Keep it positive, just keep it positive

You are working hard.  Your diary is full.  You love your job but right now, at this very moment right this minute, you are tired. 

Relationship building with pupils is a two way process.  It is not just about an expectation for your pupils to open up and communicate how they are thinking and feeling to you.  They respect driving instructors more when the truthfulness flows both ways.  

The tendency as any parent knows only too well, with tiredness comes a short fuse, an over-reaction, delayed mindfulness, incapacity to reflect and much much more.  So at the very least, if you feel mentally drained as you sit there with your pupil, at least have the common courtesy decency to inform them.

Your pupil who is sat beside you is potentially hanging on every word that comes out of your mouth.  Re-read that sentence again and just ponder on that a moment.  It is true.  They are taking time out of their busy schedule to be training in your car. They are working incredibly hard to try to develop key skills, and due to the hard earned money they have spent, they are quite rightly expecting all the help you can possibly give them.
 

Unsurprisingly then, when you say something, they are listening to you.

As such, it is critical, absolutely critical that what you say remains positive and constructive.  You can't necessarily flower up a driving fault as a positive but what you can do is recognise effort, smile, keep eye contact, place a "good effort" in your verbals.  Pupils are going to make mistakes, and in doing so they are going to learn.  I'm not referring to safety critical mistakes - you need to be on to them before they even happen, but bulk standard mistakes is part and parcel of learning.  As an instructor what you have to resist is the temptation to club pupils over the head with mistakes they make.  It is not helpful - it ruins relationships, it erodes trust, it makes pupils sometimes deeply unhappy.  

You may be tired, but you do have a responsibility to look after yourself so that you can give each and every pupil you assist, the best learning environment that they deserve.

BIG TOM offers trainee driving instructor training - 0800 689 4174

http://drivinginstructortraining.bigtom.org.uk/