As a trainer and learning and development (L&D) professional, you can play an important role in helping your learners exceed their own expectations of themselves. This is especially true for people who suffer from “Imposter Syndrome” or have been brought up to have low self-esteem.
Whenever I go into a program to teach, I always make it a practice to look for the participants who have special unrealized skills and talents. Regardless of what you teach, you can make a major difference in someone’s life if you show your interest and encouragement to someone who cannot see their own potential. While some of us overestimate our potential, others cannot see it when they look in the mirror. You may get a glimpse of this as a trainer. If you discuss it with the person, tell them what you see, and encourage them, you will be rewarded in unimagined ways.
ALWAYS WORTH A TRY
My first year of teaching was at a high school in a tough neighborhood, similar to one I grew up in. There were occasions when I had the unwanted responsibility to cover the “detention room” for a week. During one of those weeks, there was a freshman “tough guy” who was in detention for the entire week. The second day, I began a conversation with him about why he was in detention. He told me he had to fight someone who was bullying him and some of his friends.
Throughout the course of the week, I could see how intelligent he was and that he possessed the leadership skills we try to teach in our workshops. I tried to convince him to move into the college tract and said I would work with him on his academic skills. I knew he could be a successful leader either in business or in a gang. He had the potential, but no one ever helped him see the potential in him to be successful in an environment other than the tough streets of Jersey City. I was trying to change the course of his life, but the streets were all he knew, and I failed at my attempt.
WIND BENEATH MY WINGS
Success takes a village. In my freshman year in college, I had an English professor who saw in me something I did not and could not see for myself: my curiosity about others and interest in learning and teaching. In the summer following my class, this professor sent me a postcard from Cambridge University with the note, “You should think about studying here.”
Coming from a working-class home and being the first in my family to go to college, the idea of studying overseas never crossed my mind. It was not something even remotely on my radar, in addition to being financially “impossible.” But the idea intrigued me. The professor followed up with me in my sophomore year and introduced me to the study abroad advisor, who convinced me that if I worked in the evenings, weekends, and during the next two summers, I could save enough to study overseas. He had enough confidence in me that he took me to the office of a study abroad program in New York City to meet with the directors of the program. I had little hope of being accepted, but due to the support of the advisor and professor, I was accepted. It changed the trajectory of my life.
PSYCHIC REWARDS
When I was a college professor, I encouraged a brilliant student to study abroad even though she had no interest or financial resources to study abroad. Today she is an ambassador to a major U.S. ally.
Think of an opportunity when you can provide guidance, support, and encouragement to a participant in your programs. Perhaps you can recommend that they go for an MBA or join a professional association or consider an international assignment—which I did scores of times as a corporate trainer. The psychic rewards are what training is all about.
If you have any suggestions or cases where you helped or were helped by others to realize unrealized potential, please send them to me at: Neal@NealGoodmanGroup.com