5 Mistakes You Are Making As A Trainer

Being a freelance or corporate trainer is a great job but like in any work, there are some mistakes you will want to avoid. In this post, let me explain to you 5 common training mistakes that you are probably making before they bring your entire training career down;

1. Telling Rather Than Asking

Many trainers simply keep talking and talking. Their approach is more like giving a speech rather than engaging delegates about a topic. With this approach you could easily end up talking about subjects that are boring to delegates, irrelevant or simply dull. To avoid this mistake, ask questions to understand how much learners know already and what they think of the subject you just raised. Do they already know the answer, or do they have problems which need to be addressed? Are you going too quickly or too slowly? Are they interested in what you are covering? Without asking questions, you would never know.

2. Thinking Everyone Is The Same

Some participants attend a course because they don’t know anything about a topic. Others have more experience but would like to improve on their skills by attending training courses. This is particularly the case for soft skills courses as many subjects are related to each other and so you can easily find people who attend these courses one after another. Some trainers make a mistake of treating all delegates as people who don’t know anything about a topic or consider themselves weak. A successful trainer must be able to recognize the needs of both kinds and address them accordingly.

3. Failing To Get Feedback From Your Students And Following Up

None of us is perfect. We are all human and we all make mistakes. And we can all learn as trainers and teachers, right? I think you will agree?

One of the most valuable things in our experience, that you can get and that will help you to improve as a trainer is to get feedback. And feedback is free!

4. Failing to Update Your Content

Some trainers are enthusiastic when they start training a new course. Years pass and they still keep providing the same content over and over again. In today’s ever changing world, new methods of training and learning are discovered and advocated for all the time. Good trainers must keep an eye on these new findings and update their courses accordingly. For example, you may have to stop telling that old story over and over again, because either everybody knows it or the world has moved on and the story is not relevant anymore. Inject something new in your courses to keep them fresh and interesting.

5. Talking Too Much

Talk too much and do not be surprised if you have a few students nodding off in the corner of the training room.  Great classroom training will involve the learners having plenty of time to work in groups. Give them a chance to think and be creative and provide feedback within the class. Engage the participants.

Activities are a vital part of most good training workshops and there are hundreds of different activities that you can choose from.

The key to using activities is to make sure though, that the activity is integrated with the training. By this, I mean that the activity itself will be directly related to the training in question.

Ultimately;

Take time to prepare well-designed and structured lessons. Imagine how you, as a student, would find the class if you were not the trainer. Try to find the right balance in the training planning.

Want to make your trainings more fun and engaging for your learners? This Certified Training of Trainers Course will help develop essential training skills and promote a clear understanding of how to teach effectively. Sign up!

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