I sound too basic
I don't sound professional enough
This isn't the right vocabulary
These are words that I hear all the time
Today I'm going to train you on one specific business verb so that you can build your confidence to use it in real life
Let's crack on
Hello and welcome to Confident Business English.
If you're a senior manager and English communication forms a really central part of your role,
But, and there's a but, you lack confidence when you have to speak, this podcast is designed especially for you.
My name is Anna.
I'm a business English expert.
I'm an accredited neuro language coach.
And I work with senior managers just like you from all around the world every single day.
Today even, in fact, I had several sessions this morning before I recorded this episode.
If you really find these episodes useful, don't forget to subscribe, follow, or even recommend it to a colleague or friend that you think could really benefit from building their confidence in English.
For the topic today, I want to train you on a very specific verb because I had feedback over the last few weeks that looking at verbs is very, very useful.
However, rather than me just listing the different definitions, I want to try something a bit different today.
We're going to look at storytelling.
I'm going to be taking you through a day in the life of Maria.
And through that, I'm going to be training you on this specific business verb.
The verb that I've cherry picked for today is pick up in all its beautiful forms.
I didn't just choose this randomly.
This is because it pops up all the time in a business context, but it has different meanings, which I'm sure could make you feel a little bit confused and then you could lack confidence in terms of what things mean, but also how to use it.
Before we dive in, there's four broad categories would pick up, which I think are really useful to tell you at the beginning.
The first one is it's about lifting in some way.
The second one, it can also be about collecting in some way.
Thirdly, about improving.
And finally, increasing.
As we go through the examples, I'll keep coming back to those categories.
But as I said before, sit back, relax, and enjoy the story.
Let me give you some context to Maria.
First of all, we need to find out who is this person.
It's not John, which is a little bit unusual.
Maria is a senior sales manager.
She joined an international company about six months ago.
She has a partner, she has a son, they live in Madrid and just to be clear by the way this isn't actually a real person but it's a collection, a combination of lots of different clients that I've worked with over the years and their situations.
Our journey actually begins even before Maria started in this new company.
And this is the first use of pickup that we're going to have a look at.
In her previous role, unfortunately, Maria actually had a really difficult boss.
They were criticizing her a lot.
There was a lot of things going on, a lot of politics, a lot of dynamics.
And particularly one day, they actually corrected Maria in front of the client for her English.
She felt completely embarrassed and humiliated, and it really knocked her confidence.
And I'm going to be honest, she spent quite a long time after that really feeling bad about it.
But then she decided, well, look, there's nothing I can do anymore.
It happened.
I'm not really going anywhere in this company.
I just need to pick myself up and continue.
To pick yourself up then is definitely something you would hear more in a personal context, like if you're making conversation with a colleague, and it means to recover.
After a knock, a setback, regain your confidence, move forward.
And coming back to the categories from before, it's like you're literally lifting yourself up after being knocked down.
And that's what she did.
So she moved company, she started a new chapter, and here we are.
We're going to start with Maria's day.
It's Monday morning.
You know the feeling.
You're like, oh my goodness, not again.
Her commute is actually around 40 minutes and she's got to drop the kids off in the morning.
And so she's kind of like shuffling everyone along like, OK, let's go, let's go, let's go.
She drops them off at school.
Bye.
See you later.
But just before she goes to the office, she has to pick up something from the pharmacy on her way into work.
This may be one of the versions of pickup that you're much more familiar with, which is essentially, if we come back to our categories before, it's collect, but it's collect and also buy, right?
You may have heard one of your colleagues say something like, oh, I can't believe I was late this morning.
I had to drop the kids off at school.
Then I had to pick something up from the pharmacy and there was a traffic jam on the way in.
Pick up something from a shop means collect it and pay for it or just pay for it, actually, because then Maria's partner before she left is like, oh, don't forget to pick up some milk on the way home from the supermarket.
So pick up means to go and buy something.
Or it could be, for example, if you're in the pharmacy and you've got that prescription, right?
Normally you have to go and pick it up and it's waiting for you.
But it's not always that something's waiting for you, right?
The milk in the supermarket isn't waiting for you.
You just go and buy it.
Just to add as well, this is post-recording when I'm editing.
Yes, to pick something up can mean to collect something and to pay for it, but not always.
Your colleague could say, for example, I need to leave work.
I've got to go and pick something up from my mum's house, which just means to collect.
So it can mean either, depending on the place.
Pick something up, pay for it.
Pick something up, just collect it.
Anyway, she heads in, she parks up.
She's on the second floor.
I don't know what your routine is in the morning, but she's kind of sets up all her things.
She's got a little coffee flask.
She's got quite a lot of meetings coming up today, so it's going to be a busy day.
So she's like, oh, I'll just have, you know, five minutes to myself.
Just get myself together and continue with the day.
Our next meaning for a pickup is really actually talking about her new role, because this was a big shift for Maria, actually.
She'd been working in Spain in a national company, a technology company,
In sales.
But this was a jump.
It was global responsibility.
It meant speaking in English a lot more often.
And it took her definitely a couple of months to settle into this role.
And it was hard to pick everything up at the beginning.
There was a lot to pick up.
You can probably tell from that example that we're talking here about learning something.
And this comes back to our initial categories at the beginning, which is like collecting information.
I know I'm stretching the category a little bit there, but I think you can follow me.
Anyway, we move on.
She's in the meeting and they're talking about one of the big accounts that she has, because remember, she's a sales director.
And she had a meeting with this particular client last week and she's reporting back to them about how it went.
And she's telling them about it and she's like, you know, it went well, but I'm kind of picking up that they're a little bit unsure about the contract.
I'm sensing that they're a little bit hesitant.
As a coach, you can actually pick up how people are feeling at the beginning of a session.
I can tell if somebody seems a little bit stressed, a little bit burnt out, or maybe also really energetic and they have a lot of energy.
I'm like, wow, you seem to be in a really good mood today.
Coming back to our categories before then, to pick up something from somebody is like an understanding.
It's a sense.
You're picking up an emotion.
What's the impression that I'm getting?
And you're going to hear that potentially if somebody's analyzing a situation, they're telling you what they think about the interaction with somebody.
What are you picking up?
Side note, to pick something up isn't just an intuition or a sense.
You may also hear in meetings, especially if they're online, somebody saying, I'm really sorry, John, but I couldn't pick up what you were saying, meaning I couldn't actually hear you.
But again, it comes back to this category of collecting information in some way.
I couldn't pick up what you were saying.
The audio is not clear.
Or I was picking up that they weren't very happy about the situation.
Does that make sense?
Then just before the end of the meeting, one of our other colleagues says, do you mind if we talk about the other account that we have?
Maria is like, well, I'm a little bit pressed for time today.
So could we pick it up tomorrow instead?
Here, the meaning is essentially just can we talk about it at a later date because I don't have time now.
I know it's a little bit of a stretch, but I think we could maybe put it in the lifting category.
It's like, OK, can we lift it and take it to another day rather than today?
Yeah, I know I'm not buying it either.
But anyway, we just have to put it in a category.
We'll put it in the lift category.
But it means to talk about something later.
Super, super common in a business context and definitely one that you're going to come across.
After the meeting, she's like, I'm just going to head back to the desk very quickly, try and actually get around to doing some emails and actually do some work rather than just being in meetings all day.
And I'll get him some last minute prep for the meeting this afternoon where I have to tell them about the quarter.
She's like, I'll just have a quick lunch at the desk.
Haven't got time today.
And then she's in the meeting about the portfolio.
And this brings us to the next meaning of pick up.
Maria primarily works in the public sector, which is important here.
And she's explaining a little bit about what's been happening in the last quarter because things have been slowing down quite significantly.
And she explains that that's to do with some external factors like elections, which has essentially brought everything to a standstill.
But she wants to give them some reassurance because she thinks that things are definitely going to pick up towards the end of the year.
If you work in sales or, for example, things like engagement or it could also be activity, any of these things, if they pick up, it means they start to increase again.
And that brings us to that next category of increasing.
And also as well, we could say it's also about improving.
If sales pick up, it's a good thing generally.
If activity, if we work in social media and marketing, picks up, it's a good thing.
Engagement.
So maybe we could put those two in the same category and increase and improve.
Finally, it's getting towards the end of the day.
Maria's like absolutely knackered.
It's just been back to back meetings all day.
And now she's going to start her second job, which is part time chauffeur.
I'm sure you will understand this if you have kids.
So she leaves the office and she's like, I'm just going to try and sneak out so that nobody catches me.
You know, those things where you're like,
Just outside the door and then someone's like can I just grab you for five minutes and you're like really okay she's like I've got to pick up the kids sorry it's a really good excuse actually
Again, this is another meaning that you might be really familiar with.
To pick somebody up is to go and collect them.
If you work at the office, perhaps you have to pick up your kids from school.
Perhaps if your kids are a little bit older, you might pick them up from the station when they come back to visit you from university, for example.
So she picks up the kids from school and then the usual drill begins.
Football, tennis, ballet, whatever it is that they've got lined up.
She drops them off.
And this is a good thing to remember.
These are good phrasal verb pairs.
You pick somebody up, you drop them off.
She drops them off and then she's like, oh my goodness, I completely forgot.
It completely slipped my mind, but I've got to go and pick up some milk at the supermarket.
So she rushes over to the supermarket, picks up the milk and a few other bits and bobs while she's there.
Goes back to pick up the kids and then they go home.
And then normal family life begins, of course.
So let's wrap up the episode there today.
And what's important for me is not necessarily that you memorize all of these sentences and you're ready to go and use them.
It's that you're understanding the key categories, lift, collect, use.
Increase, improve.
And that should really help you decipher when you're listening to things, but also to help you feel more confident to use it as well.
All right, let's leave it there.
I really hope there's something that you could take away from that episode that made you feel more confident.
Let me know what you think about that style, the format.
I wanted to try something different out.
You can let me know and also just say hello.
Come and find me on LinkedIn.
The link is in the description box.
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Thanks as always for choosing Confident Business English for your training this week.
It's always a pleasure to be here with you and I will see you same time, same place next week.
