One of the questions that I’m frequently asked is how long does it take to develop presentation skills?
Of course, training for presentation skills depends on a number of factors but I’ll offer a few guidelines in my years of experience.
These are the important variables when planning your presentation skills training:
- How comfortable are you speaking in front of other people?
- How much experience have you had speaking publicly?
- What do you consider a high level of public speaking?
First of all, most people would say that they are “somewhat comfortable” speaking in front of other people. They gave some presentations in high school and at work they have to give a presentation once or twice per year. For these people to attain proficiency they will need to invest 100 hours into presentation skills training.
If you were to join a program like Toastmasters you would get a chance to speak every week on a variety of topics. It is possible that this could be all the presentation skills training that you need.
However, in my experience people attend a lot of Toastmaster meetings but usually do not speak. When I use 100 hours as a benchmark for public speaking proficiency this means that you actually need to practice. For example, when I prepare for a presentation I practice it in front of the mirror or film it. My preparation time takes 2 hours and this would count towards the 100 hours of presentation skills training.
Of course you need to get valuable feedback when you are learning any new skill. Preferably you would have a mentor who already has the level of proficiency you would like to emulate.
It may seem daunting that you have to invest 100 hours in your public speaking skills. However, the benefits of being a masterful speaker are lifelong and will surely have the highest ROI of any skill you could train for.
