RSS Feed
Presenting an Award
August 17th, 2012
by Bill Boyajian

Public speaking is important for a leader. Last week we learned how to introduce a speaker. This week, let’s look at how to present an award.

Presenting an award. If you’re in a leadership position or strive to be, one of your tasks will be to present awards to people. You need to do it right. Such short speeches are given to honor a recipient, to physically deliver an award, and to allow the recipient to express thanks.

I was once presented a significant award by an organization, and the presenter was a friend of mine who felt he knew me well enough to get up there and wing it. Well, he did. And he blew it. It reflected more on him than on me, but it was a downer nonetheless. The key is to take such a presentation seriously — brief as it may be — and to be prepared. Almost no presentation is difficult if you are organized and if you prepare properly.

Your short speech should have an introduction that gets the attention of the audience and expresses what your presentation is about. The main body of what you say is in the discussion: the purpose for the award and its description, the background of the presenting firm or organization, a brief review of other recipients perhaps, and the most important part: carefully scripted information about the current honoree. Your conclusion simply reassures the audience of the honoree’s worthiness of the award, and provides the recipient’s name — pronounced correctly, of course.



Tags: , , , , , , , ,

“I needed help orchestrating a succession plan for our business. I had heard that Bill Boyajian specialized in assisting owners to transition their business to the next generation. He knows how to bridge the generation gap and deliver what each needs to hear. I would recommend Bill to any business owner who needs advice on succession planning from a trusted outside professional.”

–Charles Denaburg,
Managing Partner,
Levy’s Fine Jewelry
Birmingham, AL

"Our family needed some guidance on business transition and succession planning. We asked Bill Boyajian to help us because we knew we could trust him to tell us what we needed to hear. Bill became a valuable resource for our company and our entire family. He has the ability to meet each of us where we’re at and it has served us very well."

–Ceylon Leitzel
Leitzel Fine Jewelry
Hershey & Myerstown, PA

“We needed a plan to transition our business to a non-family member and we asked Bill Boyajian to help us. His experience in the area has really paid off, but we didn’t expect the added value of putting us together with a financial planner who helped organize our retirement needs. We now have the fundamentals to transition our business successfully, and we have Bill to thank for it.”

–Ernie & Debbie Cummings
Kizer-Cummings Jewelers
Lawrence, KS