Retirement Speeches

Great Tips on Retirement Speeches

There are two kinds of retirement speech. The first is where you are hosting a retirement and giving a speech to honor the person retiring. If this is the case, you're probably a seasoned public speaker.

Much more difficult is the case where you are the person retiring, not used to speaking in public, and possibly dreading doing so. In this article we will try to give you some tips for making your retirement speech as pain-free as possible.

The first rule is to stick to the KISS principle. Depending on where you live, this can mean Keep It Simple Stupid or Keep It Simple Sweetheart. Either way - keep it simple.

The second rule is equally important; keep it as short as possible. There are two reasons for this, the first of which is obvious if you had a painful experience of listening to a retirement speech that rambled on forever, with people falling asleep all over the place. Secondly, if you keep it short you keep the time you have to suffer public speaking short, and you have less time to get it wrong. If it goes much over five minutes, it is probably too long.

Deciding on the tone is also important. A joke or a humourous recollection is a great way to retire to start a retirement speech, provided you have a natural gift view for humor. If you are a naturally serious person, it is probably better to avoid humor.

You should write out your speech, starting with bullet points to cover the important points that you wish to be included in your retirement speech. The second advantage of having bullet proofs, where a few words represents a paragraph, is that you can write them onto a postcard and leave them on the table in front of you as you deliver your retirement speech. And for some people, simply having the bullet points as an outline speech and then delivering what comes naturally on the day can even be a better option.

You should practice your speech, preferably in front of the mirror. Time your speech, and if necessary cut it down. You will hear many people criticise retirement speeches for being too long, but you rarely hear anyone criticise a speech for being too short. And if you are naturally nervous speaking in public, a short retirement speech is a great idea.

If you are an emotional person, and concerned about being overcome emotionally as you give your speech, then the following tip will be a great help. Practice your retirement speech as many times as it takes for you to become unemotional over a speech you have read a dozen times. Preferably do this in front of someone; blubbering in front of your spouse is highly preferable to blubbering in front of all your colleagues.

There are several things you need to make sure are included in your retirement speech. The first is to thank whoever is hosting your retirement, along with thanking those who have put in all the work to make it happen. Acknowledge your colleagues and avoid the temptation to even scores with a parting shot at those you have not got on so well with. Retirement speeches should be like funeral speeches, were only good things are said. You should include something about the things you have enjoyed during your working life and maybe some special moments, particularly if they are to thank colleagues for special times. You should include something about what you intend to do now that you finally have the freedom to do whatever you want to do.

Finally, do not stress over it - no one ever died of a bad retirement speech. Relax, enjoy it, have fun with it - and if it all goes wrong, laugh along with everyone else.