What are the necessary skills to be a good trainer?
train the trainer
At Silicon Beach Training we provide a train the trainer course to teach you the skills you need to become a great trainer. However if you think you already have what it takes – Try this 10-point self-assessment!
Can you?
- Actively listen without interrupting
- Be flexible and responsive
- Sense the mood of the group and work with it
- Challenge underlying tensions or hidden feelings and bring them to the surface
- Provide an atmosphere conducive to learning
- Maintain control and direction and steer the group in a positive way
- Involve all members of the group both outgoing and shy
- Validate what group members say, support and encourage them
- Deal constructively with difficult or disruptive group members
- Use questioning and probing techniques effectively
These are just some of the more subtle aspects in which an effective trainer needs to be proficient. These skills can be learnt on our Train the Trainer training course.
REMEMBER- training is a skilled process. It can look easy but it isn’t! Trying to facilitate a group in the same way as chairing a meeting will not have the desired result and can cause many more problems than it solves!
Listening
Active listening is the key skill for a trainer.
You probably already know this (but sometimes it helps to be reminded!): Listening is very different from hearing. When we hear, the information may flow through our ears without really registering in the brain.
Listening has at least three different stages: hearing, interpreting, and recalling.
- Hearing: the physical action of the sound on our ear
- Interpreting: interpreting the message from the words that we hear, the tone and inflection of the voice, as well as the person’s facial expressions and body movements. We also make interpretations dependent upon our own experiences in life.
- Recalling: registering the message and recalling it later in the conversation.
Active listening involves all three of these processes and means you need to:
- Give your complete attention to the other person or people for a specific period of time
- Forget any preoccupations you may have
- Suspend your judgement about what they are saying
- Listen to the feeling behind the words and reflect it to the group using phrases like ‘it sounds as if you are very angry about that…is that right?
- Listen to the silence and what it means is it a comfortable or an angry silence?
- Watch for any non-verbal clues from group members ; they will help let you know when someone is disinterested, shy, anxious, domineering, bored, angry, or open etc
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Posted by Heather Buckley in Train the Trainer Training on April 6th, 2007 | No Comments »
What is coaching?
The term and practice of coaching developed in the sports world and has been subsequently imported into the world of business. It has been argued that it is THE most important practice in which any leader can engage.
Coaching should provide motivation, structure and effective feedback. As coaches, managers believe that people can succeed, that they can contribute to their success and that they can identify what people need to be able to do to improve their performance. Whilst coaching may form part of the performance management process of an organisation, it should not be part of the disciplinary process!
Learn more about the importance of coaching on our Coaching & Mentoring Course
The coaching process
It is possible for some managers to be trained counsellors or appointed mentors, but ALL leaders can be coaches (and should be!).
It is important to remember that:
- The purpose of coaching is always to enable the individual to develop.
- It is not a control measure
- It should not be used as a substitute for appraisal
An employee may approach you for coaching but it is more likely that you will wish to use coaching as part of your people management strategy. If you try to force coaching on an unwilling member, it will not be very productive for anyone!
Ideally coaching is not a one-off but a series of planned interventions where you concentrate time to your member of staff for their development and you do not cancel or change the appointment except in extreme emergency!
Coaching skills
The basic skills you need for coaching are the basic skills you need for all people management:
- Active listening
- Questioning techniques
- Feedback skills
- Goal setting
A typical coaching session
Once you have the person’s agreement to participate, the coaching session follows a basic four-step process:
- Establish contract
- Explore development needs
- Suggest alternatives
- Set goals
Establish contract
This is an important step at the beginning of your first coaching session and can be reiterated at subsequent sessions. A contract in this sense is not a formal written contract but is a way of establishing the ground rules for your sessions. It is above all the time when you can reassure your staff member that you are not using the contents of the session for appraisal purposes.
So you need to voice the purpose of the session, your role and theirs in the coaching process, the duration and the frequency of the sessions.
Explore Development Needs
The ideal way of determining development needs is by asking what the person being coached needs to learn and wishes to address. You can then together agree what is feasible to work on in one session. Do not try to force too much on the individual in one go, for they will stand little chance of achieving their goals.
Suggest alternatives
When you are exploring ways forward with your coachee, allow them time to discuss their ideas. You may wish to give them some constructive feedback on performance already achieved if this is appropriate and helpful to them. If they get stuck you may wish to suggest other alternatives; options they may not have considered or may not be aware exist.
DO NOT impose these ideas however, or you are straying out of coaching; suggest them, and ask the person what they think.
Set goals
In the final part of the session the person makes a commit to themselves (and to you) of further action.
Encourage and motivate them to set realistic targets which are clear and concise and have a time scale attached. Remind them that they will be coming back to discuss the outcome with you at the next session.
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Posted by Aaron Charlie in Leadership Training on April 3rd, 2007 | No Comments »
