Are you a good follower? What we learn from our GPS

Moving to a new area is both fun and challenging, but how do you go about learning your way around? Before the GPS, you talked your friend into talking you through a map, map-quested directions before you left, or just drove around until you got good and lost.

Today, GPS devices are common and inexpensive and it can be easy to rely on one without getting to know the area on your own. The key to GPS navigating, however, is to actually follow the directions given.

Why do I say that? My boyfriend fancies himself "the navigator." Drop him anywhere in the world with a map, and he'll plot a way (if not an incredibly unusual way) out. At the same time, he is terrible with the GPS because he never trusts that it is correct. He always second-guesses where it is going and if it is accurate. The result is that while I'm driving, he either changes the destination to make it go his way or directs me to ignore it. When I drive alone, I get everywhere just fine; when he comes along, I tend to make U-turns and wait for the GPS to re-plot my route.

When I was returning from the gym today, it occured to me that the real problem is that he doesn't trust the GPS enough to follow its directions -- and that is a common problem for a lot of people.

As a trainer and lecturer, if my audience doesn't trust in what I am saying, they are likely to second-guess or become misguided. I had this issue during a training in Florida in March. Several members of the audience were so busy trying to guess what I was going to say or simply draw the attention to their own knowledge that they missed some of the message that I was conveying. Much like my boyfriend and the GPS, they assumed their knowledge was already greater than or more extensive than the trainer they had signed up to see. It made for a very rough start of the training.

Only when they audience began to accept that they could learn something and follow the trainer, did we actually make progress.

So what did I learn from my GPS?

1. To be a good follower, you have to trust who you are following.
2. To have good followers, you have to gain their trust.
3. If you aren't willing to trust, you may miss valuable information and unnecessarily extend your learning.