Subservient Trainer? (Training Mistakes and How To Avoid Them)

As a trainer in the corporate environment, I often encounter mistakes business leaders make in training their people. This is my compilation of 11 of the most severe of such mistakes. My apologies in advance if I come off sounding blunt. I believe this is one of those times when the best way to break the news is to tell it like it is.

Mistake #3 of 11: Viewing the Trainer as Subservient to You. You can't hire someone to train you and your people when you think you know more about the subject than the trainer. You also need to have some respect for the trainer and show it. If you don't, your people won't either. And guess what will happen to the effectiveness of the training?

You, the leader, need to be the most enthusiastic supporter of the trainer. If you can't find it within you to do that, you need to find a new trainer for whom you can. If you can't find ANY trainer out there who you can respect and trust, you either need to intensify your search or take a hard, close look at - guess who - you. 

You see, no one in the world knows everything. If you can't find anyone who knows more than you, you are setting yourself up for quite a rude awakening. Think of it this way. How successful would you be at learning how to ski if you thought that you knew more about skiing than the instructor? How about golf? Tennis?

This seems like such common-sense that it seems strange even to be bringing it up. Yet, I've seen quite a few CEOs with overblown egos who get quite nervous when things in the classroom don't seems to be going their way. Sometimes they react by jumping in and taking control of the teachings, the message and the trainer, undermining the credibility of the trainer, not to mention their own. (After all, it's you who invited the trainer in, didn't you?)

Here’s the full list of such mistakes I have covered in the past and will cover in the coming weeks. In the mean time, please let me know (bhavesh@ambica.net) if you have thoughts or experiences to share on the topic. 

1. Failure to Commit to a Single Philosophy or Methodology.

2. Thinking "Training is for My People, Not for Me." Or "I am 'Above' Training; It's for My People." 

3. View the Trainer as Subservient to You.

4. Training is Conducted to Fix the Hiring Mistakes.

5. Wrong Training is Delivered to Wrong People.

6. Putting an Underperformer in Training and Hoping that She will Outperform Your Top Producer.

7. Expecting a "Graduation Date" for Your Training Efforts. Certificate Mentality Versus Learning Mentality.

8. Putting All Your Money in Technical or Skills Training Versus Human Side of Training.

9. Ignoring Doing a Return On Analysis on Any Training You Invest In.

10. View Training as a Commodity.

11. Expecting Training to be Easy and Comfortable.

I am Above Training (Training Mistakes and How to Avoid Them)

Mistake #2 of 11: Thinking "Training is for My People, Not for Me." Or "I am 'Above' Training; It's for My People."

REMINDER:This article is written as an opinion and should be taken as such. The black-and-white polarization is to make a point or perhaps my poor attempt at injecting some dark humor into the subject. If you find yourself getting upset while reading, just pretend it was meant for someone else. :)

I've been experimenting with a new format for writing this article.There are 11 training mistakes I have compiled in my experience as a trainer. However, instead of writing about all of them at once, I will write them one at a time. But, I will share the whole list with each article.

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"Training is for my people, not for me" is faulty logic for two reasons: 1) lack of management buy-in causes lack of commitment and buy-in for training, 2) it's an indirect put-down of the people ("I am better than you") who work for you. I bow to the humility of Presidents, CEO's and Business Owners who attendtraining WITH their people. And there are many such leaders whom I have worked with.

On the other hand, nothing frustrates me more than the Presidents who tell me that they will send  "so and so" but they won't be coming to training. Here's a rule of thumb: don't commit to the training that you are not willing to go through yourself or have not gone through yourself.

Yes, Mr. President, you are very busy. (Perhaps you should take the class on delegation first.) And yes, you often don't have the time. I am not asking you to spend the same amount of time that the other people in your organization will be spending. What I am saying is that in you need to be as familiar as possible with the training that your people will be going through and go through some of it, very little of it perhaps, yourself the way your folks will.

If you can't do this, take my advise, save your money and stop sending your people to training classes. Without a commitment from you, you will only be wasting your money.

And here is the whole list:

1. Failure to Commit to a Single Philosophy or Methodology.

2. Thinking "Training is for My People, Not for Me." Or "I am 'Above' Training; It's for My People."

3. Viewing Trainer as Subservient to You.

4. Training is Conducted to Fix the Hiring Mistakes.

5. Wrong Training is Delivered to Wrong People.

6. Putting an Underperformer in Training and Hoping that She will Outperform Your Top Producer.

7. Expecting a "Graduation Date" for Your Training Efforts. Certificate Mentality Versus Learning Mentality.

8. Putting All Your Money in Technical or Skills Training Versus Human Side of Training.

9. Ignoring Doing a Return On Analysis on Any Training You Invest In.

10. Viewing Training as a Commodity.

11. Expecting Training to be Easy and Comfortable.

Jack of All Trade... (Training Mistakes and How to Avoid Them)

A word of caution: This article is written as an opinion and should be taken as such. The black-and-white polarization is to make a point or perhaps my poor attempt at injecting some dark humor into the subject. Please take it with a pinch of salt if you find yourself getting a little upset.

We are going to try some thing different this time. There are 11 training mistakes I have compiled in my experience as a trainer. However, instead of writing about all of them at once, I will write them one at a time. But, I will share the whole list with you every time.

1 of 11. Failure to Commit to a Single Philosophy or Methodology.

Have you seen people on diet with 300 different books? Do you think they are succeeding? When you have training materials collected on your bookshelf with 5, 10 or 15 sources, you are sending mixed signals to your people and to yourself. Here's what I recommend. Find one philosophy and give it all you've got. Follow it to the point where you have tried everything to make it work. On the other hand, when you find that it does not work for you, give it up and never look back!!

Often, businesses are very proud to show me the materials on their shelves and tell me that they are committed to growth and development of their people. Often, what they are referring to is a "little bit of this and little bit of that" philosophy with no commitment to one. While a variety of philosophies are great in producing great ideas and creating new insights, they fail in the one thing that matters most when it comes to training: results that come from a lasting change in behavior.

That's it for now. Here’s the full list that I will cover in the coming weeks and months. In the mean time, please let me know if you have any thoughts or experiences to share on any of them.

1. Failure to Commit to a Single Philosophy or Methodology.

2. Thinking "Training is for My People, Not for Me." Or "I am 'Above' Training; It's for My People."

3. Viewing Trainer as Subservient to You.

4. Training is Conducted to Fix the Hiring Mistakes.

5. Wrong Training is Delivered to Wrong People.

6. Putting an Underperformer in Training and Hoping that She will Outperform Your Top Producer.

7. Expecting a "Graduation Date" for Your Training Efforts. Certificate Mentality Versus Learning Mentality.

8. Putting All Your Money in Technical or Skills Training Versus Human Side of Training.

9. Ignoring Doing a Return On Analysis on Any Training You Invest In.

10. Viewing Training as a Commodity.

11. Expecting Training to be Easy and Comfortable.

Business Lessons from Presidential Elections

This is a follow-on article to the another article I had written soon after the Democratic Primaries ended in April of 2008. The article was titled, "Business Lessons from the Presdiential Primaries."

Amazinlgy enough, all the lessons from the Primaries still apply in the Presidential election, even more so in some cases. I don't want to repeat them, here. But it's worth a second read. Just click here to read that article before your read this one.

Here are 9 more lessons, not in any particular order.

Lesson #1: Stay above the fray. Don't take it in the gut

It's a cruel world out there. In business, just like in politics, you can be accused of being too black or too white. Too pretty or too ugly. Too tall or too short. People may not like the way you walk around or sit down. Some will have a problem with scars on your face or your limbs being too awakward. We are a bored buch of people looking for entertainment in everything. And business and politics are no exception.

The world will judge us whether we like it or not. If we don't immunize ourselves against the world's judgments, we will end up losing.

This was demonstrated in the Presidential debates where Obama was often perceived as cool and calm and McCain was perceived as edgy, even angry.

It seems, McCain let all of this get to him in the gut. Obama didn't, despite the fact that he had every reason to, especially the racial stuff.

One of the way to not let it hit you in the gut is to...

Lesson #2: Don't make it about "me" make it about "them"

"Them" here is not just your customer (voters) but also your team, your volunteers (your employees, partners and other stake-holders) and your suppliers.When you make it about "them", "they" will make it about "you." They will give you their time, their energy and their money. They may even give you their hearts and their souls. They will bend over backwards for you, even follow you till the end.

In the end, true leadership is never just about "me," it's about "us".

Great leaders demonstrate their leadership qualities through their action, not by talking about it...

Lesson #3: The proof is in the pudding

The way that Obama ran his campaign showed his leadership skills. No matter what your political affiliation is, would a lousy leader be able to raise $300 million, most of it from average people in small amounts? Would an incompetent leader be able to build the ground operation that Obama built to turn out the vote? Would a bad leader be able to lead a campaign organization with millions of volunteers who did not get paid a penny (actually many of them paid the campaign, in the form of donations)?

Sure, the winds were blowing in the direction of the democrats. But under an incompetent leadership, it would have still been easy to blow this election. It's been done before - twice.

A good measure of a great leader, both in business and politics, is how prepared she is...

Lesson #4: Luck is preparation meeting opportunity

The 13-minute video created in first week of October by the Obama campaign was created by David Axelrod in April of 2008, 5 months before they used it. I suspect that the campaign ultimately used only a fraction of the total firepower they had collected. But being prepared gives you that cold confidence that allows you to respond to problems and opportunities as they are presented.

Because of their preparedness, the Obama campaign was able to take advantage of the opportunity created by the economic crisis in October of 2008.

But there will be times when things just won't go your way...

Lesson #5: Stay the course when the wind is not blowing your way

A good example isBarack Obama staying with his message throughout the campaign, even when things got rough. In some rare moments, he did get off his message (remember "lipstick on a pig"?). When he did, the campaign lost ground.

There are plenty of tempting opportunities to change the course along the way. A leader must respond to such opportunities with a cool head. That's why, a great leader will often seem like he is a slow decision maker...

Lesson #6: Quick decision-making does not always mean good decision-making

A social and political leader – and yes, a business leader - has many things to consider before making decisions.

Lately, it has been wrongly assumed that quick, hard-headed decision makers are good leaders. It's only in the last 8 years that impulsive, half-baked, erratic and stubborn decision-making has been associated with good leadership. Most Americans now agree that (77% to 23% as of the time of this writing) that's not true.

People recognized this when they saw McCain respond to the economic crisis with putting his campaign on hold and flying off to Washington. Same thing when he picked Sarah Palin, an untested and controversial figure, as his running mate.

Some of our best Presidents were slow decision makers. They agonized, they looked for counsel, they talked with their advisors, they sought to look at issues from many angles before making important decisions. One of our greatest Presidents, Abraham Lincoln, was notorious for slow, deliberate decision making. And he was a war-time president.

Other examples of slow yet effective decision makers: Ronald Reagan, Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Bill Clinton.

Yet, don't confuse slow decision making with slow actions. Great leaders, once their minds are made up, take swift, committed action. Lincoln, once he knew that his fight against slavery was a just fight, never wavered from his commitment to winning the Civil War, even when it dragged on and hundreds of thousands of lives were lost.

When it comes to action, great leaders never get complacent, even when going is good...

Lesson #7: Keep that sense of urgency even - especially - when you are ahead

Three weeks before the election, when he was ahead in every poll, Obama had one message for his voters and supporters: "Don't Get Complacent." He wanted the voters to turn out to vote. He urged the supporters to keep knocking on more and more doors.

This is especially true in business. We need to prospect more when the pipeline is full and when we are hitting our sales goals. We need to service our customers better just when they sing our praises. We need to challenge our employees to accomplish even more, just when they have shattered their previous records.

Good leaders don’t quit because they are ahead, they fortify that lead to set themselves up for even a better advantage...

Lesson #8: Don't take chances

After they raised $150 million in September, an astounding number by any measure, the Obama Campaign kept raising money in October. After they were ahead in polls in most swing states, which were Republican to begin with, the Obama Campaign started expanding their campaigning into other states - like West Virginia, Arizona and Missouri. After building perhaps the most formidable ground operation in political history, they kept knocking on doors to turn out the vote.

When your business is doing well, it's easy to want to slow down a little. But we need to resist that urge and instead, keep moving, keep growing.

And lastly, but perhaps most importantly...

Lesson #9: Bring something unique to the field of leadership

One thing that Obama brought to his campaign and now to his administration is his ability to inspire and engage ordinary people from all walks of life. This is truly Obama's signature style.

No other President has brought this to his campaign, or his governing style.

A lot has been written about why Barack Obama's presidency is historic because he is the first African American president. What's not written about enough is that even if he was not black, his campaign would have been considered historic. For the reasons mentioned above and more. I envite you to write your own lessons and share with us here.

Lies about Learning: 4 through 7 of 7

Lie #4: We have to have a high “self-esteem” to be a good student.

Healthy Self Esteem or Self Concept is necessary to function in life. But when a part of a Self Concept is "I Already Know That," it does not allow us to open our mind to allow new knowledge to come in. This means that while we are learning, we must get our Self Image out of the way before we can truly learn.

TRUTH: We must be willing to DROP our Self Esteem or Self Image before we can truly learn.

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