Monthly Archives: May 2019

As a manager or leader, it is so easy to get wrapped up in your world and your workload.  Of course, we need to focus on our workload, but you have to remember an essential part of any managers workload is their team. People you manage must come first!

Without appropriate time being made available, then there is a danger that they don’t have the proper support and guidance needed to meet their objectives.  Therefore we must make time for the team, and this must be a priority. Some key things to consider when making time:

Schedule the time – make sure you schedule in your diary time for your team; this could either be meetings or a quick update.  If you don’t, then other things will fill your diary. There are advantages and disadvantages of having a regular meeting over random dates.  However, what’s important is that they are scheduled; otherwise, they won't happen.

Listen – really important you listen to what is going on, not to list to respond but to listen to understand.  

When something bothers us, or we get anxious about something, we waste an awful amount of energy focused on this. What a waste of time-wasting energy or worrying about a mistake. The focus can be unbalanced, and generally, people are focused on the negative aspects of their life and not the positive. Negativity works 100% of the time, so why waste time on it.

I recently had a coachee who had struggled with an exam result when all of her training had gone exceptionally well. The rant for at least 20 mins was about the one error she made; there was not one mention of the endless hours of good work and preparation that had been done.  As I sat watching her, the focus and energy wasted on the mistake seemed ridiculous. I did wonder why she, along with the majority of people, could not have channelled this much energy in a much more beneficial way.

Make a mistake, but not let it take your focus, recognise the error then take the learning from it. When in this situation reflect at why the mistake

One of the great things about delivering Train the Trainer courses is getting to see people’s faces light up when they get those proper “light-bulb” moments.  It’s a privilege to witness, but sometimes it doesn’t quite go according to plan and the moment can get filled with negativity.  In such times, we need to turn that negativity into positivity:

In a recent PTT Train-the-Trainer, one of my trainees was highly experienced in his field and rightly felt he had an awful lot to give as a Trainer but was lacking the knowledge how to deliver correctly; especially with structuring.  This was music to my ears as I knew that we were going to concentrate on this, and I could really get him up to speed over the two days. On the evening of the first day, he went away and planned his session for the following day that was to be his 15-20 Min training session, which was to be assessed against the ILM standards.

Following day he arrived in good spirits and proceeded to plan and then deliver

I was delivering training recently when one of the delegates said to me he was on the course because I said he should do it!  When I asked further, he told me in a blog I mentioned about the fact that training managers, if they want to be effective, should really know how to train people.

I believe this is true.  Realistically, how can you manage a group of trainers if you don’t know how to train yourself.  I would argue that you have to have a degree of competence in areas you are managing. Not necessarily to a high level, but an awareness of what is required, so you know if people are doing a great job.

The manager said he learnt a significant amount on the course, it made him realise several things but mainly:

Understanding what’s required – ultimately, the manager should be observing and monitoring trainers.  To do this effectively, they need to know what they are looking for and to do this, they need to be competent in those areas themselves.

Credibility – to be able to manage

Have you ever noticed the direction you choose when you get irritated? The build-up, do you recognise what is happening in you. I always feel the tension in me when I start to get irritated; I look out for when it starts to build. You have to ask yourself what triggers this.

Sometimes it may be your values; you feel your values are being eroded. Sometimes your beliefs may be questioned, which annoys you.  I think it is excellent watching people start to get irritated. The speed of their response to people when they question back or respond seems to change when they may feel they are challenged. It may be work pressure that triggers people or lack of time they have to deal with all the inputs placed on them. Life sometimes is not easy.

What can you do when the irritation starts to happen, what do you recognise in yourself when you begin to feel irritated and why? Watch the change in a room when someone gets irritated with someone else, what happens to you? What do you notice in your changes

In my previous career, I had to assure training to make sure what was being delivered was fit for purpose. This meant I was lucky enough to see lots of different trainers deliver lots of different lessons, but it also meant I got to see things I didn’t expect or want to see…

When we deliver training, we often put so much time, effort and enthusiasm into getting things set up and running which is brilliant.  I’m lucky to see this enthusiasm now on Train the Trainer courses when people leave massively enthused saying to me, “I can’t wait to get back and get started doing things the right way now I know how.”  In my previous blog, I wrote about how a lot of people don’t actually train all the time with it being a secondary role which does mean focussed time on training (not just delivering it) doesn’t happen.  We get ‘stuck in a rut’ and sometimes with the best of intentions or out of laziness, it becomes the easiest thing to do what we’ve always done.  You wouldn’t believe how

All of us have a book to write, and we all could write plenty of chapters. What a great experience to do this to find how your journey has evolved and where you are today. There will be highs and lows, but overall the positive from it needs to be congratulated. Think about how much success you have had in life, the joys of living on this planet both at home and work. Just doing something is a success in life.

Then where do you go next, because your book is only partially written? How would you write on those blank pages, where do you want the journey to go, what would you like to see? I think in life we hit stuck areas, and on those stuck areas, we make choices sometimes forced. Some are in a direction that improves us some maybe not, but they are all a direction from stuckness or wanting change. Have you recognised that feeling, feeling stuck on something not knowing what to do next? I think this is a great time to sit with not knowing and see what pops up when you stare at the blank pages.

Quite a lot of people on our Train the Trainer courses who deliver training tell us they won’t or don’t train exclusively; it’s usually a secondary job in addition to their other job(s).  When you have a forced break from training or deliver irregularly, it’s very easy for you to get skills fade.  But when you can train correctly, do you really ‘forget’ how after a break?

I’ve had many breaks from training (including quite a recent one of more than 4 months), and it got me thinking as to how I cope with it; what do I do and how could my experience help others in a similar boat?  Let’s go back to the statement of the blog; it’s quite drastic isn’t it? “I’ve forgotten how to train” but have you really?  I would say that the chances are high that you haven’t forgotten how to train at all, you just need to get yourself back into it by remembering how to do it correctly!  Keeping it simple will help with this, and I would say I follow an elementary routine every time:

1. Preparation