Why oration is a must-have skill for trainers

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education”.

• Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr was an excellent orator. What makes him so, you may ask. It is because Martin Luther King Jr single handedly convinced the entire black community that they ought to stand up for their rights – only by his words, not by physical force. When a person can affect the public, especially millions of American people to such an extent by just words, he deserves to be called an excellent orator.

Much of training is conducted by oration – by speaking. Granted, there is usage of property and physical material during a training session. However, without speech, training would become a herculean task. Speaking, in its truest form appeals not just to the ear, but also to the eyes. Trainers need to keep in mind the power of oration when they are communicating with their audience. A trainer’s message – of what he/she is trying to convey to the audience is enhanced when the trainer is also a good orator. Oration goes a long way in conveying the message, through the right channel, to the desired audience.

“In making a speech one must study three points: first, the means of producing persuasion; second, the language; third the proper arrangement of the various parts of the speech.”

Aristotle

Let us look at some tips for effective oration:

1. Stop trying to be great. Trainers tend to look at videos of great orators and try to emulate them by incorporating new techniques. This must not be overdone. People want to listen to someone who is interesting, relaxed, and comfortable. Stick to the basics.

2. Don’t be scared to make mistakes. Everyone – even the greatest orators make mistakes. Mistakes are a part of learning what NOT to do next time. If there ever is a stumble, a trainer must carry on like it never happened – if he/she is confident in their recovery, then the audience tends to forget about the mistake.

3. Practice makes perfect. Every trainer must practice his material until it becomes routine. Even great speakers started out at the bottom. The amount of practice makes it seem as though they were born to speak in public. Trainers must never be afraid to try new things and practice them before showcasing it to their audience.

4. Make the audience want more. Build anticipation in your speech and make the audience want more of you. Most speeches are long and boring and are not well received. Making a speech short – a summary of whatever a trainer wants to say is perfect as it induces questions from the audience – in this case trainees. When trainees participate, their level of focus and concentration increases, thereby resulting in the message being efficiently communicated.

Good oration can help a trainer convey the message to the audience in a quicker and simpler way. After all, this is what trainers are paid to do – to effectively communicate the message from the company to the trainees.

8 things to keep in mind while receiving ‘negative’ feedback

In the previous article, we read about things to keep in mind while delivering negative feedback. If a trainer knows how to ‘dish it out’, he/she must also be ready to ‘get dished’. Negative feedback is part of every trainer’s job role. Besides the obvious criticism, it helps the trainer keep his/her foot firmly on the ground. How does it feel like to receive negative feedback from trainees and/or higher-ups? Let us now delve into the 8 things to keep in mind while receiving ‘negative’ feedback.

1. Receive feedback only when you are ready. Make sure you receive your feedback scores only when you are ready. It doesn’t make sense to receive negative feedback when you are in a vulnerable state of mind. So, hold the scores, fix a time and be mentally prepared. In case of receiving feedback from a higher-up, make sure to book an appointment as it gives you time to prepare yourself.

2. Listen carefully. When you are in a discussion about your performance (feedback), make sure you listen to every point that is being made. You may not agree with all the points but it is your duty to listen to all the speaker has to say. The next step is to mentally differentiate points into facts and opinions as the speaker is most likely to mix the two in the discussion.

3. Perception doesn’t matter. Sometimes employees complain of harsh treatment while receiving negative feedback – “it wasn’t what he said, it was the way he said it”, is one of the most common dialogues in this context. However, the way you receive the message is not important here; the message itself is. Make sure you concentrate on what is being said rather than how it is being said.

4. Don’t get defensive. When a person is providing negative feedback, saying, “You’re wrong”, will never help, even if the person is indeed wrong. Do not listen just to point out the person’s errors or spot distortions. Make sure you listen to everything that the person has to say and then analyze it, interpret it and respond accordingly.

5. Do not plan your reply. The key is to listen to the other person without planning a reply. Nod your head until the person is done and make sure not to show any emotion.

6. Ask questions. Asking questions will help ease the tension in the room. It will also eliminate the appearance of defensiveness.

7. Take your time. Once the negative feedback is delivered, ask the person for time to consider the feedback. This not only diffuses the immediate situation, but also shows that you consider the person’s feedback important enough to think and analyze the scenario in a calm fashion. Saying “I appreciate your feedback and will go through it carefully before I get back to you”, will demonstrate your seriousness.

8. Apologize. Even though it may not be your fault, always apologize. There must be a reason why the person giving you negative feedback is doing what he/she is doing. Hence, respect the person and make sure you apologize. However, never over-apologize. Remember that negative feedback and criticism are a fact of life.

Negative feedback can be tough to deal with sometimes. Everybody prefers compliments over criticism as compliments mean that you are doing something right whereas criticism means that you are going wrong somewhere. The most important thing to remember is to not avoid negative feedback but to accept it and to learn to deal with it in order to grow as an individual.

8 things to keep in mind while delivering ‘negative’ feedback

Everyone has put themselves in others’ shoes at one point in their lives and thought, “I could have done that better”. This is innate human nature. However, how do you express this particular emotion? Therein lies the problem that trainers/mid to senior level managers face in today’s corporate environment. Can trainers/managers shout at trainees/employees in order to get work done in the present day and get away with it? Perhaps, but this ‘technique’ is definitely not ideal and must never be used in the workspace. Raising your voice or taunting trainees/employees is unqualified, unprofessional and amateur. Let us now look at 8 things that trainers/managers have to keep in mind while delivering ‘negative’ feedback:

1. Make feedback a weekly routine. Whatever communication style a trainer/manager uses, if the feedback is relayed in a routine manner, the trainee/employee will expect it and hence the impact of the negative feedback is cushioned.

2. Ask for permission to give feedback. Approach the trainee/employee and inquire if the person is OK with being given feedback. This bridges the gap between the trainer/manager and the trainee/employee and allows for a free flow of communication.

3. Concentrate on what could have been done. Trainers/managers focus on the error committed by trainees/employees more often than the process of rectification of the error. Instead of stressing on the mistake, trainers/managers must always look at ways a certain task could have been accomplished and educate the trainee/employee regarding the same.

4. Never ask to alter personality. Trainers/managers must be very careful so as to not ask trainees/employees to change their personality traits. Instead, they must request them to change their behavior. For example, Trainer A must not ask Employee X to make personality changes or to “be more extroverted, more social”. The trainer must in fact concentrate on the behavioural aspects – what he/she sees or hears.

5. Do not stockpile negative feedback. Trainers/managers must not wait for the opportune moment and vent out their frustration on a trainee/employee with details of his/her past errors which were not addressed at the time. According to Kate Ludelman, “Feedback is best given real time, or immediately after the fact”.

6. Do not email negative feedback. Trainers/managers who avoid confrontation resort to using text messages or emails to convey their emotions. This must be avoided. Face-to-face conversations work better and leave no reason to be misconstrued.

7. Coach correctional behavior. Trainees/employees sometimes fail to identify and practice behavior that is originally expected from them. For example, Employee A comes in late to the organization by30 minutes every day. Instead of just criticizing and warning the employee, a good manager would find out the problem, find a solution and coach the employee on time management.

8. Do not make feedback personal. This rule applies to positive as well as negative feedback. When trainers/managers involve personal affairs in feedback, things are bound to get unprofessional over the long term.

Delivering feedback happens every day in organizations and ultimately the objective is to change or modify certain behavioural aspects among trainees/employees which will undoubtedly help the company in the long run. If the above steps are followed, the feedback process, just as the training itself can yield more fruit than one can imagine.

A different look at leadership in training

“A leader is the one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.” – John Maxwell

Leaders are the backbones of our society. Imagine a society where there is no person to lead – it would be a place filled with followers who lose their original objective of following. We are privy to the most basic forms of leadership like the authoritative style, the autocratic style, the democratic style and so on. However, let us look at leadership in training in an easier way – creating, for all intents and purposes, a new method of presentation of leadership styles in training. Let us now refer to a research paper presented by Paul B. Thornton, Professor, Business Administration, Springfield Technical Community College, USA. This paper uses a different approach to determine the types of leaders in every society. As every other paper, this one isn’t void of error. However, it does look at an interesting phenomenon in an even more interesting way.

Types of leaders:

1. Thought Leaders: Thought leaders possess the power to make change through ideas. For generations, people have been fascinated by new ideas. This isn’t really surprising as the want to ideate is in our DNA and it is only natural to crave for ideation. Thought leaders communicate with their followers by promising creation and implementation of new ideas which ultimately becomes their selling point. In a training set-up, they require the utmost creative control of their sessions both with content as well as presentation. Also, thought leaders often either fail or they succeed – there is no concept of being ‘average’ here.

Examples– Jack Welch, Steve Jobs, Dr. W. Edwards Deming

2. Courageous Leaders: Courageous leaders stick to the morals and values that they believe in, come what may. Their opinions or methodologies do not waver even in times of considerable risks & hardships. They have a vision and they want to pursue it. In a training set-up, courageous leaders can come-off as stubborn and arrogant but display a high level of consistency.

Examples – Rosa Parks, Abraham Lincoln, Coleen Rowley

3. Inspirational Leaders: These leaders focus on their connection with the public/audience. Their passion is what drives them to promote change and maintain positivity in practice. They are committed to their beliefs which make the public emotionally attached to them. They are motivators of the highest grade and help improve relationships with people. The most important thing in a training room for a trainer is to connect with his/her trainees and inspirational leaders have mastered this art form. By connecting with the trainees, the message intended to be communicated is easily decoded.

Examples – Ronald Reagan, Martin Luther King Jr., Pat Summit

4. Servant Leaders: Servant leaders, as the name suggests, are prime helpers. They frequently ask the question – “How can I help?” and are always looking to identify and meet the needs of others rather than to acquire power, wealth and fame for themselves. Servant leaders are often found wanting under circumstances where assertion of authority is required. They are generally timid and seek to avoid confrontation. Servant leader-trainers will be admired and appreciated by trainees due to their selfless nature. However, trainees do tend to identify the weaknesses of servant leader-trainers to gain the upper hand in the classroom.

Examples – Mother Teresa, Oprah Winfrey, Max DePree

No two leadership styles are the same; every person has their own unique style of communicating with their followers/subordinates which suits their own strengths and weaknesses. Be it thought leaders, courageous leaders, inspirational leaders or servant leaders, the idea is constant – to get the message across.

Dealing with various personalities within a classroom

“Why are we all so different from each other? Why does a person want to stay quiet while the other won’t stop talking about Michael Jackson and the pop brigade?” When a professor at Harvard brought this question up for discussion, he received the most intellectually satisfying response. “Because we are humans brought about by natural selection. We have expanded our geographical boundaries in search of food and shelter, thereby creating the morally questionable concept of distance. Distance is equally proportionate to change and different people brought up, groomed and raised in different geographies behave differently.”

Every person is different, be it the way he/she looks or the way he/she behaves and responds to situations. This is the most challenging aspect of training. This is because people are innately trained in their early years to behave in a certain way and when there comes a time to train them (in adulthood) on a particular issue which clashes with their original ideology, their behavioral instinct objects.

A good school teacher will have a field day in judging the character and personality of a student over a period of 12 months. As a corporate trainer, what is harder though, is dealing with different personalities in a classroom for only a short period of time. There isn’t any time to judge a particular person or to longitudinally interact with the said person.

A good trainer cares about the different personalities in the room and respects them. A great trainer finds out why their personalities are different and adapts his/her training methodology to suit a certain system in order to reach every person in the room. A trainer can never use the cookie-cutter approach with a group of trainees. If he/she does, only the trainee (s) who innately resembles the trainer in mass outlook, world-views or behavioural patterns can truly understand the message being communicated.

Let us look at some of the different personalities in every class room:

1. Bully – As a trainer, bullies are a nightmare. They not only pick on other trainees, they are also so-called anti-establishment. Recognizing a bully in a classroom is easy as their body language is hardly challenging to decipher. They usually cross their arms (a sign of insecurity) and bear an arrogant look on their faces. Dealing with them requires a substantial amount of time and a firm approach as they tend to disagree with almost everything the trainer says or represents.

2. Class Clown – Class Clowns are usually people who enjoy a sense of humor that they think is better than the others’, which ultimately might not be a bane for the trainer. The trainer needs to acknowledge his/her jokes but also make it very clear that the session is under his/her control and not the trainees’.

3. Clueless – These trainees do not understand general sarcasm and social cues that the others do. The trainer needn’t be very worried about these trainees’ behavior; however the bigger problem would be comprehension, especially when the session is about the social structures of the society.

4. Natural Leader – These trainees are, to put it plainly, the easiest to teach. The other trainees look up to them and mirror their personalities. Leaders are hard-working and understand the problems of the trainer and hence will pay full attention (thereby influencing others to do so) to the session. Sometimes, these trainees are hated for their leadership skills and although others agree to the views of the leader, they wouldn’t like him/her as a social being.

These are the most basic types of personalities in a classroom. A great trainer will identify certain traits of the trainees and resonate to them collectively, trying to make the same impact with every trainee. After all, there would be no fun in training if all trainees had the same personality; juxtaposing robots being programmed to perform certain functions wouldn’t be then a laughable thought.

Hegemony & Imperialism

India was imperialized. So were the Unites States of America, Australia and many other countries. One may wonder what the difference between imperialism and hegemony is. One may also mistake these two terms to be the same (they are not). Basically, imperialism is the direct power of one country over another whereas hegemony is the indirect power of a country over another. There’s colonialism too when we talk about our geographical landscape and its succinct resume but let’s save that topic for another day.

Before I go any further, let me make everyone understand the difference between these two terms. Imperialism is when you take control and rule another country through colonization or exertion of military influence. What America did to Iraq according to me is a blatant attempt at imperialism (asserting power to rule) in the modern world although they screamed ‘hegemony’ (guidance & leadership). One true example of imperialism is the British Empire’s rule over India. The British governed India for about 200 years and made rules for everybody to follow. We can now contrast it with India’s hegemony over Nepal where India majorly helps the administration of Nepal in making decisions but lets the ultimate power of decision making go to the Government of Nepal. Another example of Hegemony is the Caribbean where the American countries help many islands function as separate independent countries.

I recently read a book which brilliantly brought out the societal norms surrounding the ideologies of imperialism & hegemony. The society, especially the American one, thinks Hegemony is cool and regards it as ‘desirable’ or ‘admirable’. This has not only spurred people to think about America as a very liberal and benevolent empire but also has changed moral terrain of every citizen in the world. I feel that the idea of ruling another state or territory – the idea of imperialism & hegemony has brought the idea of ‘dominance’ in this society. Dominance can be anything – male dominance, dominance of locals in a classroom, dominance of a particular political party in a state, dominance of a certain race in the society and others similar to these ones.

Dominance as an ideology in itself rose from our mythological stories & tales like the Mahabharata & Ramayana and has paved the way for the imperialistically infused thinking of a common man. I’ll even go as far as saying that imperialism has found its way in popular culture (note, not pop culture). Hegemony is a part of imperialism but it can never be the other way round.

An Interview With Kannada TV’s Most Famous Personality!

 Mr Ranganath Bharadwaj

We want to hear the most important things from the best people when it comes to news & media. I take pride in knowing that I sat down with Ranganath Bharadwaj, Kannada TV’s most beloved anchor and investigative journalist. I wanted to get his opinion about India’s independence and media’s involvement in it and boy was I in for a treat! Here is an excerpt from the interview: 

Naresh: What role did media play in our independence struggle? 

Mr Bharadwaj: There are so many contributions by the media but let me start off by saying that media was not at all strong in those days. If there was electronic media back then, perhaps we could have got our independence much earlier. The major Indian media houses in the 1940s were owned by well-known freedom fighters like Bal Gangadhar Tilak & Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhiji said that the media can either give people complete light or complete darkness and in this case it was the light. 

The people had nothing else to rely on except for these newspapers. They wanted to believe they could be free from the shackles of the British and this is what urged them on. The messages that the freedom fighters gave out in their newspapers reached millions of Indians. This caused unity at a crucial time in the 1940s. The fact that certain so-called ‘controversial’ newspapers were written and printed without the knowledge of the British is what made media a dangerous in-tangible weapon. After having read a lot about media’s role in our Independence, it is safe to say that media played one of the biggest parts for our Independence if not the biggest. 

Naresh: Let me be very honest here. I know about Honey Singh & Rakhi Sawant but I don’t know the name of one single freedom fighter that is alive. I’m sure this is the case with most of the youth in this generation. Don’t you think this is media’s fault? 

Mr Bharadwaj: I thought we agreed that you would go easy on me! Actually we do have freedom fighters like Doraiswamy sir on our shows. But I agree with what you are implying. I completely agree that freedom fighters are not ‘hot news’ and they would not improve the TRPs of a news channel. Let’s hope at least during August and January, the people who fought to secure our freedom are showcased by the media and felicitated and by God do they deserve it!

In Conversation With Mr Bharadwaj

Naresh: As a prominent T.V personality, what are the major challenges you face? 

Mr Bharadwaj: To be frank, every day is a challenge for me. In fact, you will find many journalists who say the same thing. When you are in this industry, anything can happen. In the morning you get a promotion and in the evening you find out the chief guest has dropped out of a major show in the last moment. What would you do in that situation? I once had tuberculosis and had applied for a day off and it got approved. Luck was not on my side and a co-worker had to attend to an emergency family issue and I ended up being on T.V from 6 AM to 10 PM since it was the election results day. 

There are always challenges when it comes to different authoritative people. As you might know, the TV channel I work for currently is very public-issue oriented and we try to tackle and help the public with their particular issues. This requires us to be bold and demand justice where it is needed. During this course, we might get into a few tussles and might make a couple of enemies. Handling the people who you don’t have a good relationship with will then be your biggest problem. It is very difficult to handle the pressure but you will definitely learn to deal with these challenges with experience. 

Naresh: Wow. Alright, one final question! Tell us how you celebrate your independence day. 

Mr Bharadwaj: My Independence days have become a yearly routine! Every year, I make it a point to hoist a flag either in my own house or attend a flag hoisting ceremony in the neighborhood with my family. There isn’t a single year I haven’t done this! Without family, my independence day would not be the same. I look at my family as the people who gave my personal freedom and that was all I required. 

Naresh: Sir, thank you so much for your valuable insight. It really enhanced my respect for not only you but also for your TV Channel for all the things they have done to our society. Thank you!