I mean, seriously, how do you address the fact that you just don’t have the experience you need for the group you are training
If you’ve ever felt the fear of not knowing what to say, or, that you just don’t feel experienced enough, you can relate to this. Especially when you’re training people in a topic they know as well as blowing their own nose. I needed to come up with something fast.
On the bus on the way into the venue I saw an ad for the Bahrain Grand prix coming up that weekend. It got me thinking ‘The mechanics who work on those cars probably can’t race them like the drivers do, but the drivers can’t race without the know-how of the mechanic.
That was my ‘A-HA’ moment. The only way I could think of bridging the obvious gap between having no credibility in doing million dollar deals and still earning the trust of the training group was to use the metaphor of the mechanic.
Metaphors have a way of getting past the rational mind into something we connect with much deeper in our brain, they give colour to the data overload in our world.
So I opened with this line “From the pre-work and training brief I’ve been given it seems you folks are no doubt the race car drivers in your industry (they pull together investment consortiums for breakfast), Well, today I am going to play the role of your mechanic, We’ve got the next 6 or 7 hours together to tune up your influencing and persuasion skills, I can’t drive the investment race like you can, but when you come in for a pit stop like we are today we can both look under the hood and get more out of your motors”
It was a little cheesy, but I had to do something. Main thing is, it worked. I had their trust, and I ‘pulled’ the material out of them and facilitated like a coach, rather than just stand and deliver like a trainer.
What would you say to a group that is way over your head in seniority and experience?
