“I CANNOT FAIL” … were the words I said to the woman who was about to take me on a one-year journey to qualify to become a professional trainer (CIPD). Why did I say that? Was it because I wanted to be the best?
Actually no. The reason I said it was because I was genuinely scared of failure. I was in my early forties, had a good salary, pension, nice company car and a seat on the top table of a billion-pound PLC. I had arrived. What I could not do is come back to the table one year later and say, “Sorry, I failed the course.” How would I look? How would I feel? So, the night before I started the training course, I phoned the tutor, Pauline, in a panic, just to be reassured that I would not be embarrassed by failure.
No matter how high we get in our careers we can still feel vulnerable and insecure. Asking for help or admitting our weaknesses gets harder the higher up we go.
Like so many Senior Clerks and team leaders I came from humble beginnings with a run-of-the-mill education. My various qualifications and learning came from on the job vocational education and some very inspirational training sessions.
At PME training we pride ourselves on understanding how difficult it is to sometimes be in training sessions (or coaching interventions). We really do get-it and aim the content of our courses to all levels of ability and backgrounds.
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