I have been speaking to a few clients recently, and last night, I heard for the latest time, one singular comment about 'trainers' in the industry.
The issue is, young trainers, fresh from university, who have good counselling, facilitation or training skills, but have little or no work experience (meaning, they graduated without ever working for a medium-sized or large organisation).
Thus, when participants in their programs talk about the common issues they encounter in their workspace, the trainer finds it difficult to understand and connect. Among others, it is claimed that these trainers don't know what the following are:
- Travel, time & expense claims
- Functions of Finance and Human Resources departments
- Differentiation between operations, middle management and C-suite
- Office politics & conflicts
- Performance appraisals
- Process inefficiencies
and so many more.
If you feel you're in the situation above, here are some options I would suggest:
- Work in a multinational corporation for at least 5 years before venturing out into independent business, or
- Get coaching from learning facilitators, coaches or trainers experienced in the matter
- Be up to date on the latest global and local corporate trends by subscribing to relevant online newsletters and websites and constantly discuss these with friends who are working in those industries. Fahmi and Maria might suggest a few.
- Develop a view/ opinion on any industry trends or issues from your own perspectives to make your service relevant to your clients' situations
- Be prepared to learn and grow from your participants by listening and recording their concerns for research later. Every company is different, with different terminologies, but you will recognise similar organisational and administration themes
