Okay, fine. You're managing the department. Work is getting done on time. Nobody is complaining. But are you really leading? Are you motivating and encouraging your employees. Or are you just keeping a lid on all the little distractions?

Your job, as a manager, is to actually be a leader. Here are some resources to help you do that:

• What Is A Leader - Here are the basics. It's tough to be a good leader if you don't know what a leader is.
• Talking Out Loud - It's not enough to have great ideas. If you are going to be a leader, you are going to have to open your mouth and stand up for your principles.
• How To Be A Better Manager - Here are ten things that will make you a better manager and a leader.

Call centers are expensive to set up and operate. It's important that they operate efficiently. It's also important that they serve their purpose of making sure the customers are satisfied with the service they receive from the call center. The article Quality Monitoring details how call center managers use Key Performance Indicators and a Quality Monitoring program to achieve those goals.

We've added additional detail to the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) section. The article Call Center KPI lists KPI commonly used in call centers and explains each of them. If you operate a call center, or if you deal with one, you'll want to know this.

In the HBR Blog entry To Find Happiness, Forget About Passion author Oliver Segovia suggests that following your passion is not the path to career happiness and success. He argues, "Forget about finding your passion. Instead, focus on finding big problems". He goes on to suggest the place to look for "big problems" is in something that excites or interests you or, as he says it, "Look into problems that affect you in a very personal way".

Several people have criticized Segovia for what they consider just renaming passion. That overlooks what I consider the most important section of his blog post where he says, "Putting problems at the center of our decision-making changes everything. It's not about the self anymore. It's about what you can do and how you can be a valuable contributor. People working on the biggest problems are compensated in the biggest ways."

As managers, we're always looking for people who can tackle the biggest headaches. We assign our best people to the biggest problems. And we reward their successes. Wouldn't it be great if our employees came to us with the attitude of wanting to tackle the biggest problems they could handle? Shouldn't that be our approach to our boss and our work too?

For more on this topic, read Passion Pays. And for what happens when passion dies, read Larry Doesn't Work Here Anymore.