Monthly Archives: January 2019

Four weeks on from the New Year, how many of you are sticking with the changes you have decided to do.  If so how have you done it? Have you been making notes, maybe reviewing for 5 mins at the end of the day and then have you been looking at those changes at the end of the week? Has this worked for you?

As you approach the end of the month, I would suggest it is always a good idea to look at the whole of the month. Think about what little changes you have found easy and how you can grow them more. Look at the month in total may show you a pattern as to when you have stuck with your decision and why you haven’t. Remember what you think you have changed maybe what you think you have changed you may not have. Reflection is the key to understand your own process fully.

What if you haven’t? Why? What has stopped you? Maybe your expectations were a little unrealistic. In life, we make massive decisions and then when our expectations are not met, and our self-imposed rules we place on ourselves

Many attributes make a trainer great, but if someone asked me what were the key things that make a great trainer, what would they be? I’ve been fortunate to have seen many great trainers that have acted as an inspiration to me as I was learning my trade.  I got thinking about them all, the way they taught and the things I could share in my blog that made them so great so here they are, my top 3 in my order of importance:

1. Great trainers are natural – The very best trainers are the same whether they are having a conversation or delivering training and will always come across as extremely passionate about the subject.  So many people perceive that to be a great trainer, you have to take on a different persona; almost like being a training ‘robot’ and there couldn’t be anything more unnatural.  They’re not afraid to show their human side as this will builds rapport with people warming to them rather than trying to create a ‘them and us’ type of situation.

2. Great trainers are organised

As many people know I am a massive fan of having goals.  I believe goals are dreams with deadlines and I believe you can achieve anything you want if you put your mind to it.  I find goals give me a structure and I think the best things I have ever achieved are the things I have set as goals.

I have discussed the format of my goals in my management blog – planning and actions using this format will enable you to structure and format goals.  Furthermore, I break these goals down into weekly and daily goals or actions of which I want to complete.  As soon as I finish one I take real pleasure in ticking the action or goal off.  This is probably due to my personality type (Myers Briggs ‘J’ Type), and I love ticking things off that I have completed.

As a manager we may have a number of goal themes and these could be areas of management or personal areas we wish to achieve.  Typical goal themes for managers could be:

Delegate more – many managers don’t delegate enough, and if we make

I felt I wanted to write a blog on why it is essential that managers need coaching skills to encourage their staff.  First of all, I continuously hear managers tell me how they coach their staff and then witness quite the opposite. The problem is people don’t fully understand what coaching skills are.  Furthermore, they don't understand the boundaries between coaching, training and mentoring. A manager needs to know all three skills and how to cross between the boundaries between the three of them, more importantly, know when they are crossing the boundaries and more importantly, being fully aware of what mode they are in.

What are the boundaries? To keep it simple a trainer teaches a skill, a mentor shares his or her own experiences and experiences, and a coach encourages. As a manager, you need all three skills and to know when to use them. Then move between them with great awareness to be fully aware of what mode they are in and how best to use which skill at which time.

Coaching

When watching many trainers, quite often I see people getting so caught up in the moment they lose track of their audience and the level of engagement.  Many factors make up a great training session but too often, one of the essential human needs is forgotten about in the quest to get everything covered in the time frame:

I’ve often talked about the importance of meeting the human needs first and foremost when delivering training and there are many reasons that you should always give regular breaks despite your agenda. What then are the reasons regular breaks are so important?

Consolidation of learning – Our brain needs time to consolidate what it’s been learning so it can process it.  If we overload the brains, they will stop being able to take on more information so a break will give some vital consolidation time.  For reflective types of learners, this often involves a period such as overnight to process and consolidate.  A consolidation period will often to promote questions

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 major difference which is usually not gripped so that change does not happen. Small 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 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 differently, challenged. What do you want to be different, your overall goal? We all have deep desires and want to achieve, and

One of the most crucial things to get right when you deliver training is your body language, as we are all experts at showing nerves to others through our body language but how exactly?

There are many subtle ways that your audience will read your nerves instantly but some they will notice more than others.  The good news is that if you see them in yourself, you can do something about them so below I’ve put together some of the most common body language signs that expose your nerves:

Your Eye contact and face – You find yourself looking everywhere other than your audience as you are scared to engage in that eye to eye contact.  You might also look like you are a rabbit in the headlights with a very straight face and possibly blushed cheeks.

Your Hands – You may be doing everything in your power to avoid showing your hands; they may be in your pockets, behind your back, dangling lifelessly by your sides, you might even be rubbing them or clapping with regularity.

Props – You might be

As a manager, one of the key essentials is the ability to get things done and focus on continuous improvement.   Being able to do this will not only make you a more effective manager but getting things done will improve motivation and help you succeed in life.  Getting things done is a fantastic trait to have!

As we start a new year, I want to share with you how I get things done.  I have 2 great things that assist me, one is a fantastic motivated wife who always pushes me in the right direction.  The second is how I action plan and write lists.   I always carry around with me a notebook and in my notebook, I have the key actions I want to achieve, I always have 2 personal and 2 business actions each year and these are key things I wish to achieve.

Then I have a daily page set aside in my notebook full of actions for each and every day under the following headings:

Date – The date the plan refers to

My overall goal – A key goal I wish to achieve over a certain period.

What