This informal CPD article Am I The Right Trainer was provided by Capt. Nadhem AlHamad, CEO at T3 Aviation Academy, the Middle East’s leading aviation training provider.
As a trainer, it’s of vital importance to conduct a self-evaluation aimed at assessing whether you’re the right trainer for a given course or workshop. Self-reflection is one of the effective tools to measure your alignment with the training at hand. The right alignment of a trainer with a training begs the below questions which might cross your mind too:
- Is training an innate skill, a gift, or a talent?
- Is training a skill that can be taught and developed, polished, or created?
- Is training both an innate and teachable skill?
There’s no one simple answer to these questions owing to different factors that contribute to addressing the same however, a significant point to note here is that the responses and conclusions will vary from one individual to another, rendering them to be subjective.
Bearing in mind the abovementioned points, it’s imperative to maintain continuous improvement through reflection and re-skilling or up-skilling – whichever is more relevant. In addition to a self-evaluation, the same can also be achieved through a training needs analysis that will help the trainer identify and bridge the gaps in his or her skillset, in congruence with the training being delivered. More often than not, many trainers opt for a Train the Trainer course or workshop every now and then to refresh or upgrade their skills and share them with each other to achieve the industry’s best practices and latest standards.
Training’s suitability as a form or method for learning
Another point for reflection I’d like to draw your attention to is the training’s suitability as a form or method for learning or knowledge transfer:
- Is training good with the aim of developing soft skills or is it more relevant to hard skills?
- Is training more suitable for a specific skillset (soft vs hard) or can it be deployed when addressing both types of skills?
- Do specific trainings require a trainer with more soft skills or hard skills?
- What impact do the different styles of learning have on the assessment of the suitability of the trainer with a given training?
- Do learning outcomes need to be achieved through a training specifically or will facilitation or coaching be more relevant and effective in certain subject areas?
When we pay attention to how learners have different learning styles, we are reminded of how training can be used in delivering specific subject matters whilst facilitating and coaching are used to tackle other skillsets. Circling back to the first article I wrote on the fundamental differences between training and facilitation, we can easily identify training as a different skill compared to facilitation and coaching.
To further support this, we can take football as an example where it has been observed that not all great players can be great coaches as a player can be exemplary in playing the game but the same cannot be said when it comes to training or coaching a team. This testifies to the statement that not everyone can teach or train; just because an individual fully understands a given subject, it doesn’t automatically extend to him or her being a fantastic teacher, lecturer or trainer for the same.
Going back to the football example mentioned, we have witnessed many highly competent players who failed as coaches and there could be a number of reasons for this, but they all lend to the aforementioned statement that not everyone can teach or coach. On the other hand, we have also seen many average players who have become some of the best coaches the world has ever known. One thing is for certain, coaching requires a completely different set of skills compared to playing.
Diego Maradona who is well know for his prolific football career in which he scored one of the most controversial goals in the history of this sports, known as the “Hand of God”, retired in 1997. Further to his retirement, he found little to no success in coaching which was attested by his infamous failure to lead the Argentinian national team to glory, leading to the end of his international coaching tenure in 2010.
On the other hand, lending to the latter example given of average players becoming great coaches, players such as Pep Guardiola weren’t as highly sought after or revered in their playing careers however, he’s regarded as one of the best coaches in the world. His success in coaching is attributed to his proficiency in understanding his team and molding them into a high-performing team that work as a cohesive unit.
In conclusion and notwithstanding the abovementioned, we can see that training is not for everyone and just because an individual is proficient at a given job or subject matter, it doesn’t automatically translate to them being as proficient when it comes to teaching or training others on how to also become the same. That being said, it’s remarkably important to ensure that you are the right trainer and this can be assessed through different methods such as a self-evaluation, self-reflection, a gap analysis, and obtaining feedback from learners, among others.
We hope this article was helpful. For more information from T3 Aviation Academy, please visit their CPD Member Directory page. Alternatively please visit the CPD Industry Hubs for more CPD articles, courses and events relevant to your Continuing Professional Development requirements.
