Retirement Speeches - Content and Composition

By Mary Ruff-King

Most people dread writing a retirement speech, but with some preparation, time, and thought it can be accomplished easily and quickly.

Here are some tips to help you write your retirement speech:

1) Allow plenty of time in advance so you can gather your thoughts.

2) Write down what you have accomplished not only in your career but at the company from which you are retiring.

3) Write down the changes that have occurred in the specific industry and at the company.

4) Mention how you have grown/changed for the better as a person.

5) Try to incorporate humor into your retirement speech to keep everyone's interest. Self-deprecating humor works best; take a pot-shot at yourself, your mistakes, your foibles, your eccentricities. Everyone will love you for it!

6) Acknowledge everyone's contribution to your success as a salesman, manager, supervisor, CEO, etc.

7) Thank everyone, including your immediate family and your professional family.

8) If appropriate, mention your post-retirement plans/goals.

9) Show further appreciation by telling your office mates that you will keep in touch and then be sure to follow through on this promise.

10) Be sure to thank everyone for the retirement gifts and especially those who organized the retirement party.

Once you have outlined what you want to say in your retirement speech, start writing. This is your time to shine as a person. Make you speech warm, touching, personal, and positive.

Once you have written a rough draft of your retirement speech, leave it sit for a few days. Come back to it fresh, and read it aloud. If need be, edit it. You may even have remembered a few things you would like to add to it which you can do at this time.

Come back to it after another day or two for a final edit. Get it just right. Once you have finalized it, read it aloud and time it. See how long it takes. A good time frame for a retirement speech is 5 minutes and no longer than 10 minutes, unless it is really humorous.

Next you'll want to practice your speech. Yes, read it aloud at least 30 times to get completely familiar with it. You want to deliver it to people and make eye contact with them, not just read it aloud at your retirement party. You'll want to briefly look down to remember what you wrote, not keep your face buried in your copy.

If you follow the above steps, you will be able to write and effectively deliver a memorable, moving, and powerful retirement speech.

Writing retirement speeches is not a hard thing to do when you have a template and samples to follow. At Retirement Letters and Speeches you will find samples of retirement letters and speeches, as well as a retirement letter format, template, and information about etiquette. Full body samples of retirement letters and speeches are given; best of all, this is free information.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mary_Ruff-King