“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 – So many people are very self-critical of themselves and think they won’t be a great trainer because their self-limiting beliefs tell them, so they start to believe it; it’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy.  Showing the way in a manner that’s easy to understand gives the confidence and belief that anything is achievable.

Building the confidence - Giving positive reinforcement through feedback delivered in the right way really starts to change the perception towards skills that are achievable and the pathway to be a fantastic trainer.

Continuous professional development – Once a set standard of knowledge and skills have been achieved, you can’t let them stand still; they have to build on those great foundations. Promoting improvement through self-reflection, evaluation, peer monitoring, observation and further training keeps up the vital momentum.

It might come as a real surprise, but it’s amazing what can be achieved in 2 short days especially around those self-limiting beliefs!  I’ve just witnessed an astounding change in someone who was extremely unsure and under confident on the first day of a PTT, absolutely flourish on day two like a flower that has turned from a bud into full bloom and it was an absolute pleasure to witness.  Anything is possible when you get the right help and guidance!

Scott Fraser is a Master Trainer at Target Training and delivers our PTT Train the Trainer courses and our Advanced PTT Train the Trainer courses.  You can read more about him here.