Teacher of the Year Claus Neeleman: “Practice, experience and reflect”

“I think training is a fantastic profession,” says Claus Neeleman, “mainly because you can add something. You really touch people. You also get feedback from course participants that they’ve learned something. Some people even made a mental switch when it comes to work. I also like it when they say that what they’ve learned can also be put to good use in their private lives.”

After studying occupational and organizational psychology, Neeleman went to work in recruitment: assessments, potential determinations of applicants, personality tests, role plays and interviews. During the debriefing of such an assessment, a colleague got him thinking. “He said: gosh, you’re good at explaining things, why don’t you become a trainer or a teacher? That was funny, because I was already considering doing that.”

His colleague gave Neeleman that extra push, but becoming a trainer wasn’t easy. “You needed a lot of experience at most training agencies and that meant either a very long development process or you had to find an alternative path.” He ended up at a reintegration company where he was able to teach right away. “That was an opportunity for me to gain experience and see if I liked it. After that, I had a real opportunity to start working for training agencies. That’s how I got into the business.”

Neeleman now specializes in communication. “Communication training is the primary focus, but I do sales training and leadership training as well. I top that off with some acting, also during training. It’s pretty broad what I do.”

Observe and analyze

Claus Neeleman joined High Tech Institute when Jaco Friedrich asked him to provide leadership training for engineers. “I remember thinking at the time: nice, this is something new. I was also curious whether it would work out, because I was more in the consulting world and not in the technical sector. For me, it was a matter of trying it out: does my expertise fit with that technical world? Maybe they won’t find the psychology behind it so interesting, or too soft. But there’s actually a great need for soft skills training among technicians. They also really enjoy it.”

Neeleman sees common ground between the job of a trainer and the high-tech world. “Technicians observe and analyze. So do psychologists. We have models and we work in a detailed way. There’s a big technical side to that, especially in assessments. We look very minutely at a conversation and we attach scores to it. The score can be satisfactory or just below, and then we can explain why that isn’t satisfactory and what someone has to show more of to get a good score. That’s quite technical, too. There are a lot of models behind it. People can be quite complicated. You can also approach that in a technical way and see what you can do with that. I really enjoy doing that.”

Comfortable

Neeleman finds it funny that employees run into the same communication issues nine times out of ten. “It’s always about giving feedback. This is really hard, because a lot depends on it. You have a relationship to maintain; you see them again the next day. Even if you know how to do it, it’s still challenging to have a constructive conversation. Dealing with conflict is another theme that often comes up, as does dealing with resistance. I think that’s about the top three.”

Neeleman himself is often told in evaluations that he gives good feedback. That’s also a requirement for a trainer, he believes. “I think what course participants mean by that is that I pay attention to the details. I always watch when they do exercises among themselves and then I really try to help them work effectively and I’m able to explain it well. I also think it’s very important that there’s an open atmosphere and that we can have a laugh during training sessions.”

What he most frequently hears back is his ability to create a safe atmosphere in which people can be themselves, a prerequisite for learning, according to Neeleman. “If you don’t feel safe, you start playing a role or you just don’t show yourself at all. I need it for myself too, to work well. If people aren’t open or there’s tension within the group, I don’t feel comfortable as a trainer either.”

Three tips

The Dutch high-tech world is known for its somewhat confrontational way of communicating. Many companies say they’re successful precisely because of this open, yet somewhat challenging culture, but not everyone can handle it well. For technicians who have trouble with the Dutch corporate culture and find it difficult to have their say, Neeleman is happy to give a heads-up. In a training course, you can actually learn to show yourself more. His three tips are: practice, experience and reflect.

Practice, because it can be uncomfortable in the beginning. The first time you stand up and say “I disagree” with people around you who think differently, it causes a lot of stress. And so, the trick is to experience that stress and then find that you survive despite that stress and that in the end, it’s better than saying nothing. The third tip is: reflect on what you do. Suppose you try something in practice and it works well, or not so well. Look back on it and name what went well and reward yourself for that. Also mention what you can do better next time and don’t be too hard on yourself. Neeleman: “You can make reflecting more effective if you do it together with colleagues. For example, with someone you know who does things differently. If you apply those tips, you’ll come a long way.”

This article was written in close collaboration with High Tech Institute.