Ski Sine Fine,
I agree with the above posts.
Certification in and of itself means only that the instructor at a certain point in time was motivated, by a desire to be a better teacher, or by pure financial reward, to get certified. Some get burned out. Occasionally, an experienced instructor never pursues certification, which costs money, but takes a lot of in house training, and has the years and passion to be a great instructor.
I do think that in addition to the instructor being adept at figuring out each student and how they learn and what they need, there is a true chemistry issue at play. Sometimes it's just a bad day for the guest or the instructor, and little can change that, but at times the chemistry is simply not compatible.
A common stumbling block, which can happen on both sides, is attachment to outcome, and attachment to the best way to reach it. Patience or lack thereof can also happen on both sides and lead to a crappy lesson. Some learn best by just doing and repeating with minimal coaching, others need the step by step theoretical breakdown to get it, others still need a video of themselves with the analysis during the video to "get it", whatever it may be at that point in time.
May I ask a few questions to better answers yours?
What about the group lesson format did not work for you? The quality of coaching? The variety of needs and goals of the groups? The actual content, movements, runs chosen for the group? The lack of improvement from the tips you were given?
When you make the appointment (non holiday weekday might be best as booking staff will have more instructors to choose from, if and only if they are at a school where they can hand pick which is not always the case as priority systems automatically assign instructors in some places), ask if the instructor will be contacting you before the lesson. At my school that is the case and it allows me to get a sense of what the guest is looking for and making sure it will be a good fit for us both, or in MarzNC's case for all four of us.
I definitely think that stating what your goals are on the phone and asking to be matched is good. I shy away from students that ask for a certain age or gender of instructor as that often limits the options. Fun, young, female, is the most common request. Some of the best coaches are fun, but not necessarily female or young.
I don't know how long of a lesson you are planning on taking? During the lesson, make sure to communicate honestly with your instructor. "I don't understand your words, or the concept" " I get what I need to do, but I just can't seem to do it" "I am getting frustrated" "Stop, to much information, or not enough" "Can I just practice this one thing for a bit and have you give me feedback?" We often over coach, teach too many things at once, or don't coach enough...so many different teachers out there. I try to check in mid morning and ask if the lesson is on the right path, and then again later. By early afternoon, many students want to "just" ski and we get to apply what we worked hard on either in theory, or with drills, or feedback.
If you have goals, ask your instructor to break down what they think you will need to change, or master before you can actually reach those goals. Often times the goals will require a variety of skills to be understood and developed rather than just one. To teach them, and give the student a chance to even begin to execute in a half day or full day is not realistic. The better we become, the harder it can be to change things up and improve, but when we have the epiphany moments it is that much sweeter.
Let us know how your lessons go. I do like the idea of asking for recommendations on specific instructors so you can ask to book that person.