Congratulations! If you’re reading this, you’ve been nominated or chosen for a special honor or award. Whether you’ll be accepting a business award or community recognition, Omar Yunes shares some great tips to help you nail the acceptance speech.
- Express your gratitude. When accepting an award, express your gratitude. Be sure to thank the sponsoring organization, those who nominated you, and those who helped you achieve your goals. Avoid thanking too many people, as rambling off a long list of names won’t appear sincere. Instead, briefly thank those who’ve played a major role in helping you reach this accomplishment.
- Be modest. When creating your acceptance speech, be humble and modest. Don’t focus on yourself and make the speech self-congratulatory. Instead, relate the award to something bigger and share what the award means to you. Talk about the organization; share a brief personal anecdote about the organization or how the reason for the award has affected you and others.
- Keep it short. If you’ve ever watched an award show on TV, then you’ve seen celebrities giving long, drawn out speeches get cut off by the play-off music. Your acceptance speech should be brief, especially in the event that multiple awards are being presented. A long, drawn out speech will only disengage the audience and take up more of the event’s time.
- Practice. If you have any suspicion that you might win the award, then prepare your speech in advance and practice it. Practicing your speech will ensure you’re prepared if you do win the award. Memorize the key people you need to thank, as well as any other information about the organization or your influencers that you’d like to include. Practice your speech using a timer, and be sure to speak slowly and clearly.
These are Omar Yunes’ top tips for giving an acceptance speech. What other tips do you have?