The Training Manager...

...I don't mean the manager of training, that misunderstood pool of talented individuals, I mean the manager who is expected to train.

Some time ago training was required to allow the trainees to pass on the relevant skills to others. I advised against putting team managers onto this training, but was unfortunately overruled. The money was spent, the training completed, and the attendees never put into practice their new skills. Lazy? Thick? No, just busy.

They were managers. That would generally be considered employment enough. What's more, of course, if a member of a team is required to deliver training it is at most an overtime opportunity for another to cover their usual duties. Covering a manager's role while they vanish elsewhere for a day is rarely so straightforward.

Managers training by living the example, of course, I'm all for. Managers who understand training, its value and its limitations, I'd give a kidney for. A manager should train simply by their professional bearing when they step from their car in the morning. Okay, that's laying it on a bit thick, but I'm sure you get my drift.

Managers training other managers I can accept. Being shadowed, acting as coaches and mentors: yes, absolutely. And coaching abilities, on-the-job training at their level, should be essential elements in a manager's development.

But managers being responsible for the hands on technical training of the staff they manage will rarely work, probably never. It's not just about time limitations, though. One argument in favour of managers as trainers is that they will have a vested interest in their staff member's prime performance. Conversely, and a more powerful argument against in my estimation, a manager training carries additional weight that the way they show is the way it must be done. Creativity and exploration of further possibilities is strangled at birth.

Let managers manage. Let trainers train - best of all let trainers train workers to train each other.