Giving a farewell speech for a boss or a colleague who is retiring requires some thought and care.

Let me share some tips for a speech worthy of the occasion.

3-part structure

Start by sayings something about your association with your boss as this explains why you have been asked to speak and sets the tone for the event.

Then three points of importance. The first may be serious or reflective, but make sure that at least the last one is humorous/light-hearted. For a short speech, I recommend three anecdotes illustrating different aspects of your boss’s time with the organisation, or three characteristics they’re known for. Perhaps two memorable achievements and something that bombed. With additional time you could make the stories longer or add further anecdotes to each section.

Round off your speech with a toast.

Ideas

For someone you’ve been working with for a while, you'll have plenty of experiences to draw on. Set a timer and give yourself five minutes and quickly jot down as many ideas as you can come up with.

For example, you might remember when the two of you were delayed because of a visa foul-up and spent a huge amount of time talking to border officials. Record visa/airport and carry on. After five minutes review your list and decided which are best for the occasion. It is also good to ask colleagues to suggest the most memorable occasions they recall. You’ll know which to include when you consider the overall balance of your material. 

Story technique

Many organisations hold teambuilding events. If your usually serious, polite boss was left trapped on a zip-wire (remember Boris Johnson and the London Olympics?) there is likely to be some humour to extract.

The key question is how much detail to include.

Consider TV dramas. Shows about the legal or medical professions don’t show the humdrum aspects of the job. You won’t see a whole episode of Line of Duty where a witness sits looking through mugshots trying to find the shooter, and nothing else happened!

Instead, you’ll see a few moments of the witness with the pictures, maybe with a wall clock ticking to establish it's been a long time.  Then you get the "Aha!” moment.

The point is that you’ll need a bit of shorthand and cut things down to a few elements which establish the context, followed by the reveal where you remind your audience of what happened.

Purpose

It is worth considering what a leaving do is for. It's not something the business sells to customers. It's not a profit centre. It's a cost. If they want to lavish money on the staff who are attending they could add it to a year-end bonus and let you decide how you want to spend it. However, that won’t achieve what a group celebration achieves:  the bonding of a group. When you appeal to your audience’s emotions by talking about a common experience then you bring everyone together.

Of course, the leaving party is about saying farewell to your boss, but it can also help people to bond as a group. Shared experience is the basis of bonding. Again, this can be a serious thing (e.g., when a group has served together in war zone), but it can also be non-serious. The humour you choose to include can be an important part of your speech that taps into people’s feeling about the organisation.

Finding the right humour

Especially if you’re speaking at a retirement do, it's not the time for a lot of heavy experiences. Nor is it the time for I-climbed-the -mountain inspiration. You can remind your audience of a metaphorical mountain where your retiring colleague took charge and you all climbed together. However, I recommend primarily focusing on the lighter stuff.

Inevitably, what's funny to a group who experienced it might not be so hilarious to people outside the group. It may be a cliché to say, "You had to be there", but it something to bear in mind when you’re connecting with your audience.

Enjoy giving your speech and you’ll leave everyone on a warm note as they raise their glasses in a toast.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Paul Carroll DTM is a member of Toastmasters International, a not-for-profit organisation that has provided communication and leadership skills since 1924 through a worldwide network of clubs. There are almost 400 clubs and 8,000 members in the UK and Ireland.  To find your nearest club, visit www.toastmasters.org