I was talking to a friend this morning. She recently gave a 1 hour seminar on her area of expertise.
And believe me she is an expert in that area! Fully qualified, plenty of practical experience, both as a practitioner and a consultant.
And she's not the sort of person you would expect to have confidence issues of any kind - she looks confident, expresses herself well and knows her stuff inside out.
"It was awful" she told me. "My throat dried up and I felt like I couldn't get the words out of my mouth!"
I shared with her the No.1 secret that people learn on my courses, and I'm going to share it with you!
I have recently connected on Twitter with Dr Ed Holton who is a professor of HR in the States. This led me to his blog, in which he argues passionately for more attention to be paid to how learners in the workplace transfer the benefits of their new skills so that they and their employers can benefit from it.
I think the problem is with the whole concept of training.
Tough decisions are being made all over the world at the moment. Very few managers enjoy having to cut jobs, and there's a whole profession dedicated to ensuring that when you have to outsource or when you have to make redundancies, everything is done as smoothly as possible.
Ignoring the survivors
What we sometimes ignore however is the impact of downsizing on the people who are left behind. Things would be much easier if the survivors thought: "Well, aren't I lucky! I'm really motivated to be one of those chosen to stay! I'll work really hard to rebuild my internal networks in the company!" In reality, that is a completely unreasonable expectation.
Real Teambuiding is better than Management Training
In these cash-strapped times, we need to ensure that every penny invested in developing managers is going to make a real difference. We believe that Real Teambuilding will give you more measurable benefits for your investment than conventional management skills training. Here's why:
“It was a great pleasure to work with someone who could respond to a wide variety of challenges, produce high quality materials and deliver to such a high standard. I was equally impressed with your flexible and proactive attitude”
-Carolyn Donegan, Principal, The College@Rhymney