I think the reason we struggle to answer the question ‘What Makes a Good Trainer is that the role of the trainer is not that clear.
This may sound odd but having worked in the training industry for nearly 20 years I have encountered many different attitudes to the role of the trainer.
The most obvious measurement of success for a trainer is the feedback forms, better known as the ‘happy sheets’.
The buyers of training tend to rely on happy sheets to validate their decision making and decide if you are going to come back again.
But is this a fair measure of success; well this depends but in my experience not really if you are measuring whether the participants have achieved their objectives for attending the course. When asking participants the question “why are you here” nine times out of ten the response is “because my manager sent me”.
How can you evaluate a course against objectives achieved if they, the group did not have any to start with.
The realities of life are that managers do not take time to discuss individual’s objectives before attending a training course. Often they shirk their responsibility by sending people on courses because they are poor at something and hope the course will sort them out. Do they communicate this to anyone, note a jot.
The other response to “why are you here” is “Well I‘m brilliant at everything and just wanted to see if there was anything new”. Well thanks for coming.
The implications of this are that trainers concentrate on getting top marks on the feedback forms and not on whether participants learn anything. Sorry for generalizing, I’m sure that I have just alienated a lot of good trainers.
But having worked for a number of organisations where their only concern was the happy sheets because this leads directly to income makes it hard not to believe that this is true in most cases.
Individuals are under pressure by employers to get results, top marks on happy sheets regardless if the participants learnt anything or not.
The consequence of this attitude to delivering training courses is that trainers became entertainers making sure everyone has a good time.
Therefore in these instances What Makes a Good Trainer ‘is a person who can entertain a group of people so that they enjoy the experience of attending the training course and think that the trainer is a nice person.
I have worked with a number of trainers who for most of the course would tell funny stories, the participants loved them, the feedback was great, the company regarded them as a hero; but were they a good trainer, well not if you wanted to learn anything they weren’t.
A particularly sensitive part of sales training is providing feedback on role-plays. People do not like receiving negative feedback (even when sandwiched between two good points for you hamburger coaches) and if they do they will not like you for it.
Therefore a lot of trainers ‘opt out’ of giving honest and open feedback in order to preserve their happy sheets.
They tell everyone they are great whether they are or not. Is this being professional or morally correct.
When I work with my clients I ask them the question “do you what me to be MR Popular or would you rather I improve the performance of the participants”.
To get behavioral change and performance improvement people have to experience a little pain, this may come as a result of having to watch them selves on a video, or getting feedback in front of a group of people.
Some people are strong enough to take this some more sensitive people hate it, but it’s all part of learning. We have to step outside of our comfort zones if we are to learn new skills and fulfill our potential.
Remember learning to ride a bike, we all got a few bumps and scratches before we were gliding over the tarmac without a care in the world, exploring new places and experiencing new found freedom.
Given time you can nurture most people through the developmental process; getting them to learn as well as coming to terms with, and enjoying the experience.
The only problem is we trainers are seldom given time to do the job the right way; so commercialism pushes us in the direction of the happy sheets and our Robbie Williams impersonations.
Let me entertain you…………..
David Howard