Show Notes
Diana opens this one with a confession. When she was qualifying she had done the reading, sat through the Zooms, learned the theory, and genuinely expected to be the bee's knees the moment she started teaching. She wasn't. Not because the theory was wrong, but because she had never actually done the job. The knowing and the doing turned out to be two completely different things, and finding that out knocked her belief in herself sideways.
That gap is what this episode is about. Visualisation, positive thinking, backing yourself, they are all real skills and Diana is not dismissing any of them. But belief needs evidence, and the only thing that produces evidence is action. You can believe you will be the best instructor on the planet and it will stay a belief forever if you never change what you do in the car on Monday.
The clearest example is the one nearly every PDI recognises. Someone sits in the back and the lesson stops going like a normal lesson. You hear yourself say it afterwards: I wouldn't normally do that. And yet the exam you have to pass is somebody sitting in the back watching you teach. So the action is obvious and uncomfortable in equal measure. Get people in the back, regularly. Your trainer, another PDI, an ADI, the learner's mum. Two of those four are free. If that feels too big a step today, record yourself instead, dash cam or a phone in a holder facing backwards so you are not watching your own face.
Diana then works the same logic through levels of instruction and through digging deeper, and finishes by turning it back on learner drivers, because a pupil saying "I just need to be more confident at roundabouts" is making exactly the same mistake we are.
What we cover:
- Why belief without action is treading water, and why the brain needs evidence before it will believe anything - The knowing and doing gap, and the tell Diana spots in PDIs who have the theory but not the reps - Getting people in the back of the car, and the free ways to do it - Recording yourself, dash cam versus phone, and which is less intrusive - Bringing levels of instruction to conscious competence, with the "I can go after that blue car, can't I?" example - Building a bank of questions when digging deeper is the skill that keeps letting you down - Why "I just need more practice" is a sweeping statement that helps nobody, pupil or instructor - Borrowing belief from the process when your own belief is low
Key takeaways:
- Isolate one skill. Not three. One, for the next fortnight. - Book somebody into the back of a lesson this week, even if it is a family member. - If that is too much today, record one lesson and watch it back. - When you inadvertently step in, note it. Then ask afterwards whether it was actually needed. - Replace "I need more confidence" with "what specifically would give me that confidence?", for yourself and for your pupils. - Ask yourself Diana's closing question: what is the one action you are taking this week, and how will you know if it worked?
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Guest Rachael Butler — Sales & Marketing Director, Intelligent Instructor 10 years at Intelligent Instructor (joined ~6 months after launch) Curates and organises content for Intelligent Instructor Plus Runs 24 online events per year (12 masterclasses + 12 member webinars) Heavily involved in national events: sponsorship/exhibitors and event delivery