This is an All Ears English bonus episode Remote Work English Skills how to set the agenda to respect your team.
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Are you working remotely these days?
In this special bonus episode, get our top three tips on how to set the agenda when you start a remote call in your professional life.
In English.
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Hey, Jessica, how are you doing?
How's everything going out there in Portland?
You know interesting times, but in general going well.
Spending a lot of time on my computer talking to people and not just
Still teaching students, right?
Getting to talk with other members of the All Ears English team.
But also, I'm having like some Zoom meetings with family and friends.
Nice.
I love that.
I mean, that is one thing that's come out of this COVID-19 pandemic that's been good.
Like I feel closer to my family than I ever have.
I've talked to my niece more times in the last few weeks than I have.
Oh, wow.
Yeah, it really is.
It's forcing our hand as the idiom goes, right?
Like on James' birthday, my mom couldn't fly up and visit, so we had to get creative and we all ate hot fudge sundaes together on Skype.
Oh.
Oh, that's hilarious.
That's so fun.
I love that.
I mean, you know, you and I, we've always been working remotely here at All Ears English, right?
We've been remote right from the beginning.
But I bet that a lot of our listeners here are dealing with working remotely for the first time.
And I bet English is part of their day working remotely.
For sure.
And right, like not only having to work remotely, is another, is like one new challenge, but then layering, like the challenge of doing that in another language.
Wow, that's that's a whole other can of worms.
I mean, exactly.
And another layer just add one more another culture, right?
Because you know work translates.
Whether we're online or offline, there's still the cultural piece right.
That if you are just doing what you would do in your culture, when you're speaking with people from, let's say, the US or the UK, it's not going to work, whether you're remote or in person.
So there's a couple layers of complication here that we want to help you guys with here.
Yes, exactly.
So today guys, we're just going to give you some quick tips about how to establish success from the get-go.
I'm using a lot of idioms today.
From the get-go.
Guys, this is just the first of many episodes to come about business English, because many of you guys have been asking for a course in business English.
We plan to build that course for you in 2020, which we are super, super excited about building.
This is getting started with the first step.
So the first step to get started with all of this, we need your help, guys.
We need to know what topics you are struggling with in business English.
So we want you to go over to a special survey and fill it out right now to let us know.
Go to allearsenglish.com slash work.
That's W-O-R-K-
Fill that out.
And from that material, we're going to start to work on the business course, guys.
It's going to be great.
Exactly.
Because, guys, I mean, we are a community, right?
And we want to build this course to help you guys in the best ways that we can.
So hearing from you guys personally...
As many of you as we can to fill out.
This survey is going to help us establish the most useful, most beneficial business course for you guys.
So allearsenglish.com slash work.
Yeah guys, and stay tuned because we may be hosting some live classes coming up here in the next month or so.
So keep your ears open for that.
The live classes would be around business English.
So just keep your eyes open and we'll let you know when and where to sign up when we get it ready.
Okay, so here we go, Jessica, let's get into it.
What would be our first tip for our listeners?
So the first thing guys, and all of these tips are designed to help you have an organized, focused meeting right.
And over on the IELTS side of stuff, we always talk about controlling what you can.
And I think this message translates a lot into the business lessons, right?
So the first thing you can control is the agenda.
What exactly are you going to talk about, right?
And this, guys, you have to plan before you get on the meeting.
Don't just like wait until you know the meeting's supposed to begin at one and at 1255 you're like oh, I guess I should get ready.
And then you start plugging in your equipment and whatnot.
And then it starts and you have no idea what to talk about.
So don't let that happen.
I mean, for sure.
I mean, we want to tie this episode back to our own experience.
I mean, I can tell you that you know, Jessica and I, we meet every week and we talk through different things.
And I'm all week.
I'm planning things I want to say during that meeting, like things I want to remember to talk about things that we need to cover.
All week as it comes to my mind.
I'm making a running list so that I'm not stressing a half an hour before.
And that makes sure that we maximize our time, which I can tell you guys, at least in the US and Western cultures, people value their time.
Oh, for sure.
OK, we don't want to waste people's time.
It is seen as disrespectful, right?
For sure.
If one, you're not organized, right?
And that's just by itself is not great.
And you don't want to present yourself like that in a business meeting.
But then also it can feel disrespectful to someone if, like Lindsay said, if it feels like you're wasting their time, if you're like, oh wait just a minute, there's something right, and you're like looking for something during the meeting.
So again, like just organization is the key.
And, like Lindsay said, I think this is a great tip guys, because I do this too all throughout the week.
Like we know, we're gonna meet next Monday, for example.
Yeah, And as things come to me leading up to that, I'm always making notes.
So we're like, we're super focused.
Exactly.
And that way it doesn't take a ton of time, right?
And so it's a matter of making notes throughout the week as they come to you, keeping it on a simple list.
And then maybe...
I might spend like 20 minutes before the meeting just organizing my list, prioritizing it, right?
Making sure that the right things are there.
And that's it, guys.
And that could save so much time.
So make an agenda.
Now, this kind of assumes that you guys have like a leadership role in that meeting, right?
Because one person is going to make an agenda, essentially, right, Jessica?
Exactly, exactly.
Exactly.
So yeah, like this can go two ways, right?
Like if you are an attendee and not a host.
Like the language has changed now that we're doing this online, right?
So if you are hosting the meeting, then you will be in control of that agenda.
And you're the person that's going to share your screen in the beginning, right?
Share your screen with everyone so everyone in the meeting is looking at the same list of things, because you don't want to be reading off a document that nobody else can see, right?
Again, like that's another way to sort of waste time and allow people's attention to wander.
But on the other side of things guys, if you're just like an attendee to the meeting, you still want to come prepared with questions and objectives.
Definitely, definitely.
And I think it's good to share your screen to take this extra little step, because I think we tend to assume, as humans, that people know what we're thinking.
People are thinking the same thing we're thinking.
Totally.
I think it happens a lot in our meetings that I'll say something or you'll say something, just kind of like a stream of consciousness, and we assume the other just knows what's going on.
But we don't necessarily, right.
I mean, it's a human thing.
This is normal.
Exactly.
I was thinking about that too, because that is something that you and I have learned the more we're doing these online meetings.
It's like we all have to have the same documents open at the same time and you have to verbalize everything.
Right.
So it's like I'll be switching tabs back and forth and just talking.
And I'm like, you don't know even where I am right now.
Yeah.
So like, we're able to be more organized now.
It's like, I'm looking at this document and then you comment.
Yeah, I love it.
I love it.
That's so good.
So guys, you know that next tip is share.
You know, have that agenda, share your screen, share that agenda.
And then, you know, you are verbalizing it.
You're going through it.
And then I love the piece about time, Jessica.
What is that piece about time?
Guys, we want to know what your biggest challenges are when it comes to business English.
So go over and fill out our survey at allearsenglishcom forward slash work and let us know what your challenges are today.
Allearsenglishcom forward slash w o r k.
Yeah, so this is essential, guys.
And I am positive this is a step that a lot of people are skipping right now.
Guys, when you're meeting online with someone, you have no idea what's happening around them, right?
You're not at work, you're not all there till five o'clock or whatever.
So This is an extra thing that's important right now, guys.
At the beginning of the meeting, ask the participants how much time they have to be there, right?
Because it might not be what you expect.
So that is essential because establish that first of all.
Then as you go through the agenda, you know, okay. we are not gonna have enough time for all this.
So we're just gonna do these first three bullet points or we can get it all done.
Yeah, I mean, people take it very personally about their time and you can say this in different ways.
In our upcoming live classes or in our business course, we'll show you how to say this right.
But one thing I like to say is, You know, what are your time constraints for today?
So it sounds very professional.
It sounds respectful.
You're respecting the person as an individual who has a day, right?
And they have things they need to do.
But it's upfront, like it's pretty direct, right?
So there are different ways to say those things, but we'll get into it, guys, in upcoming courses.
Yes.
But that phrase is perfect, guys.
It sounds so professional.
And that vocab is great.
What are your time constraints?
That's perfect.
Yeah.
Okay.
So then as you're going through the agenda, right, you say what you want to get done.
But then Lindsay, do you think we have to check in with the team members, apart from asking about time constraints?
Definitely.
I think that once you get through your agenda, you've said everything you're going to cover.
You've shown them your screen.
You want to check in with them.
Does this fit with your expectations for today?
Or is this what you imagined for today?
Again, there's a lot of ways to say it, but we want to get to the objective, which is making sure everyone kind of feels heard.
Yes.
Yeah.
Totally, guys.
And Lindsay and I have been Lindsay more than me, for sure but we've been educating ourselves a lot lately around different business methodologies and corporate structures and what have you.
And one thing that's really come across to me that I think is suitable here for you guys to remember is that all of the team members first of all want to feel respected and they do deserve to like be given some room as far as suggestions.
Right.
Like what if they thought of something amazing this week?
Right?
And they want to tell you about it.
Like they wanted to talk about this in the meeting and you didn't plan for it.
Right?
So give them that space to express their ideas.
And then as the leader, you make the call as the host and be like, you know what?
This is great.
We're going to talk about this first.
It's amazing.
Or you could be like... this is definitely worth a conversation.
I'm gonna put this on the agenda for next week.
Make sure they see you, put it in that shared doc.
They know it's recorded and it will happen.
Exactly.
Yeah, I love that.
So we wanna find that balance between making sure people get heard and making sure people's ideas get out there, right?
Because we don't wanna miss the ideas.
And at the same time, We need to stick to the plans that we had originally, right?
That too.
So we've got to find that brilliant balance between the two.
And that's how we can have that productive meeting and not start being angry with each other.
This is just the beginning of the meeting, right?
We don't want people to start being all defensive and, oh, they don't care what I have to say.
And this, why am I here?
That just leads to problems.
Oh, my gosh, yeah.
And like, if you turn someone off or accidentally offend somebody at the beginning, you don't know what they're doing, right?
Like you think they're in the meeting because you see them on the webcam, but they're actually in the Facebook tab and not even watching you at all.
Yeah, right.
Get off on the right foot.
Yeah, especially today.
Oh, this is so, God, guys, these skills are so important now, right?
We want to make sure we can continue to grow as professionals, even though we're working from home.
I mean, this is so key.
So Jessica, where should our listeners go to get started letting us know what you guys we want you to come to that survey, and let us know what else you want to learn about working remotely, because we're here to help you guys.
Yes, guys, this business course.
And you know what?
We mentioned it a couple months ago in a podcast and I saw comments on Instagram already like where is the business course?
So we know, guys, this is going to be incredible and it will help so many people.
So let us build it from the start.
Go to allearsenglish.com slash work.
Yes.
All right, Jessica, this has been great.
And I'll see you back on here very soon.
Thanks for hanging out.
My pleasure.
All right.
Have a good day.
Talk to you soon.
Bye.
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