Great Trainers are flexible and forgiving with others and themselves. They must repeat, repackage, and repeat again. Great trainers use relevant examples and lots of humor. They teach using visual, audio, and hands-on methods. They have to be patient with questions, quick on their feet, and balance between all skill levels in the classroom.
Here are my top 5 instructor traits…in no particular order, since one of the basics most trainers understand is that training is dynamic and fluid. These are just my five “biggies”, drawn from years of teaching and training experience.
1. Flexibility 2. Patience 3. Relevant Examples 4. Balance 5. Repetition
When explaining my “great trainers” principles to my husband one day, he compared me to Mr. Miyagi in the movie “Karate Kid” teaching Daniel Larusso. He said that in order to help our son learn new skills, I had unconsciously put into play many of the top 5 principles that I use in training.
Today, our six-month old son was splashing in the bathtub, giving both me and himself a bath. I was trying to balance holding a towel to prevent being completely soaked, while trying to keep him from drinking the soapy water. I repeatedly had to pull his face out of the water and tell him “no”. He may not know what “no” means yet, but with this repetition (one of the top 5 traits), I’m setting boundaries now to help him later and come to think of it, I was demonstrating another one of the trainer traits, patience!
I was trying not to laugh too hard when he came up with soap bubbles on his mouth and chin that looked like a Santa Claus beard. I handed him a rubber duck which calmed him down and together we made quaking sounds before finishing up his bath. While I don’t give out rubber ducks in my training classes, they really do work wonders with children!
Whether teaching simple interactions with a child, or applying the top instructor traits to students in my next PowerPoint class, the principles remain the same. 1. Flexibility 2. Patience 3. Relevant Examples 4. Balance 5. Repetition.
Looking back at my parenting style, I see that my husband is right. My training background is definitely manifesting itself in my mothering role. However, I think Mr. Miyagi would have had a tough time beating my impression of a quacking duck!
