So how do you ensure that your story does not become a "final hurdle" but a moment of connection and pride? Here are 4 tips in advance!
1. Celebrate the whole year, not just December
What happened in January? Who remembers that one project in April? It's amazing how quickly we forget successes. By looking back at highs as well as lows from throughout the year, you give your people something valuable: perspective. It reminds them how resilient and successful they have been together.
Tip: By reviewing your calendar from throughout the year, you will discover hidden gems. Name them, let them shine and watch pride fill the space.
2. Make it personal, and touch the audience
Authenticity is not a buzzword; it is a prerequisite. A good story starts with yourself. What has the year meant to you? Where did you feel pride? Where was the pain? People don't want generalities or platitudes. They want to hear what touched you and why. Connect on a felt level, not just on facts.
Tip: Don't simply tell them that "we all worked hard." Show what that means. Share how you experienced that one bump or breakthrough and how that defines you as a group.
3. Connect, inspire and be great
A year-end story is not a business update. It is a moment of connection. Who are you as a team? What binds you together? Especially at a time when hybrid working is the norm, physical gathering becomes rare and valuable. Use it to cultivate pride and make your people fall in love with their work, their colleagues and their organization.
Tip: Go full steam ahead. A good story is not a sparse celebration, but an ode to your journey together.
4. Plan ahead: close and reopen
You may already want to say something about plans for next year. But realize that December is about closing, not starting. December often feels like a final sprint: final tasks, tight deadlines. Don't go overboard with that. Strategy and outlook? Save those for January. After all, two weeks make a world of difference in energy. End your year with pride and vision; start the new year with decisiveness and action.
Tip: Say in December what was, and in January what is to come. Use the energy of both moments to the maximum.
With these insights, don't give a cliché talk, but an end-of-year story that really touches. Your people deserve it, and you also deserve to end this year with pride and satisfaction. Stand still, connect, inspire. Let your audience leave feeling like they are part of something bigger. Let them go into the holidays with a smile.
Working on your year-end speech?
Over the next month, we will be working with many people again to deliver an end-of-year message with impact. Would you like to work on this as well? Then contact us, and let's make your year-end speech unforgettable!
Any other tips?
Especially feel like listening further to the best tips for your year-end speech?
Sometimes words fall short to describe an experience. Summer 2023, three trainers from The Speech Republic traveled to the Nice Place Foundation nestled in the tiny town of Loitokitok, in the heart of Maasai country. Situated on the border between Kenya and Tanzania, the town overlooks Mount Kilimanjaro in all its majestic beauty.
Our goal? To train the next cohort of future female leaders from the Maasai community.
Our client? Nice Nailantei Leng'ete, founder of Nice Place Foundation and International Postcode Lottery Ambassador in collaboration with the Friedrich Neumann Foundation.
NICE NAILANTEI LENG'ETE
Nice Nailantei Leng'ete is the founder of Nice Place Foundation, award-winning activist and International Postcode Lottery Ambassador. Named among TIME MAGAZINE 100 most influential leaders, Nice aims at eradicating the practice of Female Genital Mutilation as a rite of passage among the Maasai community. Her Nice Place Foundation is not only a shelter for young women fleeing the cut, but also a place of education and activism. Her vision is to empower young Maasai girls to fight for an alternative rite of passage and women's rights in general.
Over 20,000 girls escaped the cut with the help of Nice Place
Nice's story is one of persistence, hope and change, as she is well respected among both male and female members of the Maasai community, and so far has helped over 20,000 girls to escape FGM.
SPEAK, ESPECIALLY WHEN NOT SPOKEN TO
The Speech Republic team worked together with a cohort of Nice Place Foundation alumni, young women who fought hard to get the opportunity to finish high school and were now ready to embark on their next adventure. Future Maasai lawyers, farmers, teachers, doctors. Young women with hopes and dreams, living in a context in which the price for these dreams can be social exclusion or worse.
The inherent strength of these young women is touching and inspiring.
It takes courage to find your voice. And then to use it.
These young women reaffirmed just how powerful a voice can be when it is used to not only speak up for oneself, but for an entire community. When it is used to challenge the status quo for the greater good. Not because they were told to, but because they found the courage to do so and in their own way - and this in a community where they are literally expected to only speak, when spoken to.
At The Speech Republic, we celebrate those who dare to speak up to change the world. Something that is more easily said than done. These young women showed us once more the courage it takes to do so. The courage to find your voice. And then to use it.
Interested in supporting Nice Place Foundation? Please take a look at www.niceplacefoundation.org
4 days. 7 changemakers. Dozens of inspiring stories ... with many more to come.
In February, The Speech Republic team flew to South Africa to facilitate a 'Storytelling for Social Change' training course in the heart of the country's city of gold, Johannesburg. In partnership with the Friedrich Neumann Foundation Africa, the training focused on empowering and equipping a passionate and diverse group of civil society changemakers working across human rights defense, whistleblowing, grassroots democracy and youth development, with the tools they needed to share more impactful narratives in the spaces, and with the audiences that mattered to them.
The 4-day immersive training put each participant through their paces, challenging them on all levels of their own personal communication and storytelling development.
If you see something, say something
Looking at South Africa from a historical perspective, it is clear that stories have had and continue to have the potential to create positive change, across communities and at all levels of civil society, as they can influence policy and aid in critical decision making.
As purpose-driven organizations working the civic space in South Africa these professionals showed that they were all natural storytellers and that despite working in (politically) sensitive spaces, with a lot of external scrutiny at times, that they would continue to fight on behalf of their audience - the country, and her citizens.
At the Speech Republic we actively support individuals and organizations who dedicate their time, efforts and stories to making the world a better place.
If you'd like to know more about the civil society organizations we worked with in South Africa, you can find them here:
The Helen Suzman Foundation: https://hsf.org.za/
The Third Republic: https://t3r.org.za/
PPLAAF: https://www.pplaaf.org/
The SA Schools Debating Board: https://sadebating.org/