Want to train world class trainers? Before you can start training your trainers, you need to know who your ideal trainer is, their learning style, and their presentation style. Check out the blog below and get clear on who you’re training.
So you’ve been asked to train your trainers.
What do you do?
This is part two of a four part series that will spell it all out and give you what you need to create a world class training program.
- Part 1 – Hire the right training candidates
- Part 2 – [You Are Here] Train the trainers
- Part 3 – Coach the trainers one-on-one
- Part 4 – Optimize the trainers moving forward
Step 1 – Give the trainers your business content training
This is the part of this blog that most programs do very well. In fact, they do it so well that I’m not going to spend much time covering it.
Instead, I’m going to focus on steps two and three for your trainers.
But, before I do that, let me just say that this is the first step because it’s the first thing you’re going to want to do with your trainers. You train them on the content that they will be training your staff on.
Before you do this, however, be sure that the trainers who are training your trainers have also gone through the three steps in this blog. Trust me, it will change everything for your business.
Step 2 – Give the trainers comprehensive adult learning training
What qualities should a professional trainer possess to be truly effective?
It took me 3 YEARS of research with 150 corporate trainers to answer this question. Once training managers, Chief Learning Officers and Instructional Designers recognize this, it changes EVERYTHING.
Here they are…what every trainer needs to be able to do in the classroom to be successful…
Show Credibility by:
- Overcome nervousness
- Show confidence
- Speak well
- Show trainees that I am a content expert
- Show trainees that I am an expert educator
Build Rapport by:
- Be welcoming
- Meet trainee needs
- Show that I care
- Get trainees to like me
- Make class enjoyable for trainees
- Make trainees feel comfortable asking me for help
Engage Trainees by:
- Hook trainees
- Get trainees to interact
- Keep trainees attention
Teach all learners by:
- Manage the pace of the class
- Make things easy to follow along with
- Make things easy to understand
- Determine whether the trainees got it
Answer Questions by:
- Set Expectations
- Listen to trainee questions to determine whether/how to answer
- Answer in-scope questions
- Punt out of scope questions
Handle Challenging Trainees by:
- Control negative trainees
- Control lots of questions
- Control apathetic trainees
These qualities and tasks are not easy.
Let me start with that–there are thirty tasks up above!
And your trainers need to MASTER them all of them to be truly successful!
What’s more, every business is different. Some of them only have time to teach their trainers these skills for a half a day. Others spend a whole week or more.
The first thing you need to decide is what kind of resources you have available. Based on your decision, I have shared two tracts with this blog:
Option #1: The comprehensive version and Option #2: The “cliff notes” version.
What’s more, each option covers each of the major tasks above in red so that the trainers learn HOW and WHY to do each of those tasks. To determine which is right for your business training needs, here’s a description of what they each look like:
Option #1 – The Comprehensive Version:
I suggest you spend 2 days teaching your trainers the foundation and tools they need to effectively train adults in your business. Here’s what those two days might look like:
- Day 1 is called Foundation: Adult Education Mastery for trainers and you can find it here.
- Day 2 is called Maverick: Training Techniques Mastery and you can find it here.
Option #2- The “Cliff Notes” Version:
If you don’t have 2 days to give your trainers an adult education, then I recommend not throwing the baby out with the bath water. At the very least, spend a half-day on these tasks and techniques with an accelerated guide to adult learning for trainers. Find it here.
Step 3 – Send the trainers through a “train the trainer” bootcamp
Wait! You’re not done.
So many training programs stop after the adult education coursework and expect that their trainers can just take what they’ve learned and implement it in the classroom right away. That’s simply not how it works. To answer why, you will need to understand that there are five stages of learning.
At the first stage you’re skeptical…
At the second, you’re receptive…
At the third stage, you’re engaged…
At the fourth stage, you’re sold…
And at the fifth stage, you’ve mastered it…
The adult education coursework is fantastic and absolutely a prerequisite. That’s because it gets your trainers to stages 2 and 3 of learning above. But, don’t you want your trainers to stage 4 of learning?
UNLESS YOUR TRAINERS STAND UP AND DO IT THEMSELVES, THEY WON’T GET TO STAGE 4.
So, how do you do it?
Every heard of a bootcamp?
That’s right. Only this time, it’s a bootcamp for trainers. Think of it as a Train the Trainer Bootcamp. A lot of train the trainer programs don’t have a bootcamp. I think that’s a mistake. Trainers never get to stage 4 unless they can “do it themselves.”
I recommend a 3 day Classroom Training Mastery Bootcamp as the final stage in the learning process for trainers where they actually get to put all their learning together and then practice with the role of a train the trainer. Getting real feedback from a coach and their peers is essential.
The key is to ask your trainers to stand up and train each major task above in red so that they don’t just know how to do those tasks, but they have actually mastered them in front of real trainees. They can in fact DO IT THEMSELVES, and you can find out which ones can, and which ones can’t. Find it here.
As you can see, even if you select the most comprehensive route to train your trainers, you’re only looking at one full week of training to get them up to speed on exactly what they need to know (all thirty tasks above) to effectively train your staff on your key business content and decisions.
Some of you reading this right now are thinking, “Wow, that’s fantastic…a one-week program all ready to go!”
Others are thinking, “Boy, I don’t know if I can afford to give them a week of training on how to be a great trainer.” For those, I say this… Most amazing trainers took years to learn these thirty tasks. Companies spend countless money on their salaries month after month, only to find that after twelve to eigtheen months, the trainer doesn’t work out for whatever reason.
Others invest upfront, and more often than not, find this is an investment worth making.
