Don’t think of yourself as a trainer… since that puts the focus on what YOU do.

Remember:

It’s not about what YOU do… it’s about how your learners feel about what THEY can do as a result of the learning experience you created and helped to deliver.

Rather than think of yourself as a teacher or trainer, try getting used to thinking of yourself as “a person who creates learning experiences… a person who helps others learn.” In other words, put a lot more emphasis on the learning and a lot less emphasis on the teaching.

Learn to create the learning experience on our comprehensive Train the Trainer course.

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Posted by Heather Buckley in Train the Trainer Training on February 16th, 2009 | No Comments »

GIVE YOUR DELEGATES TIPS ON HOW TO PREVENT FORGETTING

1. Expect/intend/try to remember. It sounds obvious but the more you imagine or want to remember the less you will forget.
2. Don’t overload the memory, this is important for trainers. Seven items is the most our memories can comfortably handle in one go. Your memory prefers to have only three, four, or five things to remember at one time. Therefore, if you need to remember more than four or five items, you need to break up the group into smaller bites.
3. Understand before you try to remember. So make sure your delegates understand before you move on, ask questions. If you don’t understand something, your memory will have great difficulty storing it.
4. You can’t expect to remember everything you read or hear. Select the most interesting points for yourself by looking for answers to your own questions. You can’t remember everything. If you try, you will probably end up not remembering much at all.
5. Organise the material to be learned in your head. Trainers should follow a logical order. Memory works best when the information is organised.
6. Relate the ideas to what you already know. Trainers should ask delegates questions about the material that will relate to the delegates experience. Your memory will find it easier to store new information if you relate it to old information. Make an association or create a picture in your head to relate unknown ideas to ideas you already have.
7. Use mnemonic devices. Very useful for trainers to offer their students. These memory devices aid memory, but should be simple, clear, vivid. It is easier to remember the unusual, the funny, or both.
   
   Rhymes:
   “I before E, except after C, or when sounded like A, as in neighbor and weigh.”
   Acronyms:
   IRsoul
   I —— Intend to remember
   R —– Relate the information
   S —– Select important ideas
   O —– Organize the details
   U —– Understand the ideas
   L —– Limit the amount
   Sentences:
   “I Remember So Little Unless Organized.”-
   from the first letter of each of the 6 strategies of memory (listed
   previously).
8. Apply what you have learned immediately. Use it or loose it!

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Posted by Heather Buckley in Train the Trainer Training on March 27th, 2009 | No Comments »

Here’s a simple checklist to help you to delegate more effectively. These strategies are explored in greater depth on our Effective Delegation Skills training course

1. Analysis of the task

First and foremost decide if the task is appropriate for delegation. For instance make sure that it isn’t anything that you alone have been trained to do. What is also very necessary for you to bare in mind is that you must choose the right person for the job, you can’t be biased towards this sort of thing otherwise it will undoubtedly be your downfall. If there is no one capable then I’m afraid the responsibility falls to you to do it once again. But remember delegation is as much a reflection of you as it is on the people you delegate to, as it shows your ability to judge people correctly and can often be a marking that you are capable of this on a larger scale

2. Make sure that there is a firm understanding of what needs to be done and why.

The person or people who give the job to should be fully aware of any responsibilities and expectations that come with it. Make sure that they know what sort of a priority this task is and why they were chosen. From the beginning state what you expect and what needs to be achieved, the person or team you have assembled should be under no pretences about what the results should be and when the deadline is. Similarly your team should be properly equipped with the resources and/ or equipment that they will need to get the job done.
Also it is vital at this stage, before the project gets underway, that you reach an understanding with the person, or persons delegated to about how you are going to monitor and check their performance on the project. If you do not breach this topic with your delegates then when you do begin to monitor the situation they might find it interfering or meddling.

3. Monitoring and checking results.

This is a very important part of delegation, even though you yourself are not now working on the project at hand it is essential that you take an active interest in how things are going. As was said before it is as much you on the line as it is your delegates, so it is vital that you are fully aware of what is happening and are there on hand to correct any mistakes.  If something does go wrong in the project make sure that you understand what went wrong and why it happened, so you will be able to rectify the problem and hopefully stop it from reoccurring.
When your team or delegate has finished the job successfully make sure to let them know that they have done a good job and that their efforts are appreciated. It can sometimes be the case that a manager will take the credit for work done through delegation and whilst you are entitled to credit you should remember that this should include your delegates also.

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Posted by Faye Binfield in Time Management Training on April 3rd, 2009 | No Comments »