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The Joy of Training

Friday, October 12th, 2012

 “Years wrin­kle the skin, but to give up enthu­si­asm wrin­kles the soul.” Dou­glas MacArthur

Peo­ple often remark on my enthu­si­asm and energy when I train. I used to pon­der these com­ments to try to learn from them. (What were peo­ple really say­ing?) I finally real­ized that they were telling me some­thing very sim­ple: My excite­ment about the sub­ject and its pos­si­bil­i­ties ignited their own per­sonal energy. When peo­ple are ener­gized, they func­tion bet­ter. They feel bet­ter. And they learn and par­tic­i­pate better.

As a trainer, pre­sen­ter or facil­i­ta­tor, joy goes a long way in mak­ing you the best you can be. Your joy excites your par­tic­i­pants. Their energy rises to meet yours, and the train­ing room (or con­fer­ence room, or what­ever space you have) lights up. Work gets done.

But what if your enthu­si­asm has taken a hit? How can you regain a sense of joy about facil­i­tat­ing, giv­ing a pre­sen­ta­tion, or train­ing a group?

These five prac­ti­cal steps will help.

1. Cre­ate a list of 20 pos­i­tive aspects about the sub­ject. Your brain may balk at doing this, but you’ll be forced to see the sub­ject in a new way. Its “new­ness” will stim­u­late you in unex­pected ways.

2. Do some­thing phys­i­cal. When your blood pumps aer­o­bi­cally, it seems to wash away your “blaahs.” Don’t wait-you can take a walk right now.

3. Visu­al­ize your­self being enthu­si­as­tic. Take a moment to close your eyes. See your­self as you would from the out­side, feel­ing fan­tas­tic and ema­nat­ing pos­i­tive energy. See­ing your­self this way can kick-start your act­ing this way.

4. Smile. Research has shown that when you smile, even if that smile doesn’t come eas­ily, your brain chem­istry changes. Try smil­ing and feel­ing joy­ful, even if it is dif­fi­cult. You’ll be sur­prised how it “ups” your mood.

5. Get excited about the suc­cess of those around you. When you express authen­tic enthu­si­asm about what oth­ers are doing, your own mood improves. You start feel­ing excited about what you’re doing, too.

Remem­ber this quote from Anat Ban­iel the next time you feel your joy tak­ing a dive:

“Lack of enthu­si­asm can be learned and can become a habit.  Enthu­si­asm is such a nec­es­sary part of human life that when we lose it, or we sim­ply lack the skills to gen­er­ate it, we not only drain our­selves, but also become a drain on oth­ers.  The vital­ity and magic of life vanishes.” 

Keep the vital­ity and magic of life as you train, facil­i­tate or present. It will be your gift not only to oth­ers, but to yourself.

Boost your Train­ing Skills. See free newslet­ters full of tips and tech­niques for improved train­ing: http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs071/1101469784148/archive/1101880413533.html

Guila Muir is the pre­miere trainer of train­ers, facil­i­ta­tors, and pre­sen­ters on the West Coast of the United States. Since 1994, she has helped thou­sands of pro­fes­sion­als improve their train­ing, facil­i­ta­tion, and pre­sen­ta­tion skills. Find out how she can help trans­form you from a bor­ing expert to a great trainer: http://www.guilamuir.com/courses/train-the-trainer/train-the-trainer-and-presentation-skills/.

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When You Are the Bored Trainer

Wednesday, September 5th, 2012

We’ve all had bored train­ers. They bore us through their lack of pas­sion, of energy, of spark.

But what hap­pens when YOU have deliv­ered the same train­ing over and over and over again? Is it pos­si­ble to remain pas­sion­ate about the same sub­ject you have been teach­ing for years? How do you keep it fresh?

OK, here’s my story. I have deliv­ered ver­sions of a pop­u­lar work­shop for fif­teen years. Yes, I alter the sub­ject mat­ter and cus­tomize it for each client. But—and I’m going to be hon­est here-sometimes I feel like I’m just “going through the motions.” I hear myself say­ing the same line that I have said at least five hun­dred times. And I wilt a lit­tle inside.

Now, I real­ize that my par­tic­i­pants are hear­ing every­thing for the first time. Because I am nat­u­rally ener­getic, they lis­ten and respond with enthu­si­asm. But to be hon­est, I some­times feel like a robot. Has that ever hap­pened to you?

I’m going to share five tips I use to refresh myself as a trainer. Please send me YOUR suggestions—I’ll share these in the next newsletter.

5 Tips That Refresh!

1. Remem­ber the “Turf” That Comes With Being a Professional.

The abil­ity to per­form at the same expert level time after time sim­ply comes with the ter­ri­tory of being a professional-whether you are an ath­lete, an actor, a tour guide, or a trainer. Being a pro­fes­sional means you “give it your all” each time you per­form. That’s what sep­a­rates you from the rest of the crowd.

2. Re-Arrange the Order of Things

Although doing this may feel risky (things are work­ing just fine as they are-) rear­rang­ing your con­tent can pro­vide the biggest refresh­ment of all. Try pre­sent­ing a con­tent block either ear­lier or later than usual. You’ll be amazed at the fresh­ness you feel!

3. Ini­ti­ate and Enjoy Interaction.

Each group is dif­fer­ent, and projects and reflects energy dif­fer­ently than the last group. Have fun with that! Meet and “hob-nob” with indi­vid­u­als before the train­ing and dur­ing the breaks. Lis­ten for any unique words or con­cerns. Notice these and, where pos­si­ble, inte­grate them into your deliv­ery. Be sure to ask plenty of questions.

4. Increase Your Self Aware­ness in New Areas

Know­ing your con­tent as inti­mately as you do is a lux­ury. It pro­vides the oppor­tu­nity to tune into how you are deliv­er­ing it. Are you mak­ing enough eye con­tact (or too much)? How is your voice pro­jec­tion? Are you pac­ing? Are you slouch­ing? Don’t allow your deliv­ery go on auto-pilot, but do try see­ing and hear­ing your­self as an observer would.

5. Feel Lucky and Blessed

How many of us get to do jobs that involve such a high level of phys­i­cal, emo­tional, and men­tal exer­cise all at once? From a purely self­ish stand­point, what a great way to keep your brain young! Addi­tion­ally, you are trans­mit­ting infor­ma­tion that helps your par­tic­i­pants. You are “doing good” in the world! How many peo­ple can really say that?

I hope these five tips help you keep your train­ing fresh—not only for your par­tic­i­pants, but for YOU, too.

Boost your Train­ing Skills. See free newslet­ters full of tips and tech­niques for improved train­ing: http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs071/1101469784148/archive/1101880413533.html

Guila Muir is the pre­miere trainer of train­ers, facil­i­ta­tors, and pre­sen­ters on the West Coast of the United States. Since 1994, she has helped thou­sands of pro­fes­sion­als improve their train­ing, facil­i­ta­tion, and pre­sen­ta­tion skills. Find out how she can help trans­form you from a bor­ing expert to a great pre­sen­ter: www.guilamuir.com

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Are You a Super-Trainer?

Saturday, April 14th, 2012

Assess Your­self and See!

What attrib­utes do all super train­ers share, no mat­ter how dif­fer­ent their styles? Rate your­self from 1 (I’m not so great at this) to 3 (I do this every time!) on the guide­lines below. Then read the strate­gies, which will trans­form YOU into a Super Trainer.

Three Essen­tial Attrib­utes of Super Train­ers

1.  Con­tent Knowl­edge
Of course, this comes first. If you don’t know your sub­ject, you shouldn’t be train­ing it. How­ever, you DON’T have to know every last detail before you’re ready to train.

My self-rating on Con­tent Knowl­edge

1                                                            2                                                            3

low                                                                                                                        high

2.  Will­ing­ness To Have Fun
This one’s a poten­tial dan­ger zone. Some train­ers have so much fun them­selves that they remain obliv­i­ous to the par­tic­i­pants’ needs, insights, and poten­tial contributions.

Hav­ing fun doesn’t mean you are able to toss out jokes. Will­ing­ness to have fun means relax­ing WHILE you exude dynamism and energy. It means con­nect­ing with the par­tic­i­pants WHILE you focus on con­tent and time man­age­ment. It means enjoy­ing the par­tic­i­pants WHILE retain­ing your unique role as trainer.

My self-rating on Will­ing­ness to Have Fun

1                                                            2                                                            3

low                                                                                                                        high

3.  Use of a Well-Structured Train­ing Design
Have you ever won­dered about the source of the fol­low­ing issues?

–Bad marks on your train­ing eval­u­a­tions (exclud­ing com­ments about cold cof­fee or overly warm train­ing rooms)
–Par­tic­i­pant hos­til­ity, side con­ver­sa­tions or passive-aggressiveness
–Lack of par­tic­i­pa­tion
–Peo­ple sleeping

The invis­i­ble cul­prit is often how the ses­sion is designed, not the pre­sen­ta­tion skills of the trainer. Design affects every­thing related to the training.

Train­ing design is train­ing archi­tec­ture. A badly–designed course will sag, frac­ture, and even crush the best trainer.

My self-rating on Use of a Well-Structured Train­ing Design

1                                                            2                                                            3

low                                                                                                                        high

Strate­gies to Pump Up Your Train­ing Skills

Even if you rated your­self high on the pre­ced­ing attrib­utes, these strate­gies will enhance your training:

1.  Con­tent Knowledge

Ensure that you have included only the absolute “MUST-KNOW” mate­r­ial into your train­ing ses­sion. When you develop the ses­sion, test each part of the train­ing by ask­ing, “is this a ‘must-know’ piece of infor­ma­tion, or is it merely ‘nice to know?’ Toss the ‘nice to know’ pieces. Remember-less is more.

If a par­tic­i­pant asks you some­thing you can­not answer, remem­ber that it is OK to say “I don’t know. Let me find out and get back to you,” but only if you really will fol­low up. Mean­while, acknowl­edge that a par­tic­i­pant in your group may well have the infor­ma­tion you lack. Don’t be afraid to ask. Doing so helps you build com­mu­nity with your participants.

2. Will­ing­ness To Have Fun
The more pre­pared you feel with your con­tent and train­ing struc­ture, (attrib­utes #1 and #3,) the more fun you’ll have.

But you must also exam­ine your beliefs about peo­ple. Do you feel they are mainly a drag, or do you find them inter­est­ing and quirky? Do you like your­self? Are you accept­ing or judg­men­tal? Your under­ly­ing beliefs about your­self and oth­ers either boost or impede your level of relax­ation and abil­ity to have fun in the train­ing role.

It’s worth your time to exam­ine your phi­los­o­phy of teach­ing. Do you buy into a “boot camp” men­tal­ity? Alter­na­tively, do you feel over­sen­si­tive to stu­dents’ needs? Heighten your aware­ness of your phi­los­o­phy and actions, and then make changes if needed. Fun will follow!

3. Use of a Well-Structured Train­ing Design
Here are three guide­lines to ensure your train­ing archi­tec­ture is sound:

–Never orga­nize your train­ing ses­sion using Pow­er­Point.
–Care­fully and thought­fully develop learn­ing out­comes. Orga­nize all your con­tent to achieve them.
–No mat­ter how expe­ri­enced a trainer you are, take a basic class in course design. It may chal­lenge they way you think about training!

It’s always good to re-visit the essen­tials; all Super Train­ers do. Inte­grate these Top Three into your train­ing, and you’ll find your­self among the greats!

Boost your Train­ing Skills. See free newslet­ters full of tips and tech­niques for improved train­ing: http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs071/1101469784148/archive/1101880413533.html

Guila Muir is the pre­miere trainer of train­ers, facil­i­ta­tors, and pre­sen­ters on the West Coast of the United States. Since 1994, she has helped thou­sands of pro­fes­sion­als improve their train­ing, facil­i­ta­tion, and pre­sen­ta­tion skills. Find out how she can help trans­form you from a bor­ing expert to a great pre­sen­ter: www.guilamuir.com

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How to Build a Course: Instructional Design Made Easy

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

Have you been charged with devel­op­ing either an on-site or online course for other employ­ees? Do you feel like a deer in the head­lights? What should you do first?

Instruc­tional design means sim­ply “the abil­ity to develop a course that changes people’s behav­ior.” You’ll use the same basic rules to develop a course whether you are teach­ing in-person or online.

These three steps will help you build a strong, effec­tive blue­print for your course.

1.  Develop a pur­pose statement.

State in clear lan­guage who your audi­ence is and what the topic is. The state­ment should be fairly broad. Here are examples:

“The pur­pose of this train­ing ses­sion is to help front-line super­vi­sors write e-mails more clearly and concisely.”

“The pur­pose of this train­ing ses­sion is to teach clients how to use to use Calypso effectively.”

“The pur­pose of this train­ing ses­sion is to improve the pre­sen­ta­tion skills of account­ing professionals.”

2. Ask your­self, “What will the learn­ers be able to DO by the end of this session?”

Keep in mind the length of your ses­sion. As an exam­ple, let’s say that the first exam­ple above is a two-hour course. You might say:

By the end of this ses­sion, front-line super­vi­sors will be able to:

1.    Explain at least five eti­quette rules for writ­ing clear e-mails.

2.    Cor­rect basic punc­tu­a­tion in sev­eral e-mails, and be able to describe the rules used.

3.    Com­pose and send an e-mail that inte­grates these eti­quette and punc­tu­a­tion rules.

These state­ments are called learn­ing objec­tives, or learn­ing out­comes. They act as “buck­ets” for your con­tent. By fig­ur­ing these out early on, it becomes very clear what your con­tent should be.

Brain­storm as many ideas, top­ics, and activ­i­ties as you can to fit into each bucket. Then select ONLY the two to three most impor­tant top­ics and/or activ­i­ties within each bucket.

This is your content—nothing more. (At this point, it’s impor­tant to remem­ber the adage: Less is more!)

Flesh out what you will say and do for each of the top­ics and activ­i­ties you iden­ti­fied. Don’t stray out­side the buck­ets you have chosen!

3. Cre­ate a test for each bucket.

Cre­at­ing sim­ple tests allows you to check how well learn­ers are absorb­ing the infor­ma­tion. It also allows you to develop inter­est­ing and rel­e­vant learn­ing activities.

To cre­ate a test, sim­ply take your “buck­ets” and turn them into ques­tions or activ­i­ties. For the exam­ple we have been using, this might mean:

(For bucket #1 above:) Ask: “What are at least five eti­quette rules for writ­ing clear e-mails?” (Learn­ers can work together to reflect on the answers, indi­vid­u­ally write them down and dis­cuss with a neigh­bor, use the chat box if online…)

(For bucket #2 above:) Pro­vide sev­eral e-mails with incor­rect punc­tu­a­tion and instruct the learn­ers to cor­rect them, then call on var­i­ous learn­ers to describe the rules used (can be done both in class­room and on-line.)

(For bucket #3 above:) Request that the learn­ers com­pose and send you an e-mail that inte­grates these rules, then pro­vide quick reminders and feedback.

Instruc­tional design isn’t dif­fi­cult. How­ever, it does demand that you cre­ate a clear blueprint…and think in terms of buckets!

For more infor­ma­tion on course design, see our blog entries at http://www.guilamuir.com/category/blog/training-development/.

For a longer ver­sion of this arti­cle, see http://www.guilamuir.com/blog/the-seven-laws-of-training-what-managers-must-know/.

Learn the secrets and skills of course design! http://www.guilamuir.com/courses/train-the-trainer/instructional-design-made-easy/

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Does Smiling Help or Hurt Presenters?

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011

The actual answer to this ques­tion, based upon many stud­ies and years of research, is “it depends.”

How Smil­ing Helps

The act of smil­ing changes our brain chem­istry for the bet­ter. An authen­tic smile can:

  • Boost mood and con­fi­dence by increas­ing sero­tonin, nor­ep­i­neph­rine and endorphins.
  • Lower heart rate, and
  • Reduce anx­i­ety.

These chem­i­cal changes obvi­ously ben­e­fit pre­sen­ters.

An authen­tic smile also makes other peo­ple feel good. An audi­ence that feels good makes our job as pre­sen­ters eas­ier. In fact, when peo­ple see a smile, the reward cen­ters of their brains turns on, mak­ing them hap­pier. Who doesn’t want a happy audience?

So what could pos­si­bly be the down side of smiling?

How Smil­ing Hurts

Among pri­mates, smil­ing means sub­mis­sion, “I am not a threat.” We humans still read smil­ing this way. Over­smil­ing makes you appear less con­fi­dent and more desirous of approval. (NOT how you want to be per­ceived as a presenter!)

Most stud­ies find that in gen­eral, women smile more than men. In fact, research involv­ing nearly 110,000 peo­ple found that smil­ing is females’ default option.  Audi­ences may per­ceive a con­stantly smil­ing female pre­sen­ter as less com­pe­tent and knowl­edge­able than a less-smiling female or a male. But males can over­smile, too.

To Smile or Not to Smile?

Here’s how I would answer that ques­tion. Before pre­sent­ing, pre­pare yourself:

1. Pump up your enjoy­ment level. Tell your­self, “I will enjoy this,” or “I feel great,” or “the audi­ence is my friend.” Allow your­self to feel positive.

2. Feel an authen­tic smile engen­dered by pos­i­tive thoughts. Feel­ing 100% present, smile as you intro­duce your­self and take own­er­ship of the pre­sen­ta­tion space.

3. Grad­u­ally and nat­u­rally, let your intro­duc­tory (and authen­tic) smile fade as you get fur­ther into the material.

4. Be will­ing to smile and laugh nat­u­rally through­out your pre­sen­ta­tion. Always smile when wel­com­ing peo­ple back from a break.

The bot­tom line is, as usual: Be your­self, with an adden­dum: Watch your smiles!

Learn about Guila Muir’s Pre­sen­ta­tion Skills Workshops.

Guila Muir is the pre­miere trainer of train­ers, facil­i­ta­tors, and pre­sen­ters on the West Coast of the United States. Since 1994, she has helped thou­sands of pro­fes­sion­als improve their train­ing, facil­i­ta­tion, and pre­sen­ta­tion skills. Find out how she can help trans­form you from a bor­ing expert to a great pre­sen­ter: www.guilamuir.com

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3 Rules for Excellent Presentations

Friday, November 26th, 2010

I was excited to find John Medina’s great book, Brain Rules, in the San Fran­cisco air­port book­store in 2009. The book is incred­i­bly read­able and valu­able to train­ers and pre­sen­ters. I was thrilled most of all to see that Med­ina pro­vides research to sup­port 3 rules I’ve shared in my Train the Trainer classes for years.

1. Pro­vide the gist, the core con­cept, first.

Ver­bal­ize and show your session’s pur­pose within the first few min­utes of your pre­sen­ta­tion or train­ing. Med­ina claims that you will see a 40% improve­ment in under­stand­ing if you pro­vide gen­eral con­cepts first.

2. Give an overview of the class at the begin­ning, and sprin­kle lib­eral rep­e­ti­tions of ‘where we are now’ through­out.

Pro­vide clear tran­si­tions and sum­maries through­out your ses­sion. Clearly and repet­i­tively explain linkages.

3. Bait the hook.

Every ten min­utes, Med­ina gives his audi­ences a break from the fire­hose of infor­ma­tion by send­ing “emo­tion­ally com­pe­tent stim­uli” (yet another word for ‘hook.’) A hook can be a sur­pris­ing fact, anec­dote, or ques­tion, and must must trig­ger an emo­tion: anx­i­ety, laugh­ter, nos­tal­gia, etc. It must also be rel­e­vant. Use hooks at the begin­ning of each module.

Research sug­gests that by using these skills, you will pre­vent your audi­ences from “check­ing out” dur­ing your pre­sen­ta­tion.  Not only that, but these 3 tips will enable  you to enjoy pre­sent­ing more. Have fun!

Learn about Train­ing Devel­op­ment. Read more arti­cles about train­ing.

Guila Muir has helped thou­sands of pro­fes­sion­als improve their train­ing, facil­i­ta­tion, and pre­sen­ta­tion skills. Find out how she can help trans­form you from a bor­ing expert to a great pre­sen­ter: www.guilamuir.com

© 2010 Guila Muir. All rights reserved.
You may make copies of this arti­cle and dis­trib­ute in any media so long as you change noth­ing, credit the author, and include this copy­right notice and web address.

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Sharpen Your Training Brain

Wednesday, October 6th, 2010

As a trainer, do you strug­gle men­tally as you develop a new course? Are you ever “stuck” when you try to think of ways to improve your class?

There is a sci­en­tif­i­cally sound way to boost your brain power, pick up your energy, and improve your focus as a trainer. Although it’s very com­pli­cated and takes years of school­ing and prac­tice (Ha!), any­one can do it. The sci­en­tific cure to your fuzzy brain is to go out­side.

In a world where many peo­ple suf­fer from Nature Deficit Dis­or­der (go ahead, look it up) the sci­ence is clear. Merely see­ing nature makes you health­ier, even it you view it through a win­dow.1 Get­ting out into the nat­ural world is even bet­ter. Many stud­ies con­firm that sim­ply by going out­side, you pos­i­tively impact your blood pres­sure, cho­les­terol, stress, and out­look on life.2

What do these find­ings have to do with train­ing? Here are my thoughts on the matter.

  • Slug­gish brains make slug­gish train­ing. Wake your­self up by tak­ing a quick walk.
  • You bring an “incom­plete self” into train­ing when you feel sep­a­rate from the nat­ural world. Call it integrity, holism, spir­i­tu­al­ity or syn­the­sis, you owe it to your­self and to your par­tic­i­pants to be your “whole self” when edu­cat­ing others.
  • Walk­ing in nature makes you smarter. An exper­i­men­tal study showed that peo­ple who walk in nature per­form cog­ni­tive tasks 20% bet­ter than those who walk in an urban set­ting.3 Don’t you want to main­tain that men­tal edge in front of your class?

Get out, walk, and enjoy…your train­ing will improve as a result. You can count on it!

1. Kaplan, 1992a; Lewis, 1996; Leather et al., 1998

2. Moore, 1981; Kaplan and Kaplan, 1989; Har­tig et al., 1991; Ulrich et al., 1991a; Rohde and Kendle, 1994; Lewis, 1996; Leather et al., 1998

3. Berman, Jonides, Kaplan, 2008

Learn about Train­ing Devel­op­ment. Read more arti­cles about train­ing.

Guila Muir is the pre­miere trainer of train­ers, facil­i­ta­tors, and pre­sen­ters on the West Coast of the United States. Since 1994, she has helped thou­sands of pro­fes­sion­als improve their train­ing, facil­i­ta­tion, and pre­sen­ta­tion skills. Find out how she can help trans­form you from a bor­ing expert to a great pre­sen­ter: www.guilamuir.com

© 2010 Guila Muir. All rights reserved.
You may make copies of this arti­cle and dis­trib­ute in any media so long as you change noth­ing, credit the author, and include this copy­right notice and web address.

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Presentation Skills: How to Prevent “Drowning”

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

These skills will keep you afloat.

There are many par­al­lels between swim­ming in open water (the Eng­lish call it “wild swim­ming”) and giv­ing a great pre­sen­ta­tion. These skills will keep you afloat, no mat­ter how choppy the water.

Note: This is an abridged ver­sion of a pop­u­lar 2007 arti­cle.

1. Be totally present.
When I swim, my focus is com­pletely on what I’m doing. I’m not think­ing about any­thing except mov­ing for­ward. I am aware of each stroke, and often “course-correct” when I feel my form get­ting lazy.

Great pre­sen­ters have this same focus. They inhabit their bod­ies. They don’t wish they were some­where else, doing some­thing else. They totally com­mit to the activ­ity of presenting.

2. Ignore the envi­ron­ment at your own risk.
The minute I enter the open water, I begin a wilder­ness adven­ture. Unlike a pool, open water offers sea­weed, sea ani­mals, hid­den objects, float­ing logs, jel­ly­fish, cur­rents, waves, swells, and…well, you get the difference.

If I swim blindly, I may run into some­thing. This hap­pened recently to a co-swimmer who was so focused on win­ning our race that he ran into a sub­merged pil­ing and broke his nose.

Pre­sen­ters, too, can “break their noses” by bar­rel­ing along with lit­tle sen­si­tiv­ity to the envi­ron­ment. Envi­ron­men­tal input takes many forms, includ­ing dis­in­ter­ested or enthu­si­as­tic par­tic­i­pants, room acoustics, heck­lers, heat or cold, and ambi­ent noise. Pre­sen­ters who shut them­selves off from this input risk fail­ure. Great pre­sen­ters retain their sen­si­tiv­ity to the envi­ron­ment, with­out let­ting it over­whelm them.

3. Dis­cov­ery is key.
While swim­ming, I have dis­cov­ered iri­des­cent sea­weed, a Weber grill, and curi­ous seals with puppy faces. I have also dis­cov­ered my own phys­i­cal lim­its. Every time I swim, I dis­cover some­thing new, even if it is just the way the sun shines through the water (or not).

Great pre­sen­ters do this too. No mat­ter how many times they’ve given a pre­sen­ta­tion, they dis­cover new ways of say­ing things. They may develop new hand­outs or slides, or develop new ques­tions to ask the audi­ence. Bor­ing pre­sen­ters are those who never risk dis­cov­er­ing new ways to present.

Take these lessons to heart. When you invest your­self totally in the act of pre­sent­ing, it all becomes easy. You’ll glide through your pre­sen­ta­tion like a fish.

Read more arti­cles about Pre­sen­ta­tion Skills. Learn about Guila Muir’s Pre­sen­ta­tion Skills Workshops.

Guila Muir is the pre­miere trainer of train­ers, facil­i­ta­tors, and pre­sen­ters on the West Coast of the United States. Since 1994, she has helped thou­sands of pro­fes­sion­als improve their train­ing, facil­i­ta­tion, and pre­sen­ta­tion skills. Find out how she can help trans­form you from a bor­ing expert to a great pre­sen­ter: www.guilamuir.com

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Perfect Presentations: What Not to Wear

Sunday, August 15th, 2010

How to dress for cred­i­bil­ity, while remain­ing true to yourself.

What to wear for a per­fect pre­sen­ta­tion? As you design and pol­ish your speech, devel­op­ing visual aids and hand­outs, this ques­tion may fall into the back­ground until dan­ger­ously close to the pre­sen­ta­tion. Sud­denly, you look up: “Yikes! What am I going to wear?”

Your appear­ance impacts your cred­i­bil­ity as a speaker. Don’t leave it to chance, and don’t wait until the last minute to decide what to wear. Just think of prepar­ing your appear­ance as part of your over­all speech prepa­ra­tion. Here are my favorite, pos­si­bly com­pet­ing, guidelines:

  • Stay authen­tic.
  • Dress like your audi­ence– but one step better.

Stay Authen­tic: Within rea­son, your attire must express who you are. If you feel like you’re wear­ing some­one else’s cos­tume, your ver­bal mes­sage may not ring true.

Dress Like Your Audi­ence, But One Step Bet­ter: Appear­ing sim­i­lar to, but slightly more dressed up than your lis­ten­ers con­veys respect both for them and for your sub­ject. It enhances your credibility.

Use these five tips as a guide to dress­ing for cred­i­bil­ity, while remain­ing true to yourself.

1.  Wear well-made and well-maintained clothing.

Granted, no one will be check­ing your clothing’s seams or labels. But image con­sul­tants coun­sel that your audi­ence can tell if you’re wear­ing a cheaply made dress or suit. You can prob­a­bly feel it, too. Whether you choose to look con­ser­v­a­tive or cre­ative, wear well-made cloth­ing made from high-quality fab­ric. Avoid linen and other easily-wrinkled material.

2.  Pay atten­tion to details.

Even if your audi­ence won’t see your shoes, make sure they are pol­ished and that the heels are secure. Men should have a recent hair­cut and trimmed facial hair. Search for loose threads or inop­por­tune gaps between buttons.

3.  Wear your “Con­fi­dent Clothes.“

Wear some­thing that makes you feel sprightly and ener­gized. This could mean stick­ing to the tried-and-true, so long as it’s one step above your audi­ence and expresses your per­son­al­ity. Use a solid color that suits you near your face. (How do you know which col­ors suit you? Ask one of your color-savvy friends.)

4.  Make sure it’s comfortable.

You are NOT allowed to tug at or re-arrange your clothes while pre­sent­ing. Wear your out­fit around the house a few days before your pre­sen­ta­tion to ensure that you can move com­fort­ably. Then put your out­fit aside, includ­ing all under­wear, jew­elry and shoes, and go back to prep­ping your speech.

5. Dress to look taller.

Con­sider wear­ing a solid color for both pieces of your out­fit. This will help you appear taller and help you tap into the “Inten­si­fied You.”

So—to pull together both my responses to the ques­tion “What should I wear?” I leave you with these words: Let your per­son­al­ity shine through even as you “fit in” with each spe­cific audience.

Read more arti­cles about Pre­sen­ta­tion Skills. Learn about Guila Muir’s Pre­sen­ta­tion Skills Workshops.

Guila Muir is the pre­miere trainer of train­ers, facil­i­ta­tors, and pre­sen­ters on the West Coast of the United States. Since 1994, she has helped thou­sands of pro­fes­sion­als improve their train­ing, facil­i­ta­tion, and pre­sen­ta­tion skills. Find out how she can help trans­form you from a bor­ing expert to a great pre­sen­ter: www.guilamuir.com

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Wild Classroom: How to Prevent the Chaos

Thursday, May 6th, 2010

Have you ever wor­ried about your par­tic­i­pants going wild, tun­ing out, or exhibit­ing other poten­tially dis­rup­tive behav­iors? The con­cept of “class­room man­age­ment” will help.

Good class­room man­age­ment is the abil­ity to run your train­ing ses­sions smoothly. Research shows that good class­room man­age­ment enables stu­dents to learn and retain more.

Sur­pris­ingly, research also shows that good class­room man­age­ment has noth­ing to do with the trainer’s per­son­al­ity, or even whether par­tic­i­pants like the trainer. Rather, it has every­thing to do with the trainer’s behaviors–how you act in the classroom.

Dom­i­nance and Cooperation

Research shows that a trainer keeps con­trol of the class­room by exhibit­ing appro­pri­ate lev­els of both dom­i­nance and coop­er­a­tion.

Dom­i­nance

A trainer’s dom­i­nance doesn’t mean force­ful com­mand and con­trol. Instead, edu­ca­tional researchers define appro­pri­ate dom­i­nance as the trainer’s abil­ity to pro­vide clear pur­pose, strong guid­ance, and con­se­quences for unac­cept­able behavior.

Think of the best class­room expe­ri­ences you have had, either as a trainer or as a par­tic­i­pant. Did the trainer set out clear goals for the ses­sion? Were expec­ta­tions about behav­ior clear? Did the trainer pro­vide clear instruc­tions, both visu­ally and verbally?

It’s impor­tant to use assertive body lan­guage. Main­tain an erect pos­ture. Speak delib­er­ately and clearly, espe­cially in the face of inap­pro­pri­ate behav­ior. Keep your cool.

Very rarely, a trainer must ask a par­tic­i­pant to leave the ses­sion because of behav­ior that is imped­ing the learn­ing of oth­ers. This con­se­quence is at the far end of the con­tin­uum of class­room man­age­ment. In more than twenty years as a pro­fes­sional trainer, I have never had to take this step.

Coop­er­a­tion

Coop­er­a­tion is char­ac­ter­ized by a con­cern for the needs and opin­ions of oth­ers. Whereas dom­i­nance focuses on the trainer as the dri­ving force in the class­room, coop­er­a­tion high­lights a sense of team­work between trainer and participants.

Often, a trainer mod­els coop­er­a­tion by ask­ing what par­tic­i­pants want to get out of the ses­sion, and then inte­grat­ing these ele­ments into the les­son plan. Coop­er­a­tion involves other aspects as well, including:

  • Tak­ing a per­sonal and authen­tic inter­est in participants.
  • Learn­ing about par­tic­i­pants’ inter­ests and pas­sions out­side of class.
  • Talk­ing infor­mally before and after class.
  • Greet­ing each par­tic­i­pant by name.

You can also demon­strate your inter­est in non-verbal ways. These include mak­ing eye con­tact with every­one, mov­ing toward the par­tic­i­pants, and ensur­ing the seat­ing arrange­ment allows clear and easy ways to move around the room.

Good Class­room Man­age­ment: Just a Set of Behaviors

There have been many quests for the essen­tial traits that make a teacher great, and each quest has come up empty-handed. Accord­ing to a spe­cial report in the New York Times, exten­sive research shows that nei­ther an extro­verted per­son­al­ity, polite­ness, con­fi­dence, warmth, or enthu­si­asm make a great trainer.

How­ever, the edu­ca­tional researcher Doug Lemov has iden­ti­fied one trait that sep­a­rates great train­ers from the rest: good class­room man­age­ment. Lemov dis­cov­ered that what looks like natural-born teach­ing genius is often delib­er­ate tech­nique in disguise.

It all boils down to two sets of behav­iors on your part. By bal­anc­ing your dom­i­nant behav­iors with your coop­er­a­tive behav­iors as a trainer, you’ll cre­ate an envi­ron­ment that encour­ages learn­ing and is pleas­ant for all. Have fun!

Read more arti­cles about Train­ing Devel­op­ment. Learn about Guila Muir’s Trainer Devel­op­ment Workshops.

Guila Muir is the pre­miere trainer of train­ers, facil­i­ta­tors, and pre­sen­ters on the West Coast of the United States. Since 1994, she has helped thou­sands of pro­fes­sion­als improve their train­ing, facil­i­ta­tion, and pre­sen­ta­tion skills. Find out how she can help trans­form you from a bor­ing expert to a great pre­sen­ter: www.guilamuir.com

© 2010 Guila Muir. All rights reserved.
You may make copies of this arti­cle and dis­trib­ute in any media so long as you change noth­ing, credit the author, and include this copy­right notice and web address.

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