Participant Type and How to Handle Them

One of the most important aspects of training is to know who your audience is. Knowing who
your target audience is will help you know how to design your training and also who to invite to
the training course. Following are some outcomes of identifying who the audience is:

• Demographics (i.e., age, sex, where they work) This will help with logistics of the training as
well as for planning for the types of examples to use in the training.

• Knowledge Knowing the in-coming knowledge level of the topic will help determine what
level of content is needed (low, medium, or high) and what type of exercises are needed.

• Skills It is important to know what the in-coming skill level is of the participants so you will
know how to plan what skills to teach. It will help determine if the training is to provide new
skills or simply a refresher to skills the participants already know.

• Attitudes Knowing what the attitudes are about the topic of the training can help address
fears, concerns or biases during the training.

• Experience Knowing the experience level of the participants will help when designing the
content and exercises. It will also help in knowing what technical level is required for training. In
addition, it will help you can identify those people who have a lot of experience and can
contribute to the discussions. Also for exercises you can pair-up participants who have a lot of
experience with those who have less experience.

• Job/position Knowing the jobs or positions that the participants have will help you relate the
training to their jobs.

• Education Knowing the education level and also the type of education of the participants can
help you know what level of language to use, as well as what type of examples to use.
• Training needs Knowing what the training needs are of the participants will help you design
your course to provide training skills that will actually be used. If participants don’t need certain
things in a course it may help you know what information to delete or what to cover quickly

In some resource, there are 12 type of participant that exist. Let's take a quick look at each of
these difficult participants / personas who you may find challenging, and what you can do
about them.

1. The Shy or Quiet One:

Coaching is a very verbal activity, rich with questions and dialogue. It is important to recognize
that not all participants process in the same way. Those that are shy or quiet may benefit more
from small group or paired work and individual reflection activities. Do not assume that
quietness means lack of engagement. Include a variety of ways for participants to engage,
reflect and learn.

2. The Challenger:

The Challenger may wish to challenge all that you say. As a coach, we need to
continually reinforce that our role is not one of expert, in fact they are. This often switches the
focus for the challenger to move to the "Know it All" Role (see below).

3. The Dominator:

It is quite common to have one verbally dominant person in a group. They will often let you
know this in a pre-call. That's a perfect opportunity to introduce the coaching skill of intruding,
and letting them know that you will be jumping in and asking questions to help them get to the
core of the story. Also, teach group members the skill of bottom lining (what's the bottom
line?) or laser speak (speak right to the heart of the issue) at the start and remind the group
about this skill throughout your work. If someone continues to be dominant, it may be a good
opportunity to break into smaller groupings whether you are in person or virtual.
4. The Unfocused One:

The unfocused participant may show up as someone who is inattentive and "wandering off".
It's important to let people know where you are going. Provide an overview of the
process and ask what they want to explore or get out of the coaching conversation. Also, is
the client really coachable and wanting coaching?

We may sometimes have participants who just don't know what they want. Providing
opportunities for those people to become more focused include asking questions such
as, "What are your key goals?", "What do you need/want to do to get there?", "What do you
want to get out of the conversation?", "What's really important?" and "Where do you need to
move the needle forward this week?"

5. The Superachiever:

The Superachiever can pose a challenge for some coaches as their endless achievements may
cause concerns and feelings of inadequacy in other group members. It is important to reinforce
with your group that everyone will be moving at their own pace within a group coaching
process, and that "Wins" and Successes happen at different stages for each person. Having the
Superachiever share what they learned from their experience can spark and inspire others with
new ideas and insights.

6. The Center of Attention:

It can be common to have someone who wants to be the center of attention. There are several
roles you can invite them to participate in - time keeper, flipcharter, note-taker. Some of these
roles will "give them the spotlight" and fill the need of being seen. This is also a rich area for
exploration in an individual coaching conversation with them. Coaching Questions to ask them
include, "What's important about being seen?" and "What impact does it have on others?"

7. The Joker:
Humour can provide lightness in the coaching process. Again, it's a rich perspective to explore
with the group. Where could the group infuse some humour around the issues being explored?
What needs lightening up? Sometimes, the joker may take humor to the extreme so be aware
of the impact it is having on the group. Also, ask the joker to consider what impact they are
having on the group.

8. The Devil's Advocate:

The Devil's Advocate can take us into the rich terrain of perspectives. Their voice is a great
reminder that there are many different perspectives which exist in groups and in a team. What
is the flip-side? What important issues does the Devil's Advocate point to?

9. The Argumentative One:

Some difficult participants may want to argue for argument's sake. Great questions to ask might
include, "What's at stake?", "What's the request behind your complaint?". Another tack is to
defer the issue being argued about to the group - what do others think? Do they agree with the
issue being raised/item being challenged? Is this something that needs further discussion? If a
number of people agree then it may merit further discussion, but if no-one else thinks it is
important then the group can move on.

10. The Know It All:

Coaching rests in the belief that our clients do know it all! Questions to be exploring with the
person who feels like they "know it all" include, "What are you so passionate about proving?",
"What makes you unique?", "What do you have to offer?" and "How can you share your
expertise in a more positive fashion?"

11. The Verbose One:

Verbose, or very talkative participants may also show up within your groups. These difficult
participants often self-identifyand mention this when you first connect with them, perhaps at
your pre-program one-on-one.
As coaches it is important to let the group know that you will be providing the space and
opportunity to hear from everyone through the conversations. As with "The Dominator" it can
be very useful to introduce the entire group to the coaching skill of "bottom-lining", "laser
speak" or "head-lining" where people are encouraged to get to the core or "essence" of the
story. Also very helpful to share with the group is the coaching skill of "intruding" or "jumping
in".

12. The Sidebar:

Although it may be more frequent in a workshop or larger groups, the "sidebar" conversation
occurs when two group members have their own conversations while others are trying to
speak. If an open invitation to share with the group or a glance over and making eye
contact does not move the sidebar conversation into the wider group space, physically move
yourself to stand near where the conversation is happening. Be genuinely curious, and invite
the sidebar pair to share with the rest of the group.