Better than Alright

I am not a lecturer.  I am incapable of talking for two straight hours without boring myself, and everyone around me, to tears.  I need a participatory class in order for my teaching to work.

This morning I delivered Class One of the first module of my Adult Child Coach training programme.  I have done the training before but last time was at an in-person workshop and this time I have restructured the training to take place over three four-week sessions of tele-classes.

Tele-classes are very different from in-person workshops; you have to read the class using totally different cues.  It is easy to overlook someone who wants to make a contribution.  It is sometimes hard to include the quieter folk, who can feel easily intimidated.  My strength is training, but it is easier for me to do in front of people I can see, hear and touch.

Because I am not a lecturer, and rely on a lot of group interaction, I tend to feel slightly nervous before I start teaching a new group – specially one that os phone based.  Will they gel? Will they participate?  Will I be clear enough, entertaining enough, clever enough?

I know that the anxiety about this group was entirely vestigial and totally unnecessary because of course they were going to gel.  They are doing this very specialized training programme because they have similar interests, concerns and experiences.  I have interacted with each of them and chosen to have them on the course because I know they are good coaches and are committed to learning and growing.  I also know that they are different; have different histories, different skills sets and different approaches to their work.

It was always going to be an interesting and stimulating group – united by similarities, and strengthened by diversity.

And so, even though the now-almost-defunct part of me that feels anxious at the start of a new venture tried to get me to feel uncertain, I couldn’t waste too much energy on worrying that things might have gone wrong because the rational, calm, appropriate me knew that it would be alright.

And it was.

Actually, it was better than alright, it was fantastic.  They gelled.  They participated.  They stayed awake and engaged and appeared to understand me when I spoke.

I loved every minute of the two hours.

I think they did too.

Tags: adult child coach training | coach training | coaching | facilitation. performance anxiety | new groups | tele-class training

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