How A Speaker Should Accept An Award

 There is a right way and a wrong way to accept an award
There is a right way and a wrong way to accept an award
Image Credit: Web Master

We all like to to be recognized for our accomplishments. What this means is that when we have done something that is memorable, people like to give us awards to celebrate our accomplishments. These are fantastic times – in front of our coworkers, peers, and potentially even our family members and friends, we get to be recognized for our accomplishments. However, it turns out that all of this recognition comes with a price. We need to know the right way to accept an award or else the whole event can come off as being flat and meaningless. What is the right way for a speaker to use the importance of public speaking to accept an award?

You Know What Is Coming

The great thing about receiving an award is that most times we know that we’re going to be receiving the award before the event happens. What this means for us is that we’ve been given a chance to practice how we want to go about accepting our award. In my case, what I like to do is to sit back and try to picture how the awards ceremony is going to play out in my head. By doing this I can start to understand how the timing of the event will play out. I can come up with a list of the people that I’m going to need to remember to thank for my award because no award is a result of my actions alone. Additionally, I can also try to determine how I would handle any unexpected things that could happen.

In order to receive an award the right way, it’s all going to start when they call our your name. When this happens you are going to have to take action. If you are in the audience, you are going to have to promptly stand up. The next thing that you are going to want to do is to make your way to the stage. How you get there matters a great deal. You are not going to want to run – that would be silly and you could fall down. However, at the same time you are not going to want to take your time and talk to people on your way up. Instead, move purposefully and make your way to the front quickly. If you happen to already be on the stage, you can simply just step forward.

Interestingly enough, it’s how you actually accept the award that can make a lot of difference to how the whole awards ceremony turns out. The first thing that you need to keep in mind is that you are going to want to position yourself on the stage so that you are standing near to the person who will be presenting you with the award. However, at the same time you are going to want to be careful that you are not blocking the award from the audience. As much as you may want the award, you need to be careful to not spend time staring at the award. Likewise, you need to not reach for the award until such time as the presenter hands it to you. When you are actually accepting the award, you are going to want to stand slightly sideways towards the audience. When presented with the award you are going to want to reach for it and accept it with the hand which is nearest the presenter.

The Right Way To Accept An Award

How you act when you are receiving your award is going to go a long way in determining how the audience reacts to you getting this award. What this means for you is that you will need to show gratitude. You may be the most special person in the world and this is the award that will show this to everyone else; however, when you are receiving this award you still need to be modest. This will be the time for you to thank the person or persons who most helped you to be able to win this award. You will be expected to give a little speech after being presented with your award. Make sure that your excitement comes across as being heartfelt but not too self-congratulatory.

We need to understand that winning an award is recognition of us for something that we’ve been able to accomplish. When you are accepting your award you are going to want to be very appreciative of winning the award and you would like to be gracious at the same time. Somebody or something is giving you this award and you need to make sure that as you are receiving the award that you take the time to thank them for it. This is a good time to tell your audience about the good work that the organization that is recognizing you does and why that work is important not only to others but also to you. Other people were in the running for this award and now is the time for you to congratulate them also.

One of the questions that will be running through the minds of your audience is if you really care about winning this award. What this means for you is that you are going to want to use this as an opportunity to show your sincerity. One way that you can make this happen is by making sure that your personality shines though in your acceptance. Make sure that any acceptance speech that you give comes from your heart. In order to truly communicate your gratitude to your audience and to the people who are giving you the award you need to express your thanks in an honest and unexaggerated way.

What All Of This Means For You

Wow – how great is it to receive an award? Finally, all of that hard work that you have been doing is going to be recognized. However, as great as this all is, it turns out that there is something else that you still need to be aware of. How you actually go about accepting your award is going to make a big difference in how the awards ceremony is going to be remembered. A speaker needs to know how to go about dong this correctly in a way that will allow us to communicate the benefits of public speaking.

One of the things that makes it easy to receive an award correctly is that more often than not we know that its coming. What this means is that we can practice how we want to accept the award long before the big night arrives. When you get called to come up to the stage and receive your award you are going to want to get up and quickly walk to the stage. How you actually receive the award also matters. You need to position yourself correctly and make sure that you are not blocking the award from the audience. When you are receiving an award you need to be certain to show gratitude for getting the award. When you are accepting the award make sure that you take the time to thank the person or organization that is giving you the award. In order to prove to your audience that you really care about winning this award, make sure that you accept the award with sincerity.

Let’s face it, we all like to receive awards. They make us feel good and we see them as a recognition of what we’ve been able to accomplish. However, just winning the award is not enough – we also have to accept it. It turns out that the process that we go though to accept an award is critical to how an audience is going to view both us and the award. We need to understand the way to go to the stage, accept the award, and then what we need to say. If we can master the art of accepting an award, then who knows – we just might end up winning even more of them!

– Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™

Question For You: How long do you think that an award acceptance speech should be?

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Note: What we talked about are advanced speaking skills. If you are just starting out I highly recommend joining Toastmasters in order to get the benefits of public speaking. Look for a Toastmasters club to join in your home town by visiting the web site www.Toastmasters.org. Toastmasters is dedicated to helping their members to understand the importance of public speaking by developing listening skills and getting presentation tips. Toastmasters is how I got started speaking and it can help you also!

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

When we are asked to give a presentation, one of the key questions that runs through our head is “what is the best way to go about doing this”. I wish that I could tell you that there was just one thing that you needed to make sure that you did in order to ensure that you could use the importance of public speaking to make sure that your audience would get the most out of what you tell them. Of course, this is not the case. Instead, it turns out that there are a number of different things that you need to get good at doing. The real challenge that you and I are facing is that we need to take the time to understand what we should be doing in order to make our presentations work well. What we need here is some guidance.