DIAGNOSIS
As a trainer, you want to make your message stick – but how?
PRESCRIPTION
Career guidance is as much about style as it is about substance
Training has notoriously been a "pass through" rotation in the pharmaceutical industry, and one that provides the opportunity
for the trainer to learn many new competencies in facilitation skills, basics of instructional design, platform-presentation
skills and learning the ins-and-outs of the corporate culture they are working in.
When I think back to the early days of my career as a pharma sales representative, I think back to the gifted and not-so-gifted
trainers who touched my vulnerable and new career with either iron fists or kid gloves. These trainers are remembered by me
because of the way they treated me, found the best in me, encouraged me, and provided authentic but specific feedback or career
advice to help me with job performance and future career mobility. When I think of these key people, I realize, even back
then, they had what I will call star quality. What made them memorable then is still what makes them memorable today. There
are three trainers I still remember a good 20 years after my early training in this industry. Will your participants identify qualities and characteristics you are proud of in the future? Consider the situations and
reactions of these three very special influences in my career. This is the story of how I remember John Council, Doug Burcin
and Marion McCourt.
Emotional intelligence
I was right out of college when I first began my career in pharmaceuticals. I was the classic enthusiastic beginner. I wanted
to do everything I had never done before perfectly, and I had all the enthusiasm possible to make it happen ... until the
day of the cardiovascular test.
The company I was with began as a small vitamin company and had the kind of president that everyone wanted as their next-door
neighbor. The regional office was a warm but serious place to prepare for the challenges of learning the products, disease
states and the competition in order to become prepared to travel to the home office where sales training would take place.
I needed to score a 90% or higher on my test to advance to the sales training program on the east coast.
After the test, I was still optimistic until I found out I only scored a 93%. Tired, disappointed and frustrated that the
yield from all that study time, lost personal time and sleep deprivation had not scored me a 100%, my eyes began to swell
with something that looked remotely like ... tears.
My regional sales trainer, John, came up to me as I sat on the seat outside the training class. After only a few weeks of
working together, he was beginning to understand me and how terribly hard I am on myself when it comes to performance. "You
learned a lot Kimberly," John said. It is about the learning and the application of the learning, not the score. Well, coming from an athletic background, the score at the end of the game determined the win or the loss,
so this was not yet helping me reframe things.
"Do you know the answers to the questions you missed?" he asked.
"Yes, I believe I do." I stated firmly.
"Ok, let's look at them together."
We did, and soon I realized I knew everything on that test perfectly, including why the answers were in fact the answers.
I felt better. I felt my dignity return and was grateful that John allowed me to save face. Not because I lost it in front
of John, but because I had gotten discouraged with myself. I have never forgotten John or what his training approach and practices
taught me. It was never a surprise to me that he had a long and successful career with the same company all these years. His
style and respectful nature was, and still is, timeless.
