Thoughts on Being an Effective Trainer

I had the pleasure of being invited to a focus group discussion with our company's General Manager, Jim Lafferty. Aside from being a key business leader and strategist, he is also passionate about training and building the people. I can personally attest to this since I have seen this drive consistently exhibited from all of the training sessions that he had conducted in the past.

I would like to share some key thoughts that I had taken away from the roomful of equally passionate trainers from office.

1. First and foremost, you should have a desire to teach. One cannot coach another to have desire. It's either you have it or you don't. Maybe you were forced to train because of direct mandates from higher management. Maybe you figured it would look good on your resume or on your work plan results. Regardless of the reasons, if you don't have that initial passion to learn and share what you have learned, don't assume that you'll be able to fool your audience into thinking otherwise.

2. Credibility is key. Having trainers with the right qualifications and experience will build the right level of confidence. If you are not the experts in that particular area, do not even think about volunteering. You are just asking for "difficult audiences" who will forever oppose what you are preaching because they do not believe you have a right to teach it in the first place.

3. Customize your training materials. Do not just take something that HR or your counterparts from other regions used and present it as-is. Throw in your own personal touch. Add experiences that you are passionate about. Rest assured, it will come out to be more comfortable and effective - ergo, more "you."

4. All trainers should be able to sense the audience's emotions. Being a great trainer means that you can assess quickly whether your audience need a short exercise to get their blood pumping, or when they are impatient to go to the next slide because they already understand the main point. One should be able to see subtle cues so that they will be able to react and plan their strategy quickly. The training session is definitely not the time to be oblivious.

5. Engage and put your audience at ease. You can achieve this by making them laugh within the first 120 seconds of your training. This is a guaranteed way to endear you to your audience. Empathize with them. Put a little humor at just the right timing and right manner. With the gazillion of available jokes in the Internet, you'll surely be able to find a suitable one for the topic that you're training on. Your job is to teach them as much as it is to entertain them. You have to earn the right for them to listen to you. Don't expect everyone to sit up and take notes just because you happen to be a Vice-President of the biggest selling brand in your region.

6. Treat your audience with dignity and respect. No matter how pissed you may be at the intern who is dozing off in the middle of your favorite anecdote, or the know-it-all participant who kept jumping in and asking senseless questions that are the complete opposite of what you just discussed, do not embarrass your audience. Be subtle on how you give your feedback. As much as possible, ensure that you give the message in the right way.

7. Do not overcomplicate the subject matter. This is where storytelling techniques are used to make the topic more memorable. Use analogies and real-life examples to get people to understand your point. Don't limit yourself into thinking that this is not applicable for technical or functional trainings. A great teacher can make the world's most boring subject interesting and understandable. Recall how your own mother explained what is gravity or why there are raindrops. I'm sure she didn't read off what is exactly stated in Wikipedia (or the equivalent encyclopedia then). She stuck with the basic message but added her own creativity and translated it into a language that was understood by a 7-year old.

8. Training or teaching is an art, not a science. At the end of the day, no matter how many self-help manuals you may have read about training, or how great your mentor is, it is still a continuous process of learning and re-learning. There is no sure fire way of achieving a perfect evaluation score. But if you have passion for learning and sharing what you have learned with others, just continue to build on that passion. There are only a few things more satisfying than hearing your previous students walk up to you and say, "I still remember your blue monkey example or your arrow experiement."

Again, a big salute to all trainers and teachers out there! The world would not be as good as it is now without your neverending passion for knowledge and learning.