This article will not touch on trainers’ technical skills, nor will it focus on the content that trainers use. This article is about trainers themselves, and what competencies they need to bring to the table to deliver robust, engaging and retention-driven training.

Humans have always trained other humans. None of us showed up fully competent one day in and of ourselves, with all our competencies and skills at 100%. We are all a product of our relationships and experiences with others, and it was those experiences and people that built those competencies within us.

As an analogy, we might have eaten all the meals we’ve ever had, but we didn’t cook them all, we didn’t formulate all the ingredients, and we didn’t build the table and chairs that we sat on while we ate. We are a product of others’ competencies and skills. As a trainer, take that accountability and opportunity to heart: Your learners are a product of you.

That accountability includes supporting learners’ development, guiding them through the consequences of failure, celebrating the excitement of success, and helping them achieve self-actualized growth. That is the pinnacle of what we can do as trainers, versus the least of what we can do, which is to offer two-dimensional “information dumps” that result in little retention or integration of information, and thus, little connection to a successful business outcome.

If you consider the feedback you’d rather receive after training, what would you prefer:

This:

• The training was lackluster, had too many analytics, didn’t seem practiced and was clunky.

Or this:

• They took time to answer questions, really knew their stuff and had passion.

• The trainer was super engaging and inclusive of everyone. It was awesome!

• I appreciated the trainer leading so much open discussion; that helped to put what was taught into easy context.

It’s an obvious choice, right? Notice that the feedback is centered around not the technical aspects of training so much as the relational and internal qualities of trainers, themselves. This is important to note because, with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and automated self-directed learning, most of the focus has been on the technical aspects of training and instruction.

However, the humans who train humans must still have competencies within themselves to produce the next generation of a self-actualized and highly productive workforce that not only is concerned with the success of a business but is also concerned with the success of their own development and understanding.

The first of these competencies that trainers should possess is charisma; not the antiquated definition of charisma associated with smarminess and negative manipulation in any way. Instead, we mean an ability to attract the attention and the admiration of learners — and that is tied to empathy. Charisma is linked to inspiring a genuine fascination with learning and development (L&D). It also involves motivating others to embrace lifelong learning and approach their long-term growth in a thoughtful, holistic way. Yes, you may be training employees for a given job role, but you are also peripherally training them for the future of their life and career.

Remember that you are instilling and teaching vocational values, so ensure that your charisma holds a second competency: the ability to create a safe space. Because nobody stretches out and incorporates workplace values when they don’t feel truly empowered and in charge of their own value development. Make sure you can create a safe space that holds constant at a level where people can embrace new challenges, difficulties and complexities. Learning rarely happens effectively outside of such a supportive environment.

Another competency L&D professionals need is a deep ability to transfer knowledge through analogies and metaphors. There is no better way to engage different world views and perspectives than getting people to understand what you’re presenting through their own mind’s eye. Having the competency of analogy means that you can filter your information through the thought processes of learners in real time using examples from your own perspectives and experiences.

As an extension of using analogies and metaphors, building perspective through conversational engagement is also extremely important when training others. This includes exploring side discussions effectively and getting back on track as many times as is necessary, as well as dealing well with excessive questioning and even traversing arguments. It can be extremely engaging and effective to allow people to come to your training’s conclusions by allowing these avenues of learning.

Yet another competency L&D professionals need to develop is the ability to speak quickly and accessibly, limiting excessive repetition and striving to eliminate as many “um’s” and “ah’s” as possible. Learners often experience training where the facilitator did not get through everything they were supposed to because of their own non-directed, poorly paced speech patterns.

Another common issue is reading off training materials word for word, which is a frequent complaint from learners. This approach is not only boring and disengaging, but it can also signal that you may not be a subject matter expert (SME) or that you’re not confident enough with the material to adapt it to learners’ needs and reinforce their understanding. In other words, don’t equate your value as a trainer with the knowledge you hold. Knowledge is just content, and content alone won’t carry you. No matter how engaging or well-structured it is, if you lack true training competency, you risk delivering nothing more than the dreaded information dump.

Lastly, be responsible and take accountability for ensuring that your learners don’t over-rely on AI-driven training to the point where they lose self-agency and the ability to break down problems, analyze information and critically evaluate data. AI and automated learning can certainly be a tool, but it can’t replace human competencies.

The GPS Analogy

As AI-generated training is everywhere, you must actively ensure that learners don’t fall into cognitive outsourcing or lose their personal agency.

Take the example of using a GPS. By constantly using it without ever looking at your path in real time or studying a map, you’ll get to where you’re headed, but all the while you are forgoing the building of the mental map of your surroundings, your path and all the component structures passing by, including where and how you fit within those structures. So, you get to where you are going without ever bringing yourself along. The result is a loss of personal agency and cognitive outsourcing. You end up functioning like a reference machine at work, relying on AI to get things done rather than truly understanding how to use it as a tool to supplement your competencies and skill set. Trainers are the line of defense in managing this.

Conclusion

To summarize the key points outlined:

• If you want to see learner engagement, be engaging.
• To cultivate a sense of value and capability in learners, demonstrate it in your approach.

To encourage exploration, discovery, and growth, embody those qualities throughout your training.

Ultimately, we have plenty of measurables we ask our learners to meet. But here’s a measurable for us trainers: Facilitating training is an athletic event. If you’re not tired afterwards, it likely wasn’t truly training, it was just an information dump. Trainers owe much energy to their learners; embrace this responsibility and take positive accountability for it.