A few months ago I got a chance to train and mentor a group of 20+ future IT trainers as part of a Train the Trainer course at the Software University in Bulgaria. Back then I decided I will take notes of the mistakes I see and then blog about them thus creating a small library of useful knowledge that can help everyone who is or wants to be a trainer at some point in his career.
Below are the 50 blog posts that I wrote on my company’s site that I am sure will make you both better trainer and speaker in general!
Enjoy reading and in case you want me to come and train you and your team, you obviously know how to reach me now! 😉
Mistake 1: Phones Ringing
Mistake 2: The Dying Battery
Mistake 3: Not Using Your Own Machine
Mistake 4: Not Using a Presenter(Pointer)
Mistake 5: The Screensaver
Mistake 6: The Notifications
Mistake 7: Busy Demos
Mistake 8: Equipment Problems
Mistake 9: Projector Problems
Mistake 10: IDEs Not Demo Ready
Mistake 11: Your Name, Please
Mistake 12: EXCUSES
Mistake 13: Weak Start
Mistake 14: 0 Experience!?
Mistake 15: Reading From Your Slides
Mistake 16: The Watch
Mistake 17: Notes In Your Hand!?
Mistake 18: Timing Issues
Mistake 19: Skipping Slides
Mistake 20: Too Much Stuff
Mistake 21: Acronyms
Mistake 22: “As You Know”
Mistake 23: Foreign Words
Mistake 24: Filler Words
Mistake 25: The Wrong Approach!!!
Mistake 26: No Audience Involvement
Mistake 27: Slide Mix
Mistake 28: Thinking You Are A God!?
Mistake 29: Staying Behind Something
Mistake 30: No Eye Contact
Mistake 31: Hands Behind The Back
Mistake 32: Talking Fast
Mistake 33: Irrelevant Demos
Mistake 34: Summarize The Demo
Mistake 35: Not Sure In Your Demo
Mistake 36: Writing Code Live
Mistake 37: No Data Source Referenced
Mistake 38: Spelling Errors
Mistake 39: Weak End
Mistake 40: The Microphone
Mistake 41: Too Much Text
Mistake 42: 16:9 not 4:3
Mistake 43: PowerPoint Templates
Mistake 44: No Text Animation
Mistake 45: Weird Animations
Mistake 46: 3D Stuff
Mistake 47: Images Everywhere
Mistake 48: Different Fonts
Mistake 49: Color Combinations
Mistake 50: Slideshow, please!
You read them all? Let me know what you think in the comments!