So you have decided to become a trainer and you believe you have the needed skills and all it takes, after gaining a few certificates off you go: a subject matter expert with a style. Coming from an eighteen-year experienced trainer, I can tell you it takes a bit more than speaking skills and knowledge to win an audience especially in a six-hour workshop where you need to keep yourself constantly on your toes and keep your audience engaged.
What makes it even harder in today’s modern world is the advancementsof technology with mobile devices invading your training room with bold audacity whether you like it or not. Try competing with all those I-phone applications that keep your audience entertained and connected to the world.
We are not talking of needing a magic potion here, instead simple mindful acts that help keep you and your audience in the FLOW; Focus- Love- Open up- Win.
FOCUS on each and every one of the participants in the room from the very start. Treat them as individuals rather than a mass audience. Get to know them and allow them to know you and each other. Focus your energy on building rapport which is connection and trust with genuine eye contact and a sincere smile, and remember the personal details you have discovered about each of them. Provide them with feedback every now and then during the training. This allows them to feel special and to celebrate their uniqueness within the group. Show them that you listen and you do care.
LOVE and celebrate this uniqueness they bring to the training room in terms of know how and experience. Appreciate what they have and empower them to express this knowledge as added value to the whole learning encounter. Be secure enough to step back from the limelight, give them full stage and fine tune their rhythms, this is how learning takes place and this is how they build confidence through the power of application.
OPEN UP your personal world and reveal yourself with your strengths and vulnerability. Your humanity will inspire theirs and connection will peak. Be part of their world and be around their level of thinking. Accept their perspectives and build them up with feedback. Remember to keep your ego constantly under check and control. Open up the floor for a flow of multi way learning where a tripod of engagement erects at the center: they learn from you, they learn from each other and you learn from them.
Finally WIN their hearts to win their minds and attention. Accentuate your charismatic stance with the power of presence and the focus on the now. Center your energy and flash it around. Captivate their personal attention by addressing them on a personal level. Be humorous and entertaining and crack a few jokes here and there and laugh at their jokes.
Allow the flow of energy to travel around the training room. Nothing is more contagious than passion and energy and the more convinced you are with the elements of your talk, the more they will be inspired, entrapped and passionate all about it too.
One last word of advice: shock them with diversity and creativity. Be emotionally intelligent enough to read the signals and know when to shut the talk and play the game. When you can captivate their attention for a full day, this means you have become the master of the FLOW.
