Saturday, March 08, 2008
Life of a trainer: loving the work that I do
I am like a teacher, supporting adult learning in the corporate world. It's even tougher than higher education, since they have to unlearn and relearn more practical aspects of their work. I facilitate discussions and stimulate their minds through various activities. It almost feels like being a pre-school teacher where one runs different activities with prizes, except with a more complexed lesson plan.
I was assigned to run the three day induction programme for our new hires. Before running the marathon, I had to run several sprints to prepare me for the long haul. I had a development plan where I was tasked to conduct the first day of the training then just facilitate the succeeding days with guest speakers, until I was able to run the whole program on my own. On my first run I was really exhausted I didn't think I could really last for three days. The solution is of course practice, practice, practice. Now I think I can run the full marathon as I'll be holding three consecutive runs of the course this month.
I initially thought I would be killing myself for doing that. Yet you'd be surprised that I'm usually more energized on the third day when the participants say they found the course useful, learned new insights for their work and that you made an impact in their learning. THat indeed gives me the purpose for the work that I do. They wave goodbye ready to face their targets and overcome challenges. I really hope they don't give up easily when the demands become tougher.
I am more than a teacher. I am a facilitator, energizer, team builder. I really think of this as my calling and feel lucky to be given work that Iove to do. The globe trotter has gone local, following her calling to train the world's local bank.
