A client asked me how she could become a better trainer for her team. She has raw talent and a passion for teaching but was  not sure if she was doing a “god enough” job…

I thought I’d share the training with you too.

Click here to download the PDF document “How To Incorporate Great Teaching Skills In Your Training Sessions To Get Outstanding Results”

What Makes an Extraordinary Teacher?

You may have a natural gift for teaching and you’d like to get even better at it or you might just find yourself in a position where training is required and it’s down to YOU but you feel like you’ve been thrown in the deep end.

Either way this Business Tutorial is designed to help you refine your skills and get much better performance from your students.

Great teachers create a challenging, nurturing environment for their students. When you create an environment of enthusiasm and anticipation for the training then the participation rate shoots up and your job is half done!

Your own knowledge, skills and expertise are only part of the requirements to be a great teacher. Being able to share those things in a way that students enjoy and understand is the most vital component. Being great at your job won’t necessarily make you a good teacher – it takes time and effort to learn to teach.

With that in mind here are the skills that I use and teach; they are the ones that work best for me…

9 of the BEST Skills for Teachers and Trainers
To Get Outstanding Student Results

#1       CREATE THE RIGHT ENVIRONMENT:
Teaching is a two-way exchange: you can learn as much as you teach if you include your student in the process.

Set up an environment of mutual respect where each person’s ideas and opinions are valued. Students need to feel safe to express their feelings and listen to and learn from others.

1. The teacher’s responsibility is to set the “Rules of the Game” by explaining how teaching sessions work and the expectations for how people participate. Once you’ve explained it, get everyone to agree to the rules.
2. Make sessions fun and interactive. People learn much faster and better when the lesson is enjoyable.

#2       YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE THE “GURU” OF EVERYTHING
You may be very good at what you do, but there is a chance that you won’t know everything. Don’t set yourself up to have all the answers to everything – include your students in the learning process and if you don’t have an immediate answer to a question there are several ways you can deal with it:

• Flip the question back to the class to see if others have any ideas. For example you could say “That’s an interesting question – who else has come across that problem?”  “Let’s toss some ideas around to see what solutions we can find”
• If it’s something technical that can’t be solved in class you can either assign the person who asked the question to do some research (or the whole class) or offer to provide the solution (if they can’t) and do a training on it at the next session.

#3       KEEP YOUR PROMISES
This is a blanket rule for everyone – teacher AND students. Only promise what you intend to do. If you set assignments to be completed get agreement that the work will be completed and returned by a certain day at a certain time – e.g send to me by 5.00pm Thursday. If you promise something as the teacher, make sure you follow through to set the example.

1. Make a note of what agreements and action items are made and hold people accountable to their promise.
2. If they get “stuck” be prepared to help, but don’t do it for them.

We all have some of each but usually lean towards one particular style. (Sometimes the style may change depending on what you are learning.) Don’t assume that someone is not paying attention if they are leaning back with their eyes closed – they may be highly auditory and need to filter out distractions to listening) Unless they fall off their chair or start snoring of course – that’s a dead giveaway that they’re just not engaged!!!

None of us are 100% of only one style, but as you’ll see above more people learn by seeing and doing that just hearing.

#4       UNDERSTAND DIFFERENT LEARNING STYLES WITH VAK
People learn is different ways. The three main styles are:

• Visual                           they learn by seeing                      40%
• Auditory                      they learn by hearing                    20%
• Kinaesthetic               they learn by doing                        40%

We all have some of each but usually lean towards one particular style. (Sometimes the style may change depending on what you are learning.) Don’t assume that someone is not paying attention if they are leaning back with their eyes closed – they may be highly auditory and need to filter out distractions to listening) Unless they fall off their chair or start snoring of course – that’s a dead giveaway that they’re just not engaged!!!

None of us are 100% of only one style, but as you’ll see above more people learn by seeing and doing that just hearing.

Keep your lessons interactive, interesting and include all 3 modes of learning in your teaching and you will capture everyone in the class.

The best way to find out how your students like to learn? … Ask them!

#5       SET HIGH EXPECTATIONS
People are surprising resourceful and creative when given the chance. It has been proven that students rise to the level of the expectations of the teacher.

• Tell a class they are a room full of geniuses (and treat them accordingly) and they will perform at that level. Tell a class they are not very bright and need hand holding all the way – and that’s exactly what you’ll get.
• Give people things to do that are within their capabilities and then set some “stretch” assignments and ask them to grow into them.
• People are happiest when they are learning growing and achieving.

#6       PRAISE, ACKNOWLEDGEMENT AND REWARD
Set the right environment for learning. How you praise, acknowledge and reward achievement will depend on the culture of the team, business or classroom and the individuals within it.

• Work out with your students how they would like to be acknowledged or rewarded. Find out what drives them. Don’t assume that everyone operates the same way because they don’t!
  1. Some like to have a measure against themselves to achieve their Personal Best
  2. Some like individual praise like employee of the week
  3. Some like to have team goals to achieve
• Each method requires some way of keeping score. Set some measurable targets for the class and get them to report the scores weekly, monthly or whatever is appropriate. We’re looking for a way of seeing measurable improvement.

#7       BE A PERPETUAL STUDENT
The very best teachers and trainers have a love of learning and self-improvement. When you set that example for your students they will have a great role model to learn form. What you SAY is nowhere near as powerful as what you DO.

• As well as teaching tried and true basics bring cutting edge information to your lessons. Keep it fresh relevant and interesting
• What are you learning to get better at being YOU as well as getting better at your work?
• Go for constant and never-ending improvement. Get feedback after each session to find out how the session went. Was there anything you or the class could have done differently to make that session better?

# 8      LEARN HOW TO COMMUNICATE WELL USING DISC PROFILING
Just as people have different learning styles as in the VAK System (above) they also have different personality profiles.

• Some people are more outgoing, louder and more “visible’
• Some people more reserved, preferring to stay in the background.
• Some people are more task oriented – preferring to work quietly alone
• Some people are more people focussed and prefer to work within a team or with others
• Some people are quick thinking and quick acting – happy to learn from their mistakes
• Some people are much slower to make decisions, need more details and worry about making mistakes

DISC Profiling is a way of understanding how different people operate. There are no right or wrong styles. And when you learn to communicate with someone in their own natural style (and they do the same for you) you get fewer mistakes, more cooperation and better collaboration.

Ask about DISC Profiling and training for you and your team

#9           SEEK EXCELLENCE RATHER THAN PERFECTION
Perfection is very hard to achieve. It often makes people procrastinate or never attempt anything out of fear of failure.

Striving for excellence will allow you to be human, make mistakes and learn from them and constantly improve

• • • • As a teacher encourage people to experiment and try new things.  Even if something fails you’ve just learned how NOT to do it next time.
      • Encourage students to find their own answers and not to be afraid of giving the “wrong” answer.
      • Be inclusive: some personalities will be louder and more outgoing than others. Encourage the quieter ones to participate too.
      • Learn to ask great open ended questions:

1. A closed question will give you a one-word answer e.g. to the “did you, have you, are you, how many” types of questions you’ll get a typical answer like “no, yes, 3”. Which is OK when you want a short answer but can easily close off conversation and will put the focus straight back on you to ask another question. Ask too many closed questions and you will sound like an interrogator
2. Ask an open ended question like “Tell me about…” or “How did you discover…” or  “what kinds of things could you…” or “what would be the best way to…” and the  conversation will open up and become more interesting. People can solve a lot of challenges and learn a lot just by talking them through