The hush has now swept across the room. All eyes are fixed on the MC, breaths are being held, awaiting the announcement of this year’s winner. Amazingly, it registers that it is your name they are calling to the stage. Emotion wells up.
Do you find your mind is experiencing whiteout and goes blank. Do your nerves suddenly kick in when facing a sea of faces with thousands of eyes boring into yours? Do your knees mysteriously seem to have been drained of all their sinuous strength? Do you launch forth into a raging torrent of Ums and Ahs, followed by indiscriminate rambling, punctuated with pathetic apologies for your inability to string two words together?
Are you having an out of body experience watching yourself have a public meltdown of stupendous scale. Seeing yourself trash your company and personal brands simultaneously, because you are demonstrating to all that you are a total dud as a professional?
How could it come to this, to have capitulation snatched from the jaws of triumph? Simple really. You didn’t prepare properly. What would have been a better approach? Expecting to win is a good place to start. From that thought flows a stream of things that must be done, just in case lightening does strike, unlikely as that may have seemed at application time. What will be the content, how will you start, how will you end?
Find out how much time you will have available. You will want to thank the judging panel for selecting you and the organisers for putting on the event. That is polite and a set piece. “Ladies and gentlemen, let me say thank you to the judging panel for selecting us. I am sure it was a very demanding job for you and the organisers of today’s competition. On behalf of all the candidates, allow me to say thank you one and all for your efforts”.
You will have others you want to recognise, such as colleagues, clients and family. Think of a short story for each group, that connects their support with this win. Story telling is powerful, because it creates context and draws your audience into the mental picture you are drawing.
For clients, you might select an episode of some consequence. “We would not be standing up here tonight, if it wasn’t for Tanaka san at XYZ company. She gave us a chance to demonstrate we could deliver on schedule, on budget and at the right quality. I know that she had to weather some particularly tough internal meetings with her Directors last fall, but she went to bat for us. So we all say a very big “Thank you” to her and we are delighted she can be with us tonight”.
For family, you could note, “As we all know, we often spend more hours working with our colleagues than we spend with our own family. When we get home, exhausted, we unburden ourselves and share our concerns and worries. We need to set the ledger right and also share in the good times and tonight is just that occasion. I would like to thank my own family for their total support, which keeps me going.
I would also like to recognise all the families of our team members who equally are giving their support. We know it is a sacrifice and we appreciate that you make that on the company’s behalf. So this prize tonight goes to all the angels at home who keep us going and make it all worthwhile”.
How do you wrap it up. You could say, “Finally, I would like to say how proud I am of our widget. We are committed to making the lives of our clients and their clients easier and more effective. We are on a mission to serve as many people as we can, because we know we are bringing value and growth to their businesses. Entwined inside their growth and success is our success and that thought drives us each and every day to do our best. Thank you!”
This is the time to differentiate your company and personal brand, so make the time and put in the effort. What if you go to all this trouble and you don’t win. You have definitely improved your speech making skill and you have put yourself well out of harm’s way.
