No More Monkey Business: Growing Strategic Leadership in Contact Centers

Ever said “Leave it with me” only to realize you’ve just adopted another shrieking primate onto your already crowded shoulders? Welcome to the unofficial wildlife park of contact center leadership, where every unresolved issue, every escalated complaint and every team crisis suddenly transforms into a monkey clinging to your back.

What starts as trying to be a supportive leader eventually leads to less contact center leadership and more Jumanji survival.

This monkey metaphor is not for comic relief. It’s a first-hand lesson I learned and a warning for contact center managers who continuously absorb urgent tasks to protect their teams.  While noble, the cost is heavy: buried strategy, neglected coaching and leaders who spend more time carrying than leading.

The Monkey Isn’t Cute Anymore

The trouble with taking on everyone else’s monkeys is that they multiply fast. Today’s “I’ll handle this one” call escalation becomes tomorrow’s “Sorry, I haven’t put any thought into our one-on-one.” Suddenly, your calendar is a sanctuary for other people’s problems.

This also begins to reinforce a bad habit. Every time you take a monkey off someone else’s shoulders, you unintentionally teach your team a lesson that their problems are solved faster if they hand them to you. Delegation runs in reverse. Instead of building problem-solving muscles in your people, you are feeding dependency and that dependency breeds more monkeys.

In this cycle, managers drift further from where they add the most value, which is setting direction, shaping strategy and developing future leaders. Instead, strategy gets crowded out by squeaky monkeys demanding attention.

Elevate Your Leadership: Don’t Feed the Monkey!

The instinct to say “I’ll take care of it” feels natural. It sounds like support. However, in reality, every time you scoop up a monkey that isn’t yours, you rob someone else of the chance to grow. Leadership should be 10% rescuing and 90% empowering.

Your job is not to play zookeeper. Your job is to create the kind of habitat where people learn to care for their own monkeys. That shift is less about control and more about trust, clarity and empowerment. To do that:

• Redirect, Don’t Rescue: When someone tries to hand you a monkey, resist the reflex. Instead of saying, “I’ll take this one” try “What steps have you already taken?” or “What do you think the best next move is?”
  
• Empower Through Clarity: Many monkeys show up because people are not sure what success looks like. Set clear expectations and boundaries to reduce the volume of tasks that scurry towards your shoulders.
  
• Coach in the Moment: Strategic thinking manager’s turn problems into lessons. Don’t just solve, guide. The question is not, “How do I fix this?” but “How do I help them fix it next time without me?”
  

By empowering rather than rescuing, you don’t just lighten your own load, you grow the next wave of confident, capable leaders.

From Problem Solver to Leadership Builder

The trap comes from wanting to protect your team and stepping in too quickly. Because so many contact center leaders start on the front line servicing customers, it’s in most their DNA to care and solve problems.

Therefore, it feels natural to take on monkeys to shield others because it is out of a genuine desire to help, but the result is overload and dependency. Strategic leadership begins by finding the right balance of shielding and strengthening. Taking over and building others up.  And by balance, I don’t mean 50/50. It’s closer to a 10/90 split.

5 Practical Takeaways

• Check the Monkey: Before accepting a task, ask yourself “Whose monkey is this really?”
  
• Redirect Ownership: Replace “I’ll handle it” with “What’s your next step?”
  
• Set Clear Boundaries: Clear roles and success measures keep monkeys from climbing upward unnecessarily.
  
• Coach, Don’t Carry: Every monkey moment is a coaching moment if you pause to empower instead of rescue.
  
• Elevate Your View: Create space for strategy, future planning and people development.
  

The future of your contact center and your leadership is not measured in monkeys you carried, but in leaders you have grown.

Until next time, and as always

Hooroo.