Get Real!

I have been talking to a number of groups lately about understanding yourself, your weaknesses, strengths and capabilities. It has been a very mixed audience but I wanted to aim this post at trainers. How well do you really know your strengths and weaknesses? How much do you try out new behaviours and attempt to modify your behaviour to fit different groups? How have you tried to experiment with new ideas, approaches and concepts to connect with your audience? I have used the Johari Window to explain how we need to be aware of ourselves and others and especially from a trainer point of view the hidden, blind and unknown areas. If you are not familiar with this tool here are two great resources (here and here). They do talk a lot about the team application but you can see how it can be used as a individual process. If you are a video person a reasonable explanation is provided below. A great teaching resource with a session plan is provided here.

I see a lot of trainers who are essentially kidding themselves (I hope I am not one). They believe they are effective. They believe they are in control and have the absolute focus of the group. They believe they are doing a great job. They also believe that they know themselves. Come on. If you haven’t tried anything new in the last 5 to 10 years you haven’t grown. If you haven’t asked for real feedback you haven’t grown. If you suppress your feelings of frustration and concern over your training and your groups then you are not growing. Here is a good article about being objective with yourself. What are you going to do to understand your trainer capabilities and enhance them?