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Thomas Moore, COO of Custom Connect, joins Michelle Ansell in The Impact Room to discuss what modern operational leadership really looks like in a fast-moving customer and outsourcing environment.
From frontline contact centre work through MI, workforce planning, training, finance and operational leadership, Thomas has built his career across the full operating model. In this conversation, he explores the leadership challenges sitting in the “messy middle”, why behaviour often matters more than technical capability, how AI is changing the nature of customer operations, and why future leaders will need broader commercial, operational and people capability.
Watch: Thomas Moore in The Impact Room
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Modern operational leadership is built across functions
One of the strongest themes in Thomas’ career is breadth.
He talks about learning the mechanics of performance early through MI, understanding financial and operational measures, moving into workforce planning and then gaining experience across training, finance and operations. That cross-functional exposure helped him understand how different parts of a business connect and how operational levers affect performance.
Thomas argues that this breadth is increasingly important for senior operational leaders because the role is no longer simply about running a function. Modern COOs and Operations Directors are expected to understand people, technology, finance, customer outcomes, workforce, risk and growth.
The “messy middle” is still a leadership weak spot
Thomas describes middle management as the layer where people are expected to manage KPIs, culture, customer experience, people and operational performance at the same time, often without enough support. He compares it to the COO role in miniature: broad responsibility, huge influence, but limited specialisation.
The issue is not simply capability.
It is clarity, development and confidence.
He gives a very relatable example of being told to “be more strategic” without anyone explaining what that actually meant in practice.
Organisations often promote technically strong people into leadership, then expect strategic capability to appear without deliberately developing it.
Behaviour before technical skills
Thomas is very clear that when he hires, he looks at behaviour, aptitude and application before technical expertise.
His view is that people can be taught systems, processes and functional knowledge if they have curiosity, resilience and the right attitude.
That is a useful theme for executive recruitment because it gets beyond “who has done this exact job before?”
Experience matters, but the ability to learn, adapt, influence and recover from mistakes may be a stronger predictor of long-term leadership success.
AI will not remove the need for people — it will raise the bar
Thomas talks about the tendency to focus heavily on AI, while overlooking the human side of customer operations.
His view is that AI will take on more straightforward tasks, but that the remaining work handled by agents and operational leaders will become more complex, more investigative and more demanding.
That creates a different workforce challenge. Rather than needing fewer capable people, organisations may need people with higher judgement, broader knowledge and stronger problem-solving ability.
Outsourcing is moving from supplier to partner
Thomas also makes a good point about the outsourcing market becoming increasingly commoditised.
He describes the need for outsourcers to move beyond simply talking about partnership and instead demonstrate that they genuinely understand the client’s business, care about the outcome and bring additional tools, solutions and thinking to the relationship.
The future of outsourcing is not simply about capacity or cost. It is about relevance, trust and measurable value.
In this episode
- The journey from frontline operations to COO
- Why cross-functional experience creates stronger operational leaders
- The leadership challenge sitting in middle management
- Behaviour and aptitude versus technical capability
- Why “be more strategic” is often poor leadership guidance
- AI and the changing complexity of customer operations
- Human-centric technology in contact centres
- The future of outsourcing and BPO partnerships
- Cybersecurity, compliance and operational resilience
- Why trust and culture still matter in partner selection
What CEOs, COOs and Operations Leaders should take from the conversation
Develop leaders before they reach the top.
Middle management is where much of the organisation’s culture, performance and customer experience is actually delivered.
Broader experience creates better enterprise leaders.
Exposure to finance, workforce planning, people, technology and operations helps leaders understand how decisions connect across the business.
AI changes the capability requirement.
As simpler activity is automated, human work becomes more complex. That changes recruitment, development and operating models.
Culture is an operating system.
Thomas repeatedly comes back to creating a safe space where people can make decisions, ask questions and learn from mistakes.
Trust still matters in commercial relationships.
Whether choosing a leader or an outsourcing partner, the differentiator is often not the pitch deck but confidence in how that person or organisation will actually operate.
Key quote
“The middle level is where you start cutting your teeth and really understanding what it is to be a leader of a business.”
“I look at behaviours first before I look at technical skills.”
About Thomas Moore
Thomas Moore is COO of Custom Connect, a global customer operations and outsourcing business.
His career spans frontline contact-centre operations, management information, workforce planning, training, finance and operational leadership, giving him broad experience across the mechanics of customer and operational performance.
Learn more about Custom Connect here: https://www.customconnect.com/
Follow Thomas here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thomas-m-0659b84/
Relevant links
COO / Operations Leadership Recruitment
Executive Search
Operational Support Recruitment
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