Your boss sends you an email to say she’ll be dropping by your office later that afternoon to talk about the employee of the year award. You start to get excited, thinking about how hard you’ve worked and how nice it would be to get recognized. However, when your boss arrives, she says, “I know you are a great speaker, so I’d like you to be the one to present the employee of the year award at our company banquet in December. I’ll already be speaking during the ceremony a lot, so I’d like to feature other employees, and I think you’d be great at it.” Your excitement falters. So you aren’t up for the award after all. You are just delivering a speech of recognition. But, hey, at least your presentation skills got your boss’s attention.
Sometimes you aren’t the main event or keynote. Like in the scenario above, sometimes you’ll be asked to give another type of speech. But presenting someone else with an award or honor is still an important task. Here are 3 tips for delivering a great speech of recognition.
1. Get the Audience’s Attention
Many times a speech of recognition follows something else. It could be dinner, or another award presentation, or a longer message. At any rate, part of your job is to transition from whatever has been happening to the award presentation. That means you’ll need to get the audience’s attention. This can be done many ways, but here are two of our favorites.
- Take the stage and wait a few moments. Dr. Alex Lickerman says when we use silence strategically, it makes us appear more powerful and charismatic. Both of these can get the attention of our audience. So when you pause, people will try to figure out why. And so your silence effectively captures the attention of the crowd.
- Start with a story. Whenever a speaker begins a story, the audience tends to perk up. It’s human nature to not want to miss a story that is being told. And don’t announce that you are going to tell a story. Just jump right in. This is called a jump start, and it’s a great way to capture attention fast.
2. Know the Recipient
If the whole purpose of the speech of recognition is to shine the spotlight on someone else’s achievements, it helps to know that someone else. You can only give a great speech honoring them if you know how they would like to be honored. For example, you wouldn’t want to lightly roast someone who may be offended or who dislikes being the center of attention. So do a little research. Ask the recipient’s family and friends what makes him/her feel special. Get to know the personality of the recipient a little bit. Is this person more reserved or someone who is boisterous and loves to joke? Match the tone and content of your speech of recognition to the recipient’s personality. And aim to meet all 5 of what Marc Junele calls the characteristics of effective praise. Make it personal, appropriate, specific, timely, and authentic.
3. Show, Don’t Tell
No one wants to sit and listen to a long list of qualifications. So instead of telling why the recipient deserves the award or honor, show it. Use a story to illustrate or paint a mental picture during your speech of recognition. One of the best examples of this I’ve seen happened during the National Funeral Service honoring former president Ronald Reagan. During his eulogy, former President George W. Bush Sr. says he learned a lot about decency from Reagan. He then tells the story of the time he went to visit Reagan after he had been shot. When he entered the hospital room, he found him in his hospital gown, on the floor wiping water up that he had spilled because he was worried his nurse would get blamed for it and get in trouble. It’s one thing to say someone is humble and decent. It’s quite another to show it with a story.
While you are preparing your speech to recognize someone else, remember this. Every chance you get to stand up and present is a chance to hone your speaking skills whether you are the keynote, or not.
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