Corporate Team Building Trainers
As corporate team building trainers, we have come across a number of people, including some of our participants, who expressed that they would love to have our jobs.
It will be a good idea to find out more about team buidling trainers before making the career switch.
Successful team building trainers come in all shapes (and sizes) but most of them have these common factors, we call it S.H.A.P.E.S.:
Sharp Observations
The role of a corporate team building trainer is to make observations. In experiential learning we help participants learn through their experiences, as well as the experiences of thier team mates. If a trainer can pick out specific behaviours to be commended and reinforced, he will be able to drive home important learning points that will stay with the participants for a long time.
Humour
No one likes to hear a boring story. Most successful corporate team building trainers are good story tellers, they are able to make a story interesting and captivating. One of the most common way to do this is the use of humour. A good sense of humour will enable a trainer to engage the audience and keep them focused while he delivers important lessons. Knowing how and when to deliver the punch line will decide whether a story or joke will sound interesting or funny. The good news is that sense of humour can be learnt; it comes with practice.
Assertive Crowd Control
Charismatic people tend to be intersting corporate team building trainers. People just like them and enjoy listening to them, even when it is their first time meeting them. However, it does not mean that charismatic trainers do not face problems conducting programmes.
There are times when we will meet one or two participants who have the A.S.D syndrome (Attention Seeking Disruption Syndrome). These are the participants that crack mindless jokes or make nonsensical comments at every sentence that you make, disrupting the flow of any programe that you are trying to conduct.
A good team building trainer will be able to assert control in this situation and still continue with programme, without making the A.S.D. participants feeling bad about the situation.
Physical Fitness
A team building trainer has to be versatile. More often than not, team building programmes are conducted outdoors. Outdoor programmes are slightly more physically demanding, even with the use of a mega phone or some sort of public address system, one has to be physically fit to be able to stand in the sun for a few hours talking and conducting games.
Eloquence (Communication with Tact)
Some people are put off by trainers who cannot speak fluent English even though they may be confident and experienced. A team building trainer who is able to speaking proper english will be able to reach out to a larger pool of audience than one who cannot. A trainer who is able to communicate tactfully will also be able to get better evaluation results and more referred business that one who is blunt.
Sell
In some occassions, clients may ask to see the trainer before the team building sesssion to get to know the trainer, as well as to see if the trainer is able to deliver the training objectives effectively. A good trainer should not only have a good track record, he has to be a persuasive seller when it comes to pre-sales interviews. He must be able to address any concerns and creatively solve any issues that the potential client raises. A sales person may be very experienced and is able to answer all the queries that a customer may have, in some cases, the customer will still request to see the trainer as they know the sales person is not the person conducting the team building training.
The team building business is a highly versatile, challenging but lucrative business (for those who excel in it). With passion, a trainer will be constantly seeking out new ideas to engage participants. Without passion, no matter how lucrative the business is, one will feel drained and dissatisfied.
Still think you want to be a team buidling trainer?
Watch this blog for our post on Anergy Franchise License (only applicable to individuals based outside Singapore, or intending to start a team building business in another country).