Recently, I taught our Train the Trainer course in Monterrey to engineers from one of the country’s most renowned research and development centers. It was an extremely rewarding experience. Making even a small contribution to education and growth that directly or indirectly benefits society is a great source of pride and an honor.
The participants in this course had strong academic backgrounds. Most held doctorates or master’s degrees that, given the dry subject matter, I believe not everyone would be willing to pursue. Before me were 15 brilliant minds with distinguished professional careers, ready to improve their skills as trainers.
For 30 hours, we shared methods, techniques, strategies and tactics to improve staff training. At the end, I always conduct a practical assessment in which the “new” instructors develop a training session using the full structure and methodology studied over the preceding days. To my surprise, most performed excellently in content, problem statements, objectives and overall course structure. However, their communication skills still needed considerable improvement, making their presentations tedious and heavy-going.
Communication skills are essential in training and, as usual, have become instructors’ main Achilles’ heel. So we find trainers who are:
- The mumbler: you cannot understand a word this amusing character says. They speak through clenched teeth and, worse still, at extremely low volume. The audience, embarrassed to call the trainer out, generally stays silent and lets their minds wander instead.
- The microphone: Then there is the instructor who thinks they are in a stadium or rock concert, singing the latest hit at the top of their lungs. They raise their voice so much that participants leave the course because enduring it continuously becomes uncomfortable.
- The snail: sloooooow to speak, sloooooow to connect ideas and sloooooow to move the course along. The result is obvious: participants fall asleep, with zero engagement or participation.
- The stone face: Their voice never changes, showing no emotion and conveying no enthusiasm or message—not even a gesture suggesting life. Attendees react accordingly: falling asleep, staring at the ceiling or doodling in their manuals.
- The nervous one: This character is so anxious that they move and move and move and move, jump, wave their arms and open their eyes wide. They seem to be in a play rather than formal training.
- The charmer: This instructor makes us laugh, is engaging, fun, likable and has a way with people. We love them, but their show matters more than the course content. When participants leave, they are asked, “What did you learn?” Answer: “Nothing, but I had tremendous fun.” Fail!
- The general: suddenly we are sent to training and face someone who looks more like the general of the 5th Armed Regiment than a corporate training instructor. We are afraid even to ask questions—in case we are sent before a firing squad.
- The improviser: Yes, we always find a trainer who is an authority on staff training but so disorganized—or irresponsible—that their lack of preparation is obvious from miles away. They pull activities out of thin air with little connection to the subject, lose the course's thread, or leave it making no sense at all.
We could keep describing the different types of instructors we have encountered in our professional lives, for better or worse. The issue here, as we said at the beginning, is the instructor's lack of communication skills.
Let's start by dividing communication into verbal and nonverbal forms. Verbal communication involves voice inflection, volume, speed, intonation and fluency. Nonverbal communication involves body positions, including gestures and clothing.
For every professional instructor, communication is the ace up their sleeve. The show participants are about to witness depends first on extensive subject knowledge. But for that knowledge to be fully understood, instructors must learn to work with their voice and the full range of body expression.
How do we improve verbal communication? Simple: start by learning to breathe. High-performance athletes know that reaching goals and objectives begins with how you breathe. The same applies to training. Someone who practices breathing correctly can control their voice to evoke drama, joy, anguish or even fear in others.
How do we improve nonverbal communication? Through training. In our “Train the Trainer” course, I explain in depth how the body reacts to different situations. I help you control how you stand, sit and move your hands, and work on analyzing looks, gestures and microexpressions. Every elite instructor should learn these skills to manage themselves and analyze trainees' reactions.
Is it difficult? Not at all. But it requires building muscle, like at the gym: first understand how it works, how it is used and what it means, then generate conscious impulses and begin taking control.
I am certain this is the small but major difference between run-of-the-mill instructors and memorable trainers whose greeting alone tells you training will be unforgettable.
Rock´n roll, people!
