Hairdressers, driving instructors and people in lifts!

Hairdressers, driving instructors and people in lifts!You may well be asking what hairdressers, driving instructors and people in lifts have in common. The answer - personal space. We give hairdressers permission to invade our personal space and, as driving instructors, we may need to negotiate invading someone's personal space in an effort to manage risk. This may involve getting closer to someone than would normally feel comfortable in a confined area. We know the rules where we may be forced to invade each other's personal space eg. the uncomfortable experience we all face in a lift! The rules are:

1. No talking, not even to someone you know.
2. No eye contact, at any time.
3. No emotion to be shown - poker face.
4. Stare at your phone, book or newspaper.
5. In crowds, body movements are prohibited.
6. If you need to look somewhere, stare at the floor numbers on the lift display.

We cannot do this in a driver training situation! This 'lift behaviour' simply masks our emotions in public spaces where it is unavoidable to invade someone's personal space. We all have our own personal space. In a car, with a person who is effectively a stranger, this space needs managing. As a driving instructor, it is essential we build rapport, so that our client feels at ease in what will sometimes be a very intimate space.
Intimate space - the space reserved for family, close friends and people we are in a relationship with - is between 15 - 45 centimetres (6 - 18 inches). Personal space - the space that is comfortable in social situations or parties for example - is between 46 -122 cm (18 - 48 inches).
With this in mind your rapport building skills have to be excellent; your awareness of your body language and your ability to listen to the client and read their body language has never been more essential.
In an age where we are being encouraged to raise our awareness of how others feel, are you switched on to being able to manage training in these close spaces?

How can we manage that personal space?The BTEC 4 Professional Award in coaching for driver development will help you analyse what you do well and give you the opportunity to focus on those softer skills, that we often take for granted. As you can never know what your client is actually thinking or feeling, developing a relationship, where both you and the client can be open and honest about their thoughts and feelings, is taking your driver training to the next level.

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