Good Trainers are "Authentic" (gag me!)

Ever wonder why corporate trainers garner so little respect and training budgets get immediately whacked when times are tough?  A LinkedIn discussion makes it clear. Asked "What makes a good trainer?" (besides technical competence) here's a sampling of the answers given from over 50 trainers. 

• Positive
• Patient
• Persuasive
• Confident
• Enthusiastic
• Friendly
• Authentic (gag)
• Clear
• Pleasant
• Persistent
• Passionate
• Flexible
• Curious
• Enthusiastic
• Approachable

You get the picture. Trainers are nice. Kind and gentle. They're like you're mother. Or grandmother. Not like that VP who's concerned about revenue, profits, customer satisfaction or getting that next killer product released on time.

These are all admirable traits; don't get me wrong.  I like to think I possess many of them (who doesn't), BUT I'm also demanding, focused, have high expectations, honest (in your face when needed), business-oriented and efficient.

Training is about imparting new knowledge and skills and changing people's behaviors to make them and the organization more successful. And to do that you can't be the nice guy all the time; sometimes you've got to be a hard ass. And a good trainer knows how to deliver a strong message when participants go astray without making them defensive and creating a poor learning environment.

Even more important, before the class, a real training professional pushes back when a manager requests the same training for their team for the second, third or even fourth time and says straight up "You have a performance problem, not a knowledge problem. No, I won't conduct additional training."

Effective and efficient knowledge transfer is essential to every organization, particularly given our always-on, 24/7, globally-connected world. Demand for the latest information and knowledge is only going UP, UP, UP. Product life cycles are getting shorter, budgets are getting tighter and staffing is getting leaner.

My advice to trainers...GROW A PAIR! You and your learners will be glad you did.

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