Overnight Success

Too often we hear people talk about ‘overnight successes’ in music, business or some other endeavor. We even hear about it in regards to trainers. The reality is that there is no such thing as an overnight success. If you look at the most successful people in any field they achieved that through years of training, preparation and effort. As Malcolm Gladwell points out in his book The Outliers, this is usually around 10,000 hours of dedicated practice over a period of 6 to 10 years before people get to the point where they have achieved the success and recognition. Gladwell also points out that there are usually some circumstances at play that influence that success. For Susan Boyle those circumstances were her making it on stage for Britain’s got talent.

So why am I talking about Susan Boyle in an Excellence in Training blog? Because it needs to be the goal of all of us to achieve that level of accomplishment as trainers. Now I am not talking about a goal of international fame, that may be a side benefit but it is not the goal. What I am talking about is making the commitment of years and thousands of hours of dedicated practice to ensure that you become the best trainer you can be and therefore provide the best possible training for your officers.

In addition to the hours of dedicated practice I encourage you to write articles, have them edited by someone who will be honest with you, then submit them to your association magazine or newsletter, or one of the many trade periodicals or websites. Understand you may get rejected once or twice. That happens to all of us and simply is all part of the process and the experience.

I also encourage you to attend conferences such as Legacy of Excellence, ILEETA and IALEFI and take in as many presentations as possible. Become a student of presenting and speaking. Once you have been to a few conferences then submit an instructor proposal. ILEETA and IALEFI have instructor proposal forms on line that you can complete and submit. You may not get accepted the first time you submit but keep on submitting.

Why do I encourage trainers to write articles and submit proposals for conferences? here are some benefits:

• Writing and speaking outside your immediate agency or academy forces you to study and master your subject to a whole new level.
• It improves your writing skills.
• It improves your speaking skills.
• You learn a great deal from the feedback you get.
• It allows you to share thoughts, insights and tips that may improve someone else’s program or may even save someone’s life.
• Those who teach learn.
• Those who teach their peers learn even more.
• Conferences will usually waive your attendance fee if you speak so it may mean that you can attend one additional conference a year.
• It will expand the network of people you can go to when you have a problem and need some insight or advice.
• You will learn from reading what others are writing and from attending other people’s presentations.

Now that you have finished reading this week’s blog you can search the internet and listen to Susan sing if you have not already done so.

Take care.