Are you a Trainer? Facilitator? or Coach?

As part of the Speakers Association of Hawaii, I was so delighted to once again get to hear Grace Keohohou Hao present along with her daughter Nicki (Kittson) Keohohou talk about coaching versus training and facilitation – all key considerations to many speakers. Grace and Nikki continue to fill every single moment with maximum value and as I will mention later, will always be worth the investment of your time! I am so grateful to not only get to share these wonderful thoughts with everyone but look forward to continue engagement and learning!

So here are the nuggets of knowledge I just have to share!

·     Coaching means that THEY have the answer – you help draw THEIR answers out

·     Coaching is not a regulated industry – true coaches are certified…remember who you’re talking to…

·     Coaching is asking the questions and listening to someone to help them in making their OWN decisions

·     Coaching is known in accelerating high performance

·     Coaching is known to draw out the best in those you are working with

·     Having trained someone and they’re not taking action – it’s NOT more training that will make the impact, it’s coaching

***People easily get over trained – but doesn’t mean they take action…

·     Coaching awakens the genius, the creativity, the possibility thinking in those you’re collaborating WITH

·     Have them look within versus you imparting your wisdom on them

·     You train to a skill – with coaching, they know the skill but they’re not doing it or performing….

·     Coaching is not only when you have a challenge – it’s when you have stretch goals and more

·     Facilitation is the combination of training, speaking and coaching

·     Facilitation is enabling THEIR experience – attendees are not observers, but active collaborators WITH you!

·     Speak their language and you speak to their heart – so crucial to understand what people are looking for, what can you contribute, what will the success of your talk be measured against.

·     Give more in value than you receive in payment – wonderful to think about an ongoing relationship with your clients and customers!

·     Consider facilitation an equal playing field – no one knows more than the other, but rather we’re in this together!

·     Trainers provide the answers – coaches help others find THEIR OWN answers! Avoid co-dependencies! 

·     Coaches do not “Fix people” – people are whole and great just as there are!

·     Remember that the client is expert on themselves!

·     When someone asks for training when they need coaching or need training when asking for coaching and other items – what can you do? ASK QUESTIONS!!

***What is your definition? What makes you think that you need that? What does that mean to you? What do you hope to achieve? Make sure to ask in a neutral way…

·     The gap between training and action is COACHING!

·     Train on the skill set…then coach.

·     When it’s a belief system it’s coaching first…then training

·     Instead of budget – what is your “investment range”? Even thinking about instead of “what you spend your time on” to “what do you invest your time on?”

***Investment implies a return…spending is not guaranteed, let alone repetitively!

·     Asking questions allows you to pause to allow attendees to pause…to contemplate, to consider…that’s coaching integrated into your training. Ask and pause to allow your training message to seep into those attendees…allows even you to read the room and FEEL how training is going and what you can do to continue

·     Coaching is agile, its flexible (while training often has more structure)…remember audiences don’t know what you’re going to say and do.

·     What questions do they ask or additional things that people look for in trainings is always a “gold mine” of additional opportunities

·     Combing coaching skills with your training skills will help up your training retention from 22% to numbers as high as 80% so that the stories stick and takes the messages further!

Advice to trainers:

·     Have messages that are remembered

·     Have actions that people have confidence to do when they leave! 

·     Have reflection – have people leaving reflecting on their return on investment, on their approach to use the concepts moving forward

Before, during and after event – always ask the CEO/hiring person – “if there was one or two things I could have done differently that would have made a difference on your company or the attendees, what would those be” – compassionate feedback (over constructive criticism)

I know I’m only scratching the surface here of an hour that was packed with more good thoughts than I had time to write! I encourage anyone else who has been fortunate enough to learn, engage, and most importantly grow from these amazing women to add in any additional comments here as they clearly demonstrated how a well facilitated session with quality content, action and motivation can quickly zoom by in more time than you might have budgeted that day (but of course, well worth the continued investment!!)!