“Ego is Not Your Amigo.”

ICMI leans on the ICMI Strategic Advisory Board to stay connected with the contact center community and focused on the changing landscape of customer experience. Throughout the year, we’re asking a few questions of the members of the board.

Here, we ask Josh Streets, CEO of Scoreboard Group Consulting, to share his perspective.

Thank you for agreeing to be a part of ICMI’s Strategic Advisory Board. Why do you think it’s important to give back to the contact center community?

In the contact center community and in my hometown community, giving back is something I’ve always done. It’s important because we are such a giving, open, contact center community that likes to learn, grow, and share with each other.

Making a difference in others’ lives is part of my overall purpose, as it helped me personally in my own journey. If I can do that via the things that excite me (like contact centers, mentoring, leadership), then it’s low effort and high reward. When we give back and others succeed because of it, it brings meaning and joy to our and others’ lives.

What lesson did you learn from your biggest success in your career? And from the biggest challenge (that you’d like to share)?

A lesson learned from my biggest success was that at the center of high-performing teams and big accomplishments are usually great relationships. From my biggest challenge, I learned to never fully trust a strategy, but always trust who you have leading it.

In your opinion, what skill or skills will be most needed in the next decade in this industry?

Critical thinking, innovation, strategy, listening, patience and effective leadership - these are the six competencies to build or find in leadership and then transfer to those on the service and sales frontlines.

What are you most proud of in your career, and why?

I wanted to be a medical doctor or psychologist before I got into contact center leadership. Despite not pursuing that path, I have somehow managed to find a career of more than 20 years where I have diagnosed issues, prescribed solutions, treated the root cause vs surface symptoms of many businesses, rallied teams of specialists around complex problems and have become a thought leader in my practice or field by staying ahead of change.

You find yourself in a room full of contact center professionals and you have the opportunity to give them just one piece of advice to set them up for success. What would you say?

Your ego is not your amigo in the contact center community. We are all in this together.