Carla Cross, CRB, MA, International Speaker

This blog is for anyone who trains. Are you standing in front of your students to create better performance, or more knowledge? It’s very important to clarify for yourself exactly what your role is. Why? Because it will determine the outcomes you get. And, if you can get measurable outcomes (your students make more money), you will assure you have a job—even in lean times!

Better Performers—or Know-It-Alls?

After graduating from the University of Oregon in piano performance, I applied to and was awarded a scholarship to UCLA as a graduate assistant in the music department. But, after I was at UCLA a few weeks, I became disillusioned, for I found out that the UCLA music department was all about ‘knowledge’, not performance. Professors earned tenure by publishing papers about sixteenth century Elizabethan madrigals–but they didn’t have to be able to play the madrigals…My interest and experience in music had been performance.

The Difference in Knowing and Doing

I’ve never forgotten that lesson about the difference in the knowledge about something–and the performance of it. I found out, again, that importance, as I started selling real estate, and sold a home my first week in the business. As the year went by, I saw dozens of very knowledgeable licensees who never sold a stick of real estate! What do you want your students to be able to do as a result of your presentation/training? Sure, just like musical performance, you must have some technique to perform. But, also like musical performance, lots of knowledge doesn’t make you a good performer.

If You Want Better Performers…..Five Areas of Concern

1. What percent of your program is instructor focused? That is, the instructor performs. If it’s more than 50%, you have a knowledge-heavy program. Model your program like the piano teacher teaches piano. He talks very little, demonstrates some, and listens to the student play and gives positive reinforcement and re-direction. The teacher knows he taught because the student can play.

2. Do you choose your instructors based on their knowledge and

their ability to deliver the message attractively? Start choosing your

instructors, instead, on their ability to facilitate performance. They

should be able to demonstrate a role play,set up a role play, and

draw conclusions. It’s ‘virtual reality’.

3. Who is held accountable for the program–the instructors or the students? In most programs, we ‘relieve’ the instructor if he doesn’t get good reviews from the students. The instructor’s the only one accountable. Turn it around. 75% of the accountability should be on the students to demonstrate they have learned the skill. Why? Because, without student accountability, managers learn quickly that your ‘graduates’ can’t perform.

4. Is your focus on curriculum? Are you attempting to create value for the program to management or owners by providing more information than the other school? Most training programs could cut 50% of their curriculum and graduate better performers. Instead of focusing on curriculum, create your program as ‘virtual reality’. Have a system that provides a series of “performance building blocks”. Don’t tell them all about playing a concerto. Just tell them enough to let them ‘get their fingers on the keys’.

5. Are the objectives of your program knowledge-based? How do the students graduate from your program? Do they pass a written exam? Managers want a graduate who can perform the activities of a real estate salesperson to reasonably high performance standards. A good training program should identify, teach, observe, and coach performance in several critical performance areas until the student can perform well enough to graduate.

Your Job and the Bottom Line

The more your training program resembles the ‘virtual reality’ of your specific performance, the more valuable your program to the people who hired your students –and you.

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Carla Cross, CRB, MA, is president of Carla Cross Seminars, Inc., a popular international speaker, and author of 6 books and 20 audio programs for real estate professionals, trainers, and presenters.. She is a National Realtor Educator of the Year, and was honored as one of fifty most influential women in business. Contact Carla at 425-392-6914 or email her at her website at www.carlacross.com.