Week 45: Shifting the Focus from Trainer to Trainee

One of the pitfalls in which a trainer can easily get trapped is the temptation to focus more on ‘trainer’s performance’. At times, Trainer’s preparation revolves more around how best his/her performance level should be, how can he/she become more popular, how can he/she be acknowledged and appreciated by every one as more informative and knowledgeable etc. The focus is more on “me and/or on I”. There is nothing wrong if a trainer has these expectations. The question is, should a trainer entertain such expectations at all? There is difference in being more knowledgeable and expecting others to acknowledge one as a knowledgeable person without actually being knowledgeable. Acknowledgment, popularity, appreciation are all by products of one’s caliber. These will have to necessarily follow the merit. But, when the trainer is working on himself/herself, working in the path of becoming an excellent or extraordinary trainer, such temptations should not be the driving factors. Such temptations and expectations will bring down the level of performance of a trainer. Such trainers cannot handle constructive criticisms. They feel very low and let down if on a given day their performance does not stand out. If other trainers or co-trainers are appreciated, they cannot withstand. They are generally in their own world. They do not want to connect to people but they try only to communicate. There will be transmission of abundant information, which the trainees can as well get through google or other means. They are not bothered to focus on the need of the trainees. Even though some amongst such trainers might have done need assessment on paper, they may not be practically able to cater to the needs of the trainees, as they are totally engrossed in catering to their own needs.

Best training is the one where the focus is on the trainees. What is it that I can do to see to it that trainees turn out to be best mediators? What examples can I give? What case studies can I quote?  What stories can I tell? Which slides should I be showing? How do I conduct the role plays? etc. to see to it that trainees get the best from this training are to be some of the questions driving the trainer in his/her preparation.

How does one know whether the trainer is focused on himself/herself or on the trainees?

Trainer does not even bother to know whether the trainees are understanding the concepts or not.

Trainer does not stop even when the trainees are lost midway and are not moving along with the trainer.

Once such trainers stand they would not sit until either they get exhausted, or someone forces them to stop.

They pour more and more information which flows over and above the receptive capacity of trainees.

They are in their own world. At the end of the sessions they wait for others to come and congratulate them, and feel disappointed if this does not happen.

How to overcome this?     

Every trainer has to necessarily remember that:

1. Training is for the benefit of trainees.
2. Training cannot be considered as a platform meant only for the growth of the trainer, notwithstanding the fact that with each training every trainer grows.
3. Trainer should spend quality time in improving his/her professional skills.
4. Trainer should constantly cross check with the trainees as to whether they have understood what was conveyed by the trainer. Trainer should also cross check with co-trainers as to whether in their opinion they felt that the trainer conveyed to the trainees what was required to be conveyed.
5. Trainer has to remember that training is not meant for delivering what all the trainer knows on various topics, but is meant to deliver what is required to be delivered to the trainees in the given training.

How does one know that the trainer is on the right path?

1. Trainer confines to the topic under consideration.
2. Does not encroach upon any other topics allotted to other trainers.
3. Does not deviate from the subject matter.
4. Does not give unnecessary examples/case studies/stories/display slides etc.
5. Does not boast or start self-praising .
6. Carefully and calculatedly uses the words “I” and “me”
7. Does not answer questions posed by the trainees, even when the trainer knows the answer/s if the question/s does/do not relate to the topic under consideration or even connected to the topic under consideration, but informs the trainees the reason for not answering the same.
8. Values every minute’s time of the trainees  and  the co trainers.

“When I am concerned about myself and speak about myself you are at a distance. When I am concerned about you and speak for you, you are nearer to me.”

Slamw

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(All copy rights reserved by the author S.Susheela)