At FAA, we specialise in training trainers. So, we are all too familiar with rookie trainer mistakes, and we’re ready to share three of the biggest ones with you.
If you conduct training yourself, or if you work with trainers in your company’s HR or L&D department, then you’ll want to pay attention.
Ready? Mistake number one is ignoring the knowledge and expertise that your participants bring to the table.
If you’re doing training in soft skills, such as customer service, your participants come with a wealth of anecdotes, insights, methods that work and methods that don’t. Yes, you’re the expert, but you should never ignore the valuable input that your participants can give.
Mistake number two is failing to get buy-in from your participants. Right at the beginning of your session, you need to make it crystal clear how your course will benefit them.
Your trainees aren’t interested in what you have to say unless they know how it is going to help them do their job better or improve themselves in some way.
For mistake number three, let’s take a look at online training. Some trainers log in, start rolling with their introduction and go straight into their slides.
Later, they wonder why nobody responds to their questions. Ten participants have logged in… but why won’t anyone volunteer an answer?
That’s because four of them are on a toilet break, one is getting a cup of tea, three don’t have microphones and the other two have bad internet connections.
The trainer didn’t check in with the participants before starting. By simply having a warm-up activity and chatting with the participants before starting, this issue can be avoided. Let everyone know that you expect their camera to be on and you expect them to be ready to answer questions and take part.
Explain that anyone without a microphone can answer using Chat. Those with poor connections can try moving closer to the WiFi router. Even though it’s a virtual training room, you need to take charge as if it were a real one.
We believe these three simple tips can help to make your training session a richer and more rewarding experience for everyone.
And we have plenty more tips where these came from! To learn more, follow our account or contact us at info@faa.org.my.
