Monthly Archives: November 2018

Anyone who has had to shop for clothes on the high street will be familiar with the dread expression ‘One Size Fits All’. To be found on many a label, it is a tag that lots of us instinctively shy away from, feeling perhaps that it does not quite ring true.

The same can be said of the way in which we approach work and, in particular, management styles.

Not every manager is designed to manage a team in the same way and, critically, not every team will respond best to the same kind of management.  It seems so simple when spelt out like that, doesn’t it?  Yet it is amazing how many management training courses will exclusively focus on an inflexible, standardised mode of training.

We always like to do things more effectively, which is why we offer management training courses which take into account many of our little differences.

Our management training courses include the Foundation Management Development Programme (FMDP) and Management Development Programme (MDP), both of which are recognised

Quite often on our Train the Trainer courses when our delegates do their practical sessions, they don’t quite go according to plan.  There are many reactions including sheer panic, but it really doesn’t have to be that way…

On our courses, I do emphasise organisation and the fact that it’s so important that you find your own individual style in your session prep to find a way that works for you. Lessons should always follow the basic structure and the framework of your lesson planning should then follow this too. However, the content you include in your notes prep could be completely different to what you perceive you need to prep.  Find the way that works for you and never decide that you can skip this crucial part to just “wing it” as that will set you up for a potential panic and crash to the detriment of you and your audience.

Let’s face it, you can be the best Trainer in the world and have your preparation and notes written wonderfully, but you can’t plan for one element that

Effective time management is an essential skill for all individuals and managers.  One of the great levellers is that we all have the same amount of time.  It’s what we choose to do with it that counts.  Seven steps that will have an instant impact:

1. Identify ‘Time Bandits’ - To any manager Time Bandits can be a real headache.  If we are not careful, they will steal all our time!  These could be areas such as interruptions, visitors or things we may trigger ourselves such as constant checking of emails or using social media.

2. Deal with ‘Time Bandits’ - Time bandits must be dealt with otherwise the will simply steal your time.  Of course, some are going to be harder to deal with, and we may not be able to eliminate them.  However, having a plan of what we can do to better will most certainly help.

3. Develop personal goals - Life is a gift, and we have a responsibility to be the best we can be and more.  Draw up four personal goals and give them targets and reasons

Have you ever thought to yourself what do I want to change, really change? Then actually address it? The biggest failure with a lot of people is holding yourself back, this then means never really working in an area you want to change, just accepting things as they are. Sometimes little changes make significant progress over time rather than one significant difference which is usually not gripped so that change does not happen. Little changes are the way forward.

Think about it, what would you like to change, why and how could you do things differently. Grade yourself and think why you have given yourself the grade? Whether you have given yourself numbers on the scale 0-10 or the A, B, C ask yourself why? And then where would you like it to be.

Then the hard work begins with what little changes you can make yourself. Sometimes coaching is required so that thinking is done in a different way, challenged. What do you want to be different, your overall goal? We all have deep desires and want

Ever been in a “Training” session where your mind has been anywhere other than in that room and time? Yes, me too and there’s nothing worse to put you off training for life because you are just wasting your time when you’re there for a reason – to learn!

It’s a common theme I hear from many who tell me “I’ve been a Trainer for ‘X’ amount of years”, but actually they’ve never been a “Trainer” because all they do is stand and “tell” information to their audiences.  Often it isn’t their fault as they have only the perception of what they believe training to be and haven’t had the benefit of being developed properly but when this is the case, it’s very harmful to all involved.  So how can you tell if you are a teller?  Here are 4 of the most common tell-tale signs:

You hide behind PowerPoint – Since its introduction, PowerPoint has been such a common tool that people have used for both presentations and training, but it becomes the sole focus.  Big paragraphs with lots of words,

As a management coach and trainer I meet many individuals who say to me they have issues with one particular area, often involving challenging or difficult people.  They will explain what they have done previously to deal with the problem; often they have been doing whatever it is, again and again.  When I ask them what they could do differently, we explore other options, and they eventually come up with some great ideas.  We will then agree on the best plan of action to take their idea forward.

One of the key things we need to remember in all of this is to think differently.  Using the same thinking that doesn’t work isn’t effective, and if we are honest, we could be encouraging whatever the negative behaviour is.

Ok, some top tips regarding changing your thinking:

Ask yourself “What could I do differently” – make it a habit in every problem we face, our Brains are fantastic, and it encourages us to think and look for solutions.  We could take it to another level if we visualised

Within my coaching practice, I have heard recurring patterns in the language that is used by coachees who enter the room. Here is a question to the reader have you heard yourself ever saying or thinking “it was an easy task” or discounting praise when it has been given to you, saying something like “just doing my job”.  It is so interesting hearing or thinking “I feel like a phoney or am I good enough to do this job”? I have heard comments like this from barristers, surgeons to healthcare assistants and individuals of all ranks in the armed forces with different skill sets from pilots to the regiment. Amazing how many of us carry this, quite fascinating.

Lots of people feel this; they think they are hiding something. They feel they are not capable of being in the position they find themselves in, a feeling of are they good enough to be doing the task. The imposter syndrome is what it is called, and it is everywhere, in fact through life 70% of us will feel this at some point, some more

“I’m a rubbish trainer” is a phrase I get to hear a lot in my job and actually if I’m brutally honest with you, it’s something I said about myself a long time ago.  I was fortunate though to have some influential people who helped me change my perception through a couple of fundamental but simple practices.

So why do am I writing this blog and how can it help?  The chances are, there are likely to be very few people who are reading this who think they are a brilliant trainer and in my experience, those that say they are, (more often than not) are the complete opposite!  All of the delegates that come on our Train the Trainer courses have at least one thing in common - they’ve all experienced lousy training.  This is good because once they realise just how bad they’ve seen it; the only way is up!  On our courses then, we can then really start to bring in those important critical practices I talked about above that I was so lucky enough to experience:

Banish those limiting self-beliefs