The World According to Mitch

Every technical instructor I know has often been asked, ‘What is the best way to pass the exam?’ While we likely all have different answers, but I think we can all agree that the best way to pass an exam is to know the material.

Why is it then that so many people ask ‘What is the best way to teach the class?’ The simple answer is that you have to know the material! I do not mean that you just need to study a script… teaching a course is not an acting role. You need to:

• Know the courseware very well.
• Know all of the products and techniques that will be covered… very well.
• ​Have excellent technical presentation skills.
• Have real-world experience working with the systems that are covered in the course.
• Listen to your students, and answer their questions honestly… which includes admitting when you do not know the answer.

There is more to it than that, but all of these are important… and some of them you can get from studying, but others only come from experience. You can study the slides and go through the labs and learn the courseware – and even the products that you may not know as well – and become proficient in them. However, how do you get excellent technical presentation skills? Part of it is practice, and part of it is doing it… a lot… in front of hundreds of audiences over the span of years.

How do you get real-world experience? If you are a full-time trainer then you might have trouble with this. If you are a consultant who also teaches then you should be fine.

Teaching is not a one-way monologue; we have to listen to our students and answer their questions… and it has to be done properly and respectfully. I have heard trainers interrupt their students in the middle of their question because they knew what the student was asking. That is disrespectful… the student wants to be heard, wants to be listened to… and frankly, while we might think we know the answer off the bat, every once in a while the student throws a curveball in at the end of the question which we will not know if we interrupt before they are done. Also, it astounds me that some trainers are afraid to admit when they do not know the answer… but worse, when they try to make up an answer. What a great opportunity that could be for us to say ‘Let me find out for you.’ When we do that… and when we follow up on it… then we become smarter, the student becomes smarter, and you have shown your students that you may not know all of the answers, but you are willing to find them.

How do I know all of this? It is mostly from years of making every mistake in the book. I would go into classes without studying the courseware, on products that I might not have been so proficient in, I might have had the real-world experience, but despite my speaking skills I did not always have the listening skills that were so important.

I was going to say that I think that I am a better trainer today than I was ten years ago, but that is not fair. I know I am. When I was traveling the world teaching for Microsoft, I was arrogant. I was brash. I did not know how to listen. I had all of these great certifications… and thought they were fodder for my ego. Today I know better. I still tell my students that they need to pay attention to me… but I know it is equally important that I pay attention to them. I also spend hours every week learning more because I know that I will always have a student who will ask me something and I am still afraid to say that I do not know… even though I have gotten much better at it.

Knowledge and skills can make you a good trainer. Adding experience to it can make you a better trainer. If you want to be a truly excellent trainer, you need to add humility to that mix.

Have a great weekend folks!