1. Effective Trainers Explore the Significance of a Subject First and then Explain it
Before embarking on a subject, top trainers’ first priority is to explain why people need to listen to them or care about learning that subject. They know that if participants don’t care about a topic, they will not put any effort in learning it. Trainers who jump into a topic without making their audience feel excited about it, risk losing them as soon as the topic becomes a bit more involved.
2. Effective Trainers Seek First to Understand the Needs, Then to Teach
Training is subjective. Good trainers know that before explaining how something should be done, they need to first understand what their audience needs and which areas they have difficulties in. By carefully understanding the needs both before the training course and during the course, effective trainers can provide a tailored training solution that addresses specific requirements. By knowing the needs, you can focus on addressing weaknesses and make the training course much more efficient.
3. Effective Trainers Do Not Lecture
A top trainer is not a lecturer who constantly speaks with an aim to only pass information. A training course is about learning skills. People learn skills by doing them. A verbal unidirectional approach will have little short term effect, let aside any long lasting skill transfer. Top trainers are engaging; they raise interest in a topic, they demand participation, they guide, they provide feedback and monitor progress. They are ready to help people try, practice and demonstrate skills.
4. Effective Trainers are Knowledgeable and Prolific
A good trainer is not necessarily a person who knows the most about a particular technical topic. The most important quality of a successful trainer is to know how to train well. Because of this, good trainers usually train people on many topics, because they are good at the art of training and helping others progress towards an ideal objective. Top trainers are usually prolific, have in depth knowledge of several topics and know how to train people on them.
5. Effective Trainers Analyse Their Performance
Successful trainers are very sensitive about their performance. They want to be the best and remain the best and the only way they can do this is by measuring their training performance and also measuring how much trainees learn. They are eager to hear back from trainees after the course. They habitually update their training materials, exercises and trainer’s script after every single course delivery so they can improve on their course every single time. No chances are ever lost in learning something new about training and how people learn.
6. Effective Trainers are Lifelong Learners
Top trainers deal with knowledge and knowledge transfer. Learning and teaching is in their blood and they cannot possibly imagine themselves in a world where they are not constantly learning. They are eager to find the latest in their field and remain up to date. They are usually avid book readers and love research. They are interested in people and what helps people to learn better and progress more.
7. Effective Trainers are Consistent
Good trainers start slowly on a topic the progress forward in a consistent way. They don’t jump from topic to topic and remain focused. They immerse their audience in a topic and lead them to learn the desired skills. They know that an inconsistent approach will only confuse the delegates which in turn increase the likelihood of non-participation.
8. Effective Trainers Plan Ahead
Successful trainers know that planning is absolutely critical when it comes to providing an effective course. They plan the courses based on the training requirements set by their client. They research the topics to find content that satisfies these requirements. They obtain training materials and use their previous related courses to derive a tailored training course specifically designed for their delegates. They plan the pacing, the sequence of topics to explore, the overall tone of the course, subtopics, auxiliary topics to cover in case of gaps and so on. Everything is carefully planned with one objective in mind: to maximise skill transfer in a given time.
