Public speakers tend to love coaching, turning to it as a way to get an edge over the competition. But while a little coaching is a good idea, is there such a thing as too much coaching?

Well, that depends. There are arguments both for and against it. We’ll look at a few of those arguments today and then share some of our overall thoughts at the end.

And so with that in mind, let’s dive in.

Is it Possible to be Over-Coached as a Public Speaker?

Yes

1. Too much memorization

One of the problems with coaching is that it can lead to you memorizing certain aspects of your speech so you can perfect the delivery. That’s good in some ways, because it can help you to be more consistent, but it can also take away some of the opportunities for improvisation. As public speakers, we owe it to our audience to tailor our talks to them. If we memorize too much in advance, we risk stagnation.

2. Scripted gestures

Live over-relying on memorization, public speakers are often coached to use specific gestures. For example, it’s often said that speakers should adopt a so-called “power pose” to boost their self-confidence. The problem is that these scripted gestures often come across as… well, scripted. This can make you feel more like a robot and less like a human, at least in the eyes of the audience.

3. Forced humor

Coaches often teach public speakers to use humor as part of their delivery. And while it’s true that humor can bring people together, it’s also hard to get the balance right. If you try too hard to use humor, it can fall flat and lead to audiences staring at you like an exhibit in a freak show. The TL;DR is that if you want to stand on stage and tell jokes, you should become a comedian instead.

4. Stilted delivery

Over-coaching can also lead to a stilted delivery, where we focus so hard on sounding professional that we forget to sound human. The speakers who tend to do the best are able to connect with people on a human level, typically by telling stories about their own lives that their listeners can relate to. If we focus too heavily on coaching, there’s a risk that we’ll forget about the human element in our search for perfection.

5. Ignoring audience feedback

When we’ve been coached in something, we tend to assume that we know everything there is to know. We’ve been taught by the best in the business, and so it seems foolish to ignore what they’ve taught us. The problem is that we can easily ignore the feedback people give us by assuming we know better than they do. However, we have to remember that these are the people who are consuming the message we’re sharing. We owe it to them to listen to what they have to say.

No

1. Further performance improvements

The idea behind getting more coaching is that each session provides additional opportunities for improvement. Practice doesn’t make perfect because there’s no such thing as perfection, although that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t try. However, we should note the concept of diminishing returns; after a certain point, those performance improvements will slow to a crawl.

2. Greater confidence

One of the reasons why people turn to coaching in the first place is that it can provide them with a confidence boost. If you have to do something that makes you nervous, it can’t hurt to get someone who’s the best in the business to give you some pointers. Confidence can’t be taught, but it comes naturally if you get enough experience. Fortunately, coaching can help with that.

3. Better pacing

Pacing is difficult to perfect, and even the best public speakers often struggle with it. The idea is that if you’re given half an hour to talk, you want your presentation to take half an hour. It’s no good if it takes 20 minutes or an hour. Practicing the presentation at home can help, but there’s no way of knowing how fast you’ll go in front of an audience. Working with a public speaking coach is a great way to get your pacing just right.

4. Better capacity for responding to Q&As

Question and answer sessions are a nightmare for many public speakers, but they don’t have to be as scary as people make them out to be. A professional public speaking coach can work closely with you to sharpen your Q&A skills, teaching you what to do when you’re thrown by someone’s question and you don’t have an answer. Coaching can help you improve in any areas that you struggle with.

5. More techniques

By learning from a skilled coach, you’ll be introduced to all sorts of new techniques that you can use in your public speaking engagements. That’s part of why we write these articles, but I’ll be the first to admit that an article or two is no match for a couple of sessions with a professional public speaking coach. Of course, there are only so many techniques that you can learn, and so this is another example of diminishing returns.

Conclusion

If you’ve been reading this article hoping to get a definitive answer to this question, I’m afraid you’re in for a disappointment.

That’s because this is an example of one of those questions where the answer is a resounding maybe. We could argue either way, and we have, but we think it’s a personal decision about which side of the fence you sit on.

And so as always, we’d love to hear what you think and to keep the discussion going. Be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments and tell us whether or not you think it’s possible to be over-coached.

In the meantime, you can follow us on your favorite social networking sites for more and we’ll see you soon for another article.