Training Design and Delivery, 3rd Edition

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Trainer Credibility

“Persuasion is achieved by the speaker’s personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible. We believe a good person more fully and more readily than others. There are three things which inspire confidence in character that induce us to believe a thing apart from the proof of … good sense, good moral character, and good will.”

—Aristotle

The credibility characteristics put forth by Aristotle are important for any speaker and especially so for trainers. But before defining the qualities of a credible trainer, we must remember that not all the training programs that trainers do should be considered ...