For staff to see you as a credible presenter, practice what you teach on-the-job. Too often presenters teach best practices but their performance is far from exemplary.
If you want your words to ring credible, make sure you practice what you teach. If you plan to use senior management to train staff in areas such as safety, legal issues or soft skills, be sure they demonstrate best practices on-the-job to their audience.
Recently a shop steward was asked to teach a workshop on Warehouse Safety. One of the “don’ts” he preached was to not jump down from the 6’ high loading dock. Later the same day, he jumped down from the loading dock and sprained his ankle. A month later, he was seen putting his hand on a moving conveyor belt of rollers and almost lost his hand. Is it any surprise that staff now ignore any of his policy around safety issues?
The VP of HR in another company led a workshop on Communication. She proceeded to tell staff that emails should not be used to relay emotionally sensitive information and that a face-to-face meeting is called for in these circumstances. Two weeks later, she sent out an email to staff that singled out by innuendo one of the staff and chastised her for her poor customer service skills. This email embarrassed the person in question and caused the rest of the team to lose respect for the VP due to this ironic behavior.
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