We have all heard it before; at almost every training session we have attended:
• Always wear a smile, the client can hear it

• Always have a positive attitude

• Never take rejection personally
 
All these are wonderful in theory, but what happens in practise?  Why is it that these principles need to be repeated continuously?  Why do contact centre agents have an especially hard time maintaining this quintessential persona?
The answer is simple.  Those of us that have the critical obligation to skill, empower and uplift our weary staff have somehow become so absorbed by the theory and repetition of it all, that we have forgotten one essential factor.  We are not uploading the latest software or updating the antivirus with androids or robots.  We are dealing with human beings, complete with a multitude of complex emotions, real life issues (daytime soapy type drama) and countless other unspoken personal hurdles to overcome.
Taking all of this into account, our delivery of skills development theory needs to be altered slightly.
Humour me for a minute or two… Picture this…

Miss Call Centre Agent, or Aggie as I like to call her, jolts out of a deep sleep.  She reaches for her mobile phone on her bedside table and strains to read the time through her heavy, sleepy eyes.  She is shocked upright when she realises she is already an hour late.  She jumps out of bed and scrambles to align her thoughts with the process of movement as panic begins to set in.  Panic quickly turns to fear as the thought of how she will be reprimanded and what her reaction or excuse will be slowly begins to brew.  As she stumbles to the bathroom, she bumps her toe on the corner of the bed and is so late; she ignores the tears stinging her eyes and the electrifying pain shooting up her leg. (You felt that pain didn’t you?)
Aggie get to the bathroom and squeezes the last bit of toothpaste onto her toothbrush, as she puts it up to her mouth, it falls into the sink. “Damn it!”  She steps into the shower and is greeted by a blast of glacial water (seems the geyser was switched off, no time to wait) Huffing and puffing Aggie has a polar shower and gets out realising she hasn’t done the laundry.  “Wonderful!”  The only clean thing she has to wear is the one outfit she hates because it makes her feel terrible. (We all have that one outfit, and for some inconceivable reason, we will not get rid of it).

Aggie puts on the clothes she hates and sprints to the kitchen hoping to have a quick cup of coffee before she leaves.  She pours the last bit of milk into her cup of coffee and it’s spoiled, “Just my luck!”  She throws it into the sink and runs out the door.  Aggie gets to her car and as she is about to unlock the car door,  her handbag slips out of her grasp and sends most of its precious contents rolling in different directions.  (We girls carry our lives in our bags).  Aggie scrambled to get it together and gets into the car.  She turns on the ignition, and nothing, the car won’t start.  “Perfect!”  Aggie gets out the car and walks to the street corner to get a taxi and off she goes.   
About 1km away from the call centre, the taxi is pulled over by a traffic officer, from the raised voices and tone of the conversation between driver and traffic officer, she can tell this is going nowhere.  She decides to walk.  As Aggie jumps off the taxi, she steps into a crack in the pavement and her heel breaks.  “Wonderful!”   
Aggie eventually get to the call centre, sweaty, runny makeup, broken heel, hungry, exhausted, knots in her stomach and there he is , her team leader.  “Is this the time to arrive?”  Before she can explain, he roars, “Get your head set on, start dialling, I will deal with you later.”
The first call Aggie makes she gets screamed at, the second the same, the third and fourth no better.  She finally gets to pitch on the fifth call and the clients says “I’m not interested thanks” Aggie is too exhausted to try and handle that objection so she ends the call.   
Aggie’s Team leader taps her on the shoulder, “Why didn’t you handle objection?” he asks, “why didn’t you smile, don’t you remember you supposed to have a positive attitude?”
On her tea break, she tells her story to her friends, and then on lunch she infects more agents with her negative mood.  By the end of the day, she has relived her ordeal so many times that she hasn’t been the least bit productive, she has infected over 30% of the call centre with her negativity and overall production is down by 18%.

Of course this is an extreme commentary (I am female, we exaggerate), but truthfully this type of occurrence is more common than we would like to admit.  
So what is my point?  Look at Aggie’s situatio