My Teaching Style

As a corporate trainer, I am responsible for ensuring that all the participants have the attitude, skill and knowledge to be successful on the job.  The results of the Grasha-Reichmann Inventory show that my teaching style is equally balanced in all areas.  I am moderate in Expert, Formal Authority, Personal Model and Facilitator and high as a Delegator. 

Our participants are newly hired retail sales consultants, sales support representatives, finance representatives and store management.  I am a former store manager and therefore very familiar with the environment where these participants will be working. 

As a formal authority teacher, I am focused on content and feel responsible for providing and controlling the flow of the content.  My students are expected to receive the content and see the importance of the material and appreciate their roles in the stores. 

I am also a facilitator and my focus is on activities and student centered learning.  There is more responsibility on the participants to learn and this teaching style works best for those who are comfortable with independent learning and actively participate and collaborate with other students.  This is a must in their work environment because although they work individually to achieve goals, they also work as a cohesive team to service customers and achieve store goals.   Activities are useful in active learning, student to student collaboration and problem solving.  These are all important skills when working with customers and the course content must be applied back on the job.

The highest teaching style is delegator.  This is so true in our classrooms.  We have 4 weeks with the retail sales consultants.  They must be responsible for their learning because when they get to their stores, the expectation is that they know how to use systems and resources, understand our products and services and interact with customers.  A delegator gives students a choice of implementing their own complex learning projects and acts as a consultant.  The participants are asked to work in groups or alone and they must maintain motivation and manage various interpersonal roles. 

Finally, I am a personal model demonstrating the behaviors and skills that the learners must use back on the job.  The curriculum calls for role plays on each step of the sales experience such as how to greet customers, building rapport, questioning strategy to understand customer needs and so on.  In the classroom, I model the behavior and then the participants practice and are coached and guided to ensure they can model the behavior as well.