11 January 2010
Paul Smith

Books about training tend to say a lot about visual aids, and in previous pieces in this series we’ve looked at some of the main ones such as PowerPoint presentations and flipcharts/wipe boards. But the primary training aid is the trainer; your own body is itself a visual aid and by using it properly, you can add to the impact and success of your work.

Many trainers dress in a casual manner to help the group relax and feel easy about participating, though a more formal approach helps increase your gravitas and authority.

One guiding rule is that you should generally dress as smartly as anyone else in the room. Your dress should also be congruent with what you’re talking about and who you’re with.

So if I were training senior managers on corporate manslaughter law, I’d probably wear a suit and certainly a tie, but I’d dress differently if talking about milling machine safety to the lads from the tool room. Your organisation’s dress code will also guide your choice.

Appearance is of course a wider issue than dress, and a key message is that casual isn’t the same as scruffy. Why should anyone pay attention to someone who doesn’t have the self-respect to be clean and neat in their appearance? Men should pay special attention to the three S’s – shirt (clean and ironed), shoes (clean and polished) and shave (don’t forget to).

When training, don’t hesitate to use gestures to reinforce your meaning. You probably need to be a bit more emphatic and demonstrative than you would normally be in a meeting or a one-to-one situation. One piece of research found that 80% of a presentation’s impact lies in the demeanour and body language of the trainer or presenter. So, however nervous you may feel, put on a smile and talk about your subject with confidence and enthusiasm.

A good tip to help confidence is to adopt the behaviour of a confident person, so if you behave and look as if you’re confident, people believe that you actually are. Interestingly, it also helps you feel more confident too! So stand up straight, take deep breaths, square your shoulders and be prepared to dominate the room.  And if you smile at people, they’ll almost certainly smile back.

Don’t be afraid to take control of the room and of the group, they expect you to take the lead. Just as when you board a plane you want the crew to do the flying for you, the people on the course expect you to assume control of the proceedings, and will actually feel uncomfortable if you don’t.

There is an unwritten contract between you and the group that they cede control to you for the duration of the course,  and you’ll do whatever is needed to get them to their destination; which is, to achieve the course objectives.

Nervous trainers are sometimes reluctant to make eye contact with those in the room but avoiding it is a huge mistake. Maintaining eye contact is an essential skill whenever you are talking to a group of people. Research suggests that the audience perceive a speaker who fails to do so as shifty and unreliable. And it’s rude. Very few of us like to be spoken to by someone that won’t look us in the face.

Finally, the trainees’ expressions and body language give you as the trainer vital feedback about how you are coming across. Looking at the audience, maintaining eye contact and seeing the group’s body language, you’ll quickly be able to detect key signs that reveal how they feel about you and what you are saying.

Good signs are an alert and smiling expression, returning your gaze, and a forward leaning position that indicates keen interest in the subject matter. Folded arms suggest resistance or opposition; it’s a symbolic barrier between the individual and you. Slouching or leaning back, looking anywhere but at you, paper out, doodling, sighing and yawning all suggest you’ll need to do something pretty drastic to regain their interest and attention. Head in hands suggests either imminent sleep or total desperation; that should be a sign to do something urgently, before it’s too late!

Safety is a training topic that most people come to because they have to rather than because they’ve chosen to, but it can be made interesting, and the low expectation of most people can actually run in your favour. There are few things more satisfying that when someone comes up to you at the end and says “I thought this was going to be really dull, but actually you’ve really made me think”.

Key to this is connecting with people and gaining their engagement. Successful training can only take place in the space where there is some crossover between the trainer’s world and that of the trainee. I have found there is a direct correlation between interaction and delegate satisfaction.

Putting it another way, the more you involve them, the better they will perceive the course to be, and the more they’ll say they enjoyed it. The single most effective way of involving people can be summed up in three words: Ask, don’t tell. We’ll come back to the value of asking questions later in the series.

Next month: making the most of your voice

Paul Smith is head of health and safety at E.ON Training Academy. Click here to send him an email.
 

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Training, Training guides, Features

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