Every spent a week at camp? What an experience and ton's of fun, too. Backpacking, swimming, lake canoeing, archery, music, trail riding, sport & games, special events and campfires. Campfires were one of my favorites. Telling spooky stores, roasting marsh-mellows and singing. Did you ever sing about "Dem Bones"? You know, the toe bone connected to the foot bone, the foot bone connected to the heel bone, the heel bone connected to the ankle bone and so on. The song gets you thinking about how when things are connected together properly, they work efficiently.

The same truth holds strong when it comes to training and educating your staff. If you want to bond personally with your employees and improve their level of performance through your training efforts, you have to connect with them through your presentation style. People learn in many different ways and it is your responsibility to create a learning environment that is valuable to all.

Here are some recommendations for improving your personal training and communication techniques:

Be open, honest and most important, be yourself. Show your staff that you are comfortable with who you are and confident with the training situation at hand. Capitalize on your strengths and recognize your limitations. Your personality, character traits, attitude, mannerisms and behavior will set the learning environment tone.

Encourage employee participation. Employees will fill valued if you invite them to actively participate in the learning process. They should be encouraged to ask and answer questions and to make a contribution to all learning discussions. There should be an open environment for creative and innovative thinking. An exchange of ideas should be made available without the fear of retribution or embarrassment. Employees are not just recipients of information, but also a fundamental part of the learning process. Do whatever it takes to engage your employees in thought provoking conversation.

Sharpen your personal presentation techniques. The quality of your presentation (verbal, vocal, visual and energy level delivery) is of primary importance to your success and comfort level while training and educating your employees. Good delivery builds your confidence, poise and self-esteem while it strengthens your credibility and captures your employee's attention and interest.

Become an obsessive listener. Seek to understand what people are truly saying, even if you have to read between the lines (facial expressions, eye movement, and emotional make-up). Give your undivided attention while being spoken too. Ask plenty of probing and open-ended questions. Resist the urge to rattle off comments and opinions. Don't pass judgment or jump to conclusions. Remember that candidness is a function of trust, and trust takes time and sincere effort to build.

Laugh, use humor and have fun. One goal to strive for in every training session is for everyone to enjoy themselves. Humor is one of the most powerful ways to make a personal connection with employees. If you want to keep your employees buzzed, buoyant, and alert, while helping them to retain "must know" information, sometimes you just have to pull out all the stops. Share funny anecdotes, stories, props, quotes, and one -liners. And remember never to take yourself too seriously: life is way too short not to laugh.

Ok, let's continue, one, two, and three: the ankle bone connected to the leg bone, the leg bone connected to the knee bone, knee bone connected to the thigh bone………