly by the TL’s. For me and Jun, we were told that it was compliance who generates the reports for stack-ranking, so we know where to go to, when we’re doing a 30-60-90 report.

Thinking back on everything that happened to BOLT, I can only say one thing. EVERYTHING MADE SENSE to me. J

Thank you very much for sharing the knowledge and your expertise.