If you want help with your public speaking, taking some lessons or enrolling on a course is an excellent way to learn what you need to know and to hone your skills. Across the UK, individual coaches and training companies offer an array of public speaking courses to corporate and private clients - in-house courses, open courses, group courses, one-to-one coaching, two-day courses, half-day courses, flexible training. How can you tell what sort of course would benefit you most?
Here are a few thoughts to help you decide which of the plethora of public speaking courses available would suit you best.
Public speaking training: group vs individual
Because public speaking by definition involves addressing a number of people, it seems logical to learn presentation / public speaking skills in a group. One-to-one public speaking training seems counterintuitive, a contradiction in terms. But let's look more closely.
Over the twenty-plus years that I've been teaching public speaking skills, I've worked with large groups, small groups and a wide range of individual clients. My experience suggests group courses are not, in fact, as effective as individual coaching.
Group courses can provide a useful overview and introduction to public speaking. For a confident participant with some experience of speaking in public, this can be enough. More diffident participants may need more training and support than is available to them in a group setting. This is partly because of the dynamics and potential difficulties involved in any group - the more forceful characters dominating proceedings, some members of the group having more experience and/or natural aptitude for public speaking than others, the more nervous members afraid to take risks in front of their colleagues, and so on.
If your colleagues on the course are your colleagues at work, this can either help or hinder your progress, depending on your relationship with them. It may be easier to take risks among people you know and feel comfortable with than in a group of strangers. Alternatively, you may feel freer with people you don't know, who will not be talking about the course in the canteen over the next few days or weeks.
In theory, we can learn from the successes and mistakes of the others in the group as well as our own. There is some truth in this but, in reality, if I have already had my turn I'm probably replaying my own performance in my mind, rather than concentrating on the next person's. If I haven't yet had my turn, it's almost impossible for me to think about anyone else. As with all practical skills, we learn best by doing it, not watching others.
For the participant out there speaking, it can be useful to have a live audience - provided the group is supportive, provided the performance goes well. It may sound strange but, actually, having a group of people playing audience not only is unnecessary but in many cases can even inhibit learning.
What a public speaking course is (or should be) teaching is not how to stand up and speak in front of a group, per se, but the techniques required to make a success of this: how to stand, how to move, how to speak clearly, how to make one's voice interesting and easy to listen to, how to engage the audience, etc. These skills are just as easily (I believe more easily) taught on a one-to-one basis as in a group. As the only participant, you get all the attention and the training is customised to your specific needs.
How long does it take to get good at public speaking?
Obviously, the answer to this is: it varies. This is another drawback to a group course, which by its nature lacks much flexibility. If you are learning individually, you can book a session at a time and see how you get on.
In my experience, it doesn't have to take very long at all to get good at public speaking. The majority of my clients need simply to be shown the techniques - and then to practise them, with my feedback and support, until they begin to come naturally. Often, we achieve this in an hour and a half. Other clients take two or three 90-minute sessions to feel safe in the spotlight but it's very rare anyone needs more.
Why one-to-one coaching is the best way to learn presentation / public speaking skills
As described above, the main problems with group courses are that they have broadly to assume 'one size fits all' and they are inefficient in the sense that, basically, only one participant at a time is learning, with the others looking on.
In my view, individual training is the most effective and the least stressful way to learn public speaking skills. It's focused, personalised and flexible. As an additional side-benefit, it suits many clients who may not wish anyone to know they're getting help to improve their public speaking.
Find out more about public speaking
If you're looking for a public speaking course, a lot more information about the training I provide is given on the main page about Public Speaking Coaching.
Instead or as well, you may be interested in my ebook, which describes in detail all the techniques of successful public speaking and also offers advice about how to overcome any fear you may have of addressing an audience, about the structure and language of a good speech or presentation, about how to deal with any difficulties on the day... and much more. Essentially, this is a public speaking course in pdf form. You can read more on the Public Speaking eBook page.
Public Speaking Courses