Five- helpful tips to be an “Effective Trainer”

1.   Open
2. Craft the Topic/Message & Sell   
3. Presentation
4. Provide Evidence & Build Relevancy
5. Summary and Close-out!

Tips-1 : Open :-

1. Opening is a first impression, when we meet and introduce our-self in specific or in public interactions, though good opening does not provide any guarantee for the successful outcome of a training programme, but a bad opening surely may yield into the negative results.
2. Good opening is very critical aspect to have a pleasant impressions on audience in setting-up the right tone positively, doing so, ensures the effective opening of a training programme, following tips (any one of them or in combination of thereof) could be the appropriate way of opening to start with:  

• Inspirational Quote: Start with a Great quote and provide analogy (relevant example, if any) similar to the topic. This should be crispy and impactful, by which the objective of the training can be injected/understood
• Short Story Telling: This may be based on a real life story/ autobiography of yours's /others, it should be relevant, well connected, which can inspire the audiences.
• Statistics/Facts: This is based on retrospective review or potential anticipation of specific case study, can be presented in arithmetical, graphical representation, logical form, which should have deep-rooted impact on the audience and provide direct relevancy to the topic to be presented.

Tips-2 : Craft the Topic/Message and Accelerate it :-

2.1 Use crispy “Title” to communicate value and grab attention :

• For example, a good title: “Five helpful tips to be an effective “Trainer”! Not-so-good title: “Trainers Basic skills”. One tells you exactly what to expect and grabs your interest, the other title is too vague and could be boring.

2.2 Sell the Topic :

• You should be able to visualize speaking the Topic to the audience and them hearing it as part of a conversations. Use storytelling to sell the Topic by telling a personal anecdote or one from an expert or influencer or retrospective facts. This is something getting started at the top gear to create an audience buy-in but still maintains the optimal speed!

Tips-3 : Presentation:-

3.1 Background of Presentation/Topic : 

• An effective trainer will start with the cause of a topic, to communicate the background, it’s inception (if any), it’s structure, context so as to have great impact on the audience. During this stage, trainer need to ask the relevant questions to audience (s) so as to make the presentation more constructive & participative from the beginning.

3.2 Present the Process /flow in Chronological way :

• A good trainer interpret even so complex subject into the simplistic form. You should be able to present the chronological process of the Topic being presented- use flow diagram etc. as applicable. Start with its basic structure and take with full energy to advance stage so as to make the audience very clear in simplistic way on what you want to say and how to say it effectively?
• Audiences should be involved during this stage to take their views and make part of the training, either by dividing into the groups or involve with individual participative questions and answers…… to create an environment in reciprocating a sense of ownership & accountability……

Tips-4 : Provide Evidence & Build Relevancy :-

4.1 Provide evidence : 

• During this stage, a good trainer will present the facts, could be specific evidence either based on historical review or anticipate the potential repercussions.
• Example includes may be; organizational brand image, values system, ethics & culture to connect with employees/customer satisfaction, inspectional outcomes to correlate the trust of regulators, customers, statutory/government body’s etc.

4.2 Build Relevancy: 

• A good Trainer should be able to build business relevance – with respect to three elements; mainly w.r.t - Cost, Time and Quality. Last but not least – In adhering compliance to meet business objective too!
• A good trainer should be able to connect the dots with the business, this should have correlations on to provide improvement in terms of change as a result of short term behavior and leading to long term business benefits. These performance indicators should provide a sense of belongingness and ownership so as to build relevance in enhancing productivity, compliance and quality standard that sparks the positive synergy surrounding the audiences.  

Tips -5: Summary and Close-out!

5.1 Ask to present the “Summary” : 

• A good trainer will ask the audience, who can be a volunteer to summarize the topic and learning having had been during the training, involve others to add value, creating a sense of responsibility & accountability, create an environment to share more & learn from each other’s.
• Help the audience (volunteer as well) to add value to the Topic and summarize better!

5.2 Close-out! 

Like , first impression provide an assurance to good opening, a good ending determine the succession of an effective training & learning programme, this should be close-out by the trainer with positive impact , following (but not limited to) can be the effective way to close the training programme successfully:   

•  Positive aspects on Training /way forward…
• Fielding questions or quiz or feedback /suggestion etc.?
• Playing the role of a mentor & be part of solutions giver etc.
• Establish learning curve to make improvement for the next time.

Thank you!