Do You Really Need a Free Retirement Speech?

Why give a ready-made and probably well-used free retirement speech ?
Wouldn't it be better to use the time you'd spend personalising & rehearsing a free retirement speech to write your own?

It's a dilemma but you can do it. The easy-to-follow guidelines below will help you create an original, unique speech you'll be proud to deliver.

Before you attempt to write the speech collect your ideas together.

Use the headings below as guidelines and the suggestions next to each one to kick start your creative juices. Put down as much as you can under each one. Do not self edit. Nothing is too trivial! Allow your ideas to flow. You will rearrange, expand, trim or delete them later but for now it's important you put whatever thought occurs down on paper.

Free Retirement Speech Starters

• I remember...(Suggestions: starting out 'x' years ago, what was important, what I looked like...)
• Colleagues...(Suggestions: those who've been influential, friends, campaigns worked on together...)
• Tributes...(Suggestions: Who have I admired and why? Who has inspired me? Name and thank them.)
• Milestones...(Suggestions: personal achievements, the firm's achievements)
• Anecdotes...(Suggestions: amusing stories about either yourself or the people you worked with.)
• The future...(Suggestions: Personal future:- what I'm looking forward to, where I'll be, what I'll be doing...The firm's future:- where do you see it going? What challenges does it face?...)
• Philosophy...(Suggestions: the values that have been important over the years and still are...)

Getting it Together

Now that you have the raw material you're ready to shape it. But before you begin to write the speech you have three more important considerations:

• How long is it expected to be?
  The usual speech length is 3 -5 minutes.
• What tone do you want your speech to have?
  As many retirement speeches are delivered at a dinner or party, most people strive for a balance of humor, sincerity and respect. Keeping it too solemn may be inappropriate for the occasion.
• What theme do you want to run through it uniting all your material together?
  Theme suggestions: team effort (through uniting one achieves more), friendship, loyalty, value of ongoing education, that youth is wasted on the young, humor, importance of believing in one's dreams...

Be sure to look through this large selection of retirement quotations. You'll find sharply witty, warmly funny, inspiring and even sad thoughts about the subject. Take any that appeal to weave through your own words. Maybe you'll find just the opening or ending you want!

Now Write:

Go back through your notes, select what you want, put it in order and write exactly as if you were talking out loud to a respected friend. You'll need an opening, middle and conclusion.

Remember the time allowance. You are better to make a few points well rather than try to cram your speech full and rush. If it worries you that you've had to omit either people or events, say so. People will understand.

Also remember: If you are writing a farewell or retirement speech about a colleague: 'do unto others as you would have done to you'.

To gauge whether or not what you've written will be well received or has covered all the most important points, firstly put yourself in their shoes and secondly, read the speech through to several colleagues whose judgement you respect.

Be very aware of revealing personal or sensitive information. The person retiring because of ill-health or for special family considerations may not want it made public. Ask before speaking. If you don't feel you can ask, then you probably shouldn't be saying anything about it.

And the 'do unto others...' sentiment includes whether or not to write an original or use a prepared free retirement speech. It may not feel very good to know the speech you received or gave was far from unique. Instead it was a free retirement speech available to everybody.

Other very useful reference pages:

• how to write speeches: step-by-step detailed instructions with examples
• how to rehearse your original, free retirement speech: absolutely necessary if you want to give a polished presentation
• tips on using humor effectively: avoid the traps that trip the unwary
• retirement quotations: a large selection of witty one-liners and snippets of wisdom about retirement

Back to the Top the Free Retirement Speech Page

Go back to the Home Page

See the sitemap for more public speaking tip and resources

---

©Copyright 2006-13 www.write-out-loud.com
Susan Dugdale @ Google +

---