By Dale Isip

If you spend enough time at your job, your work performance will likely increase, and you might be ready to train others in certain aspects of your occupation. This may sound intimidating, but there are some very approachable ways to train your co-workers. Here are some of the best ways to train others professionally.

Reasons To Train

You might think training others at work comes at some cost: the loss of your time, the loss of control over duties at which you previously excelled, or worse still, perhaps even the loss of your position. These worries are not uncommon among workers.

You may not, however, want to approach training in this way. If you are asked to train someone professionally, you are likely perceived as someone who can perform certain skills very competently. In addition to this, you have been deemed responsible enough to teach others.

In a worst-case scenario, you have the skills to competently perform outside of your current job. Besides this, if you excel enough in teaching these skills, you could consider a training career yourself. The idea is to focus on the training itself, and not necessarily what it could imply.

Starting Out

When you are training others, try to do more listening than speaking, at least at first. Get a sense of what your trainees may know, what they understand about the skills being taught, and how they tend to learn things.

For example, your trainees may be familiar with front-end programming languages, but you are training them in back-end programming. Try to find out how they learned front-end languages; you might be able to teach them in a similar way.

You might also ask them how they understand their previous work relates to back-end programming and databases. Gauge their current understanding and determine how to teach them effectively.

Bring Them Through the Process

Once you understand what your trainees know and how they learn, try to bring them through the work process as you know it. If they do not have a broader understanding of the work being done, teach them the fundamentals first.

After this, take your trainees through the actual work process – what they would do in chronological order, what problems could possibly arise, and how they can address these problems. Have your trainees engage in the actual work routine and get them to learn-by-doing.

One Step at A Time

Break down your trainees’ work tasks into small steps. Then have the trainees repeat the steps until they can perform them smoothly. In this way, their tasks will not overwhelm them, and they will become adept at the bits and pieces that make up larger duties. Finally, encourage your trainees to ask questions, and be open to answering them.

With an understanding of your students, engagement of work duties, and regular practice in small increments, you will be able to excel at training others professionally. This will help secure your occupational knowledge and skills, and make work easier for everyone involved.