Monthly Archives: September 2019

Recently,  I was in Manchester and my fellow trainer Bryan was in Birmingham where we were simultaneously delivering our PTT Train the Trainer course. Interestingly, one of Bryan’s delegates raised an excellent point while the same day, I was dealing with a question that highlighted the same point; “Why it’s so important to stand while delivering Training”.  This made me immediately think “Great, I’ll write a blog on that”...

If you consider that globally, 40% of the population have a preference for learning visually, we must consider what that means to us as trainers.  Yes, we can provide great aids like PowerPoint with images and videos plus flip charts and handouts etc, but they are ALWAYS purely an aid to YOU.  You and your body language (BL) are the most important visual aid in the classroom.  This means that your body language is one of the most crucial things you must get right as a Trainer; never forget that your audience will be reading your BL all of the time as it’s

Ok, last management blog we looked at why we delegate and this week we are going to focus on the first stage, the selection of individuals who we are going to delegate to and the actual job we are going to delegate.  Thinking through this process will aid the developmental process significantly.   

An important thing to remember in all of this is that Delegation isn’t Abdication! In other words, we are not just getting rid of a job that we either don’t like or do not want to do.  Of course in all of this, sometimes we may need to delegate quickly (to aid our time management or in an emergency) in this instance we may just select someone because we know they can do it, common sense has to be applied here.

At other times we may select someone because we know they are going to struggle.  In other words, they are going to be developed.  This is totally different to set someone up to fail, they may struggle and if we want to develop them, it can be a necessity for some individuals to

As a trainer and coach, I am very fortunate enough to meet some fantastic people.  Brilliant people who are keen to learn skills and techniques to be a better manager.  We deliver numerous management development programmes and a key to the programme are essential management skills that focus on motivation and effective communication skills.  Sometimes this involves difficult and challenging behaviour and of course, during the process of performance management, this also means motivating people to get staff to the next level to aid either employment or personal goals.

I believe this is where managers need skills that are not always natural in many people.  I honestly also think managers get promoted to management positions because they are good at their job and not because they are good managers.

This is why managers need effective development, and I believe that all managers need to be trained in coaching skills to be effective.  Managers are inevitably involved in the coaching

All trainers need to understand the importance of introductions in a training environment.  As a delegate, we make our mind up very quickly on the trainer and the subject matter, so we have a limited time to capture their attention.  An effective introduction motivates the group and encourages participation.  

Five things you can do to improve your training introductions:

Be warm and encouraging – many trainers think only about their concerns, remember delegates will often be nervous, and it is up to you to make them feel welcome.  Remember body language has a huge factor here, and we may be giving the wrong message without meaning to.

Get people involved – from the outset the more you get people involved, the more likely that they will be engaged and the more likely they will positively react to training.  However, don’t rely on ‘ice breakers’ that embarrass or frustrate delegates or it will have the opposite effect.

Tell them why they are there – often we rely on assumptions

One of the key areas managers attending our courses are keen to know is how to delegate.  Many managers don’t know how to delegate effectively and we cover this in detail on our management courses.  However, it’s really important that before we know how to delegate we must first understand why.

Managers that don't delegate run the risk of poor motivated staff and poor time management, especially if they are trying to do everything themselves.

So why do we delegate and what advantages does it bring:

motivation – when staff are given a job to do it motivates and encourages; we are giving them responsibility.  Therefore, if we are doing this correctly, their motivation to do more increases.

development – one of the key reasons why we delegate to anyone is so they are developed.  A developed workforce is a highly effective one.  Of course, many managers don’t for selfish reasons, they think it takes too long or they actually like doing the work.  Remember, it’s not about you

There are so many techniques you can use in coaching and the common one and a very popular the first technique that is taught and it is GROW this is - Goal, Realistic, Options and Will. Everyone talks about this technique which is absolutely fantastic for setting goals, which are inspiring and challenging. These promote motivation and confidence which in turn increases productivity and personal satisfaction. I use GROW on myself and I have used it plenty of times with coachees.

GROW is a great technique but of course, it must be used and balanced with other tools and techniques. More importantly, it is about how you question as a coach and to notice what appears in front of you from the coachee.  You have to listen; GROW maybe is not what is needed. I have witnessed coaches using this technique straight away which has become a habit in their coaching. Sometimes I think it is used because the coach likes it, the problem here is the session is based on what the coach wants and not what

We often get asked what we mean by ‘off the shelf type presentations’ when delegates are about to attend our PTT Train the Trainer course so I’d like to share an excellent example of what it is and why we tell people never to bring them, especially PowerPoint ones!

So, what do we mean by ‘Off the shelf type presentations’? - Something that has been pre-prepared by you or someone else in a format that doesn’t take account of the type of session and audience.  Here is an excellent example of what happened on a recent PTT Train the Trainer course:

On the evening of day one, I was asked to review the session a delegate was going to deliver the following day.  The session had been made in PowerPoint and was on a somewhat technical subject which isn’t ideal. However, I was confident from day one that the delegate had the skills to be able to deliver the subject in a way that was engaging and appropriate to the audience.  I was also confident that the advice given for using PowerPoint would

Conflict in the workplace is inevitable.  In fact, I would suggest that organisations that say they have no conflict are not being honest with themselves. Moreover, when this happens, it is likely that the conflict is hidden.  What happens then is artificial harmony, in other words, conflict is going on but it is just hidden under the surface.  I believe this is which more damaging and results in hidden conflict behind the scenes.

Before I start on why I believe managers should use conflict as a lever for change, I just want to reinforce, that I am not talking about nasty bullying conflict.  This type of conflict has no place in any work environment.  We are seeing this recently in politics and it is nasty. What I am talking about is a good healthy debate which teams need to develop.  This type of conflict can be very productive and I know from personal experience that the best teams I have ever worked with worked better with some debate.

However, sometimes conflict does spill

What is preparation?  We ‘all’ in our busy lives tend to rush through the day, not always giving ourselves time to prepare thoroughly for a coaching session.  Which brings me into asking ‘you’ to think about how do you prepare? What do you actually do?

I have found through experience the best way to prepare is to sit for ten minutes before a coachee enters the room. In those minutes “to be the best you can be for the coachee” you need to separate any judgements, any thoughts you may have already subconsciously made and what you may be carrying from both your professional and personal life.  You may have had a busy morning; you may wear two hats! Two very different roles in which you may have to separate. A fantastic way to be prepared for the coachee is to bring ‘you’ into the present just by sitting. If you don’t do this even the questions you may pose will be judgemental, you may create questions that fit what you have subconsciously thought about.

Those ten minutes can be exceptional