Another short tips piece from Paul Russell, this time focusing on how to be a better trainer.

Training - a necessary evil or an enhancing, uplifting experience that can improve our professional persona considerably? Well, whether it is the former or the latter depends greatly upon the skills of the course or workshop trainer. We’ve all sat through that interminable training presentation, using matchsticks and the companionable nudge of our fellow course participants to keep us awake, but how many of us have had the pleasure of being trained by a master in the arts of commanding attention, maintaining it, getting us involved in the process and keen for more, much as a rock star or theatre performer holds us in their thrall as we watch them on the stage. Here we share the five actions that top trainers use - adopt them and you too could become an outstanding trainer in front of your very own crowd.

• The best trainers are leaders; they don’t follow the same, mundane, lecture style of presenting they may have been subjected to as a student (or even in their professional lives) but strive to be different, to develop their own confident persona and style of training that is unique to them. Ask yourself, what is it that is unique to me, and how can I incorporate this into my training methods? 
• Like a performer heading onto the stage, outstanding trainers leave their shyness and doubts at the door; it doesn’t matter who you are in real life, this is an opportunity to present yourself as you wish to be perceived. The training room is your stage, so use it to surprise, delight, and above all, to keep your audience engaged (and awake).
• Outstanding trainers have a script, of course, as it would be shambles without one. But they are skilled in never making their performance feel scripted. If variety is the spice of life, then training without variety can lead to a bland and uninspired training experience. The outcome and goals along the way are clearly defined from the outset, but the top trainers are fluid about the direction they take to get there.
• The repetitive monotone is very effective- in sending delegates into a state of somnolence they are unlikely to be roused from. The inspired trainer’s approach once again lends techniques from the stage, effective use of timing, intonation, enunciation, breathing, all conspiring to ensure their presentation has an effect that is anything but soporific. Practise your delivery at home until you feel confident your spoken voice will have the impact you require.
• Participation ensures engagement. The best trainers set out their stall at the outset with a participatory activity (not necessarily long or particularly detailed) that sets the tone for the session, it says, ‘you’re here to learn and the best way of doing that is to get involved, then they pepper their course, workshop or presentation with plenty of opportunities for role play, discussion and group work. By doing this, not only do the top trainers ensure their delegates stay awake, but they provide them with the chance to practice what they have learnt.

To be an outstanding trainer is to be a performer, an educator and an observer; to understand how and when to engage, how to effectively impart knowledge and the appropriate time to do so, and when to step back and let the delegates adopt the concepts for their own. Like a stage star, the outstanding trainer ensures each delegate ear is trained to their voice and every eye is focused upon them - no matchsticks required.

Paul Russell is co-founder and director of The Luxury Academy, a multi-national private training company with offices in London and New Delhi. Paul was educated at the University of London and holds a degree in Behavioural Psychology and a Master’s Degree in Workplace Psychology.  He is currently studying for his Doctorate and hopes to achieve this in 2015.