Public Speaking – Individual Coaching – Pros and Cons

The term “coaching” has taken on a wide range of meanings in the business world in recent years. It could involve developing business strategies, leadership advice, marketing assistance, or guidance on life decisions or choices. It almost always involves a partnership between you and a professional, either in person or over the phone. But another way that many people may not know about is individual training for presentation skills. Typically, you think of presentation skills training in terms of participating in a workshop. But in today’s tough economic times, it may not be feasible to host a workshop or be able to take a day and participate in one.

When a workshop is not possible, individual coaching can be a solution. This is where you work with a personalized coach to improve your presentation skills. There are both disadvantages and advantages to honing your skills this way:

DISADVANTAGES

All the disadvantages of one-on-one training center on one fact: you don’t have an audience.

Artificial. Getting trained in public speaking or presentation skills will always be more powerful when done in a group setting. It is invaluable to have an “audience” to present to, as well as a peer group to offer feedback. When you do it one-on-one, where it’s just you, the coach, and a camera, you lose the sense of an audience and it can feel a little more contrived to pretend you’re talking to one.

Not as anxiety-busting. The main problem with public speaking is, of course, anxiety. That anxiety comes mostly from the fact that you’re presenting to a group of people, whether it’s three or three hundred. It is the overwhelming concern of the vast majority of people who want to improve their presentation skills. They want to get rid of the butterflies and build their confidence in front of a group. Practicing in front of a group is the best way to face your fears and overcome them. When working one on one, there can be some nervousness; after all, a trainer and a camera can be a bit intimidating. But it is not the same as the anxiety caused by facing an audience.

No visual communication practice. Finally, it is extremely difficult to practice visual communication in a one-on-one setting. When you’re facing your audience members, it’s apparent whether or not you’re connecting with each of them individually, giving them the feeling of looking at them and talking to them. That level of connection simply isn’t possible to replicate in a one-on-one setting, so it’s a skill set that can be neglected.

ADVANTAGE

However, these disadvantages do not discount the value of individual training. It has many advantages:

Personalized training. When you work with a trainer, you get individual feedback targeted specifically at you—there are no other people in a class you need to share training with. You get targeted, detailed attention, which means you’ll get a specific benefit and are more likely to learn more and retain it better.

more efficient time. Since there are no others giving presentations and receiving feedback, you are the sole focus of the trainer/coach. Thus, you can accomplish in a couple of hours what might have taken a full day if you had to share the stage with others.

Your Own Rhythm. Setting up a workshop by its own design means that there are agenda and timing considerations. The trainer must stick to a schedule. That sometimes means that something may change or it may mean that too much time is being spent on something that is not relevant to you. When it’s just you and the trainer, you can work at the pace you want, on just the topics you want. You are restricted only by the time limits you both agreed to.

Directed to your needs. Maybe you feel good about your content and delivery and just want to work on improving the PowerPoint that will accompany your presentation. That can be done in one training session. Perhaps you are struggling with your organization and want help organizing your speech and perhaps adding appropriate humanizing elements. Again, that’s what training can be focused on. Maybe you have a big 30-minute presentation coming up that you want to polish up and practice. That would be impossible to do in a shop, but it’s ideal for trainer work.

A trained and experienced trainer can work with you individually on your presentation skills and give you more for your money!