Staff Training Secrets: Why Your Best Trainers Might Be Sitting Next to You!

Training is an option when an employee doesn’t meet the Minimum Acceptable Standards in a Great Performance Profile.

Often, your best trainers already work for you: they are your Great Performers. Having actual practitioners teach is very effective. Great Performers can often provide deeper and richer examples because they understand the specific context of your business.

Naturally, there are caveats and not every Great Performer will make a great trainer. Beyond their knowledge, they must also be:

• Organised enough to plan and structure a training session in a logical and coherent manner.
• Selfless with their time and knowledge (possibly challenging if they’re incentivised on the basis of individual effort – as with sales people – because they may not want to share their “secrets”).
• Sufficiently engaging to hold the attention of their audience and make training sessions interactive and enjoyable.
• Patient enough to accommodate the different learning styles and pace of their colleagues.
• Flexible in their approach as their colleagues will have different needs and abilities.
• Encouraging, positive and supportive to ensure everyone actively participates.
• Professional in their approach, showing respect for participants and being a good ambassador for the company.

In addition to the person being trained, the trainer also benefits through learning what works and how to interact with colleagues. The best way to learn is to teach. And it gives them purpose and inspires them beyond their regular job.