I was thinking about management training for a group of first line managers of a client company yesterday and as I pondered I realised that it requires more than the fingers on both hands to total the number of managers I have reported to over my career. And I couldn’t say that any of them showed signs of having been on a professionally facilitated Train the Trainer Programme. I came to that conclusion from observing how they managed and developed their teams.
In my view the most important competence of an effective manager of a team is as a trainer and coach. So, the question of whether train the trainer training should be a part of a management training programme is in my view an unhesitating YES. The reason is that learning to become an effective trainer, you acquire an understanding of the use of different interpersonal styles and skills that are unfailingly useful in management.
For example, giving feedback is a constant function of both roles and how it is done will determine whether the recipient is motivated, demotivated or simply indifferent. So the essential principle I was taught, and have to discipline myself if I am to use it, is to Pull before Pushing. That is, first to find out from the other person what they think and feel about the issue on which you intend to give feedback. As was quoted in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, the best selling book by Stephen Covey – ‘First seek to understand, then seek to be understood’.
So the acronym of PANAMA covers the process: P = Permission from the other person to review the activity or event (pull), A = Ask how they think it went (pull), N= Next time what would they do differently (pull), A = Ask if they are OK to hear your thoughts (pull), M = make suggestions (push), A = Agree actions (pull-push). Management training that includes PANAMA principles will deliver essential management and trainer/coach skills in one.
By Mike Cooney | Righttrack’s Commercial and Financial Director