Some of you are naturals in front of a crowd - you know how to roll with surprises and modify how you communicate depending on the audience. But for those of us who aren't as experienced, the tiniest bit of friction or confusion makes us feel like we're failing, and we immediately begin to panic. 

But we don't need to panic. What usually causes us to second-guess ourselves is actually a natural part of teaching and learning. Here are four common moments that are scary and awkward when you're the prestenter, but shouldn't be.

Defining procedures is difficult, but if you want to successfully train new users, it’s something that needs to be done.

Three and a half years ago, I experienced this firsthand. I began working for an organization, and was assigned to replace an employee who was leaving. I remember sitting down with them so they could show me how to do their job. But after an hour of chatting, I still didn’t know what I would to be doing - I didn’t get a list of tasks, nor did I receive any standard operating procedures.

I was going to have to learn through trial and error.

You know it, I know it, and your boss knows it - your new user training is basically a "check the box" activity. Nobody actually walks away from training able to do their job without further assistance (and a lot of it) from you or other co-workers.

When you put together a live training, are you just throwing together a few slides, including a couple of screenshots, and hoping for the best?

If you are, you're not alone - that's exactly how I used to do it.

One of my shortcomings in previous training sessions was that I would try and teach everything I knew. I thought the purpose of training was to share information because information would change behavior - but I was wrong. If I had the framework on the infographic below, my training sessions would have been much more effective.

One of the key components of an effective Salesforce implementation is a good training plan. But too many organizations spend all of their time focusing on their training meeting and not enough time developing a training and support plan.

What's the difference?

A training meeting is just a meeting. It is a one-time event with a defined audience and a defined purpose. A lot of planning, money and resources go into these events - but if you overlook the real goal, your training event might end up