How to Remind Yourself of What You Really Believe
Written by Jerry Roberts. Follow me on Twitter.
Management

I remember the first time I heard the line, “Those who can, do, and those who can’t, teach” — and I thought it was a strange viewpoint. Why can’t teachers “do” and “doers” teach? The truth is that they can, but the reality is it doesn’t happen as often as it should in a meaningful way.
I‘m a bit unique in the world of trainers who lead courses on management and leadership, in that I actually own a small company that has nothing to do with the training business. Our little group is primarily involved in publishing, and it’s where we earn the lion’s share of our living. We’ve been at it for over 13 years.
Most trainers are completely occupied with either training people or trying to sell training. They don’t deal much with a real workplace and real workers.
The experience helps
Because I do lead a real team it has helped me to relate to other managers and leaders, and be much more effective in working with them on their own issues. They know that I’ve walked a similar path.
Most of my training courses are one-day sessions or shorter. Budgets and time considerations have resulted in organizations requesting shorter workshops, and I’m accustomed to it. There’s certainly an advantage in conducting a half-day class and getting home early in time to play with my son.
Then I accepted an offer to conduct a three-day management workshop. While I had specialized in certain elements of supervisory and leadership training, I had never led a comprehensive A to Z course. For many years we had hired outside trainers to do that type of course while I focused on the niches I enjoyed, and ran the company.
Whoops, we’ve hit a snag
When I looked at the course materials that had been produced by one of those trainers I was disappointed. It was clear that I had to remake them. Not just the workbook, but the ideas that were contained within. It would require a total makeover.
I threw away the existing course and built it from the ground up — a dozen modules and over 20 hours of instruction — finishing five days before the course was to be delivered. It had taken me almost three weeks to complete the job.
Though I was drained physically, I was energized on another level. Rebuilding the course had forced me to revisit all the things I knew and believed about the diverse functions of leading and managing a team of workers.
I needed to dig in and focus on what really works when it comes to:
- communicating with a multi-generational workforce
- getting them engaged and willing to contribute
- achieving complete buy-in
- managing performance
- helping team members grow
and everything else a supervisor has to do or deal with.
Solutions in — theory out
These had to be real world solutions because that’s all I deal in. Many trainers without direct supervisory experience live in the “theory world” and spout the latest work of some management guru, but they have little or no idea of how it plays on the front line. Fortunately for them, very few organizations ever question their practical experience and just hire them.
People today want solutions that can be easily applied and that work. They’re not much interested in theory. They need to get from Point A to Point B quickly, and that’s what organizations are hiring trainers for.
So what did the three weeks accomplish?
I had to face off with my personal experiences and beliefs, and how would those match up to the usual ideas that trainers offered in management courses.
When it came to communicating, delegating, getting buy-in, growing talent, ramping up performance levels and all the rest in those 12 modules — what did I truly believe? What really works? What ideas could the participants have confidence in and go back to implement?
I’ll cut to the chase. The three-day course was a success. Not because the supervisors who attended learned all brand new and better ways to do all the things listed above, but because they absorbed and accepted a new and different perspective on how to do them while building people up and creating a workplace that people would have to be dragged from, kicking and screaming.
When you run your plans and decisions through that kind of filter, the kinds of changes that get produced can be extraordinary.
It’s been said that the only reason to give a speech is to change the world. I feel the same way about my training workshops.
Otherwise, why do them?
Here’s how a trainer gets paid
The real thrill for a trainer is to see people achieve breakthroughs that both they and their boss may have never thought possible. You know it when it happens and there’s very little that compares with that.
For me there was another level of excitement. I had come face to face with myself and I had been reminded of the core beliefs I hold near and dear. It was a terrific experience.
If it’s been years since you “checked under the hood,” I whole heartedly recommend it. Even if you’re not a trainer I encourage you to work with your team and let them know how you feel about the workplace. Tell them your philosophy, and listen to theirs. Everybody should come away having learned something.
“Doers” should teach. Somebody else needs that perspective, honed by your experience.
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