Excellence in Training – The Power of Respect

In my presentations I talk to law enforcement officers about the power of treating people with respect. Treating witnesses, suspects, citizens and fellow officers with respect will make you safer and more effective at your job. I also highly recommend all law enforcement officers read Unleashing the Power of Unconditional Respect By Jack Colwell and Chip Huth.

Today’s post however, is targeted at trainers and the importance of treating your audience  in training (your officers) with respect. What specifically can you do to treat your audience with respect?

1. Start and end on time. This is not always in your control as sometimes your host will want to introduce you and will determine when the training actually starts. When it is in your power start and end on time.
2. Have consistent breaks at least every 50 to 60 minutes. Just because you can stand at the front of the room and not have to pee for 3 hours does not mean your audience can sit there that long without a break and actually absorb anything you are saying.
3. Encourage questions and respect the questions that are asked. If someone has the courage to ask a question make sure you listen to the question and do your best to actually answer their question. Better yet, listen to their question and help guide them to the answer.
4. Modify your presentation for the time slot. It is frustrating for the audience to have a presenter show up for a two hour presentation with three to fours hours of material and blast through slides saying, “Sorry, don’t have time for this. I don’t have time to cover this. Don’t have time to show you this video.” If you need to skip material because you are running out of time your audience should never know it. Hide slides on the breaks if you need to, but do not disrespect the audience by showing you are either ill prepared or have misused your time. Know what the critical information in your presentation is and make sure you cover those points.
5. Remain humble by acknowledging and respecting the experience of your audience. Even if they are recruits they have life experiences, they have thoughts and they have opinions. Engage them and accept they may actually know as much, or more about the subject as you do.
6. Read the evaluations with an open mind. If you are running a multiple day course then do evaluations at the end of every day. If you are teaching a recruit class or other program that spans a number of weeks or months then do evaluations at least once a week. These evaluations will help you to identify the areas where you are not meeting their needs as a learner and modify the program as you go so they learn as much as possible.

If you respect your audience they will reciprocate. Remember, the audience is the hero of your presentation and your job is to be the wise and humble mentor.

Take care.

Brian Willis

Committed to maximizing human potential through Life’s Most Powerful Question. 

At Winning Mind Training we are driven by our dedication to inspiring the pursuit of personal excellence and our belief that every law enforcement officer deserves to experience awesome training.

If you like the Excellence in Training philosophy make sure you attend the comprehensive and one of a kind Excellence in Training Course. Check out our website at www.winningmindtraining.com for a list of upcoming dates and locations for the Excellence in Training Course.

To book Brian to speak at your event or to your officers contact him at winningmind@mac.com.