This year, write make the speech you give at your office holiday party something your audience will audience actually enjoy, rather than simply endure.
A two (2) minute guide to writing the perfect speech for your office holiday party.Video transcript:
Here's a quick outline for the perfect office holiday party speech. I break the speech down into five sections. You figure about a minute, a section, you end up with a speech that's about five minutes -- which, let's be honest, that's about people's attention span when you're providing them with an open bar. You're providing them with an open bar, right? Section one is your welcome.That's pretty straightforward, but if you want to add a little humor to it, in this case, what works really well is just being self-aware.By that, I mean be aware of what other people are thinking when you're standing there making your speech. If you have a reputation for enjoying the sound of your own voice, then just acknowledge it.
"You'll be glad to know I looked at my speech and I thought, I can't speak this long. So, I cut it down and now it's a tight 90 minutes." Section two is your look back at the past year. So you'll talk about some of the challenges that your company faced ,because that leads you very nicely into how your team overcame those challenges or hopefully overcame many of those challenges.And then you're gonna use that to go into section three, which is where you name-check the people who were real standouts in those successes.
So it gives you a nice little reason to go from one section into the other. Section four is your look ahead to the challenges your team is going to face in the coming year, along with your mini pep-talk where you share your absolute confidence that your team is going to meet every one of those challenges, even if it's not true because people need to hear it. Just give 'em a little shot in the arm.
Section five, wrap it all up with a toast. "I wanna thank you all for your continued hard work and dedication to this company. You are the beating heart and soul of this organization. Here's to a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year for all of us."
And right there, that's when you can go back to your original joke and call it back. "So here's do a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year for all of us -- and hey, would you look at that? Those 90 minutes just flew by!" If you want a little more information on how to craft that opening joke, take a look at the video that's right, here-ish.
To watch “The Best Way To Start Any Speech With A Laugh,” click here.
