This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 427, How to Strengthen Bonds on a Team in English.
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Hi, Michelle. How are you today?
I'm good, Lindsay. How are you?
Good, good. Are we we talk about dreams today?
I love talking about dreams, not actual dreams, but dreams in a different way.
Lindsay, when you are building the team for All Ears English, what are some types of things that you think about?
Well, definitely I like, I try to think about strengths, right?
We took the assessment strengths finder a bunch of times, a few times over the years.
And However, sometimes there's a tension between how we could all use all of our strengths perfectly and what needs to be done.
The constant tension that I think managers and owners struggle with is how do we get people in their strengths for most of what they're doing, but then there are all these other things that we need to get done.
But strength is what I think, how can people be using their unique abilities to create something very unique for the company yeah yeah agreed i mean lindsay would you say that all is english would you say we're the dream team i do i mean we're so lucky i think we're very lucky you know we've we're all been on the team for a long time and we know each other well and we can count on each other we just did an episode about you know filling in for someone or doing a solid right helping someone out and i think we have that on our team i think we help each other out when we need it.
Yeah. Yeah. I agree.
I agree. So that's great.
So the dream team today, we're going to talk about different ways to positively describe teams, both at work or out of the office.
So this is going to be fun.
And this one, I love the dream team.
And yeah, this could be two or more people.
I just like how it sounds.
Let's see when you hear the dream team.
What do you think? I actually think about basketball.
And that's what that makes me wonder are you watching a ton of basketball these days because oh and your team uh won right the denver nuggets yes basketball has okay i don't even know if they won or not but all i know is basketball is on in my house all the time these last couple of weeks and oh i'm just done with it oh i well i'm enjoying it like the knicks just won a huge game it was a shocker oh my gosh it It was great.
The issue is my son.
He stays up. It used to be when he started watching basketball that we would let him watch the first quarter.
Yeah. And now, and then it just, he got more and more into it.
And I can't tell him, especially during the playoffs, I cannot tell him to go to sleep.
No. And staying up way too late.
And sports are so late when you live on the East Coast. So late.
Yeah. Yeah. Interesting.
Oh, I'm having so much fun.
Okay. And there's a game tonight too anyway so i don't know why it makes me think of basketball maybe it comes back to like i think it's the olympic team okay okay that was a term i feel like that they used right right that's what i'm looking right now yeah the olympics 1992 united states men's olympic basketball team i don't know if it's i don't know if it's every year if it's called the dream team but i think it's specifically about 1992 apparently clearly we're dating ourselves here michelle but guys the good good news is you don't need to be a basketball player to call your team, the dream
team. We can take this out of basketball and sports and pop culture, bring it into our workplace and say we are the dream team, right?
Yep. We're the dream team.
All right. So yeah, you could say another person signed on.
Oh yeah. We are definitely the dream team.
I love it. Super interesting.
Okay. So dream team is our first fun way of talking about our team.
And it does matter matter how we talk about our team.
It matters when we have a win on our team where someone's done something great or we've done something great to acknowledge that.
Yeah, exactly. That's true.
And I love this next one.
So you could say the dynamic duo.
You could say as a joke, the dynamic trio, but this is usually for two people.
What does this mean to you?
The dynamic dynamic duo.
Same idea, right? Yeah.
The idea that when two people team up, they have a really unique combination of skills and they succeed well together.
They're like a pair.
For example, I really feel like we're the dynamic duo when we go into sales pitches.
We have such an impressive record. Yeah.
It's a cool way of if you really enjoy and do well working alongside a teammate, maybe it's a podcasting co -host or maybe it's like a sales team.
Maybe Maybe it's a team of a salesperson and a technical professional making that sale, right?
It's a complemented bill set, okay?
Right. So yeah, maybe you know that someone is usually – maybe someone is the closer, right?
You hear that expression.
Maybe you know, okay, this one is good at – this partner is good at introducing the idea.
And then we have the closer when she whips out the forms and the contracts and talks about the money, right?
So that could make a dynamic duo.
Yeah. That's really interesting.
A lot of SaaS companies will do also the pair of the...
Like I said before, the person that does the sale works on the psychology, aggravating the needs, really pushing the buttons of the potential client, and then the technical person comes in and explains the nuts and bolts of how it works.
It also makes me think of good cop, bad cop type of dynamic.
Yes. Yes. That's another really good one.
That's a good one. Just to get into that just for a second, it's always that someone is someone plays the good.
So you know what? I think that deserves a whole episode.
Actually, I'm gonna guys hit follow that's probably going to be on all ears English, but that definitely it's going to just Yeah, this is a good a good one for an Okay, guys, open your search bar right now and search for all ears English podcast, hit the follow button that is coming up.
That's an important phrase to know in our culture in in our language, in our TV, that kind of thing.
So, okay. I'm excited.
Where to now, Michelle?
All right. Well, I think we should take a little break.
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All right, Michelle, there are two others that we want to teach here.
What is the first one?
All right. So this is the A -team.
Yes. So I looked into this.
so apparently this is a tv show in the 80s but we use it now to talk about kind of the best group right same idea dream team i mean all of this has like the same idea yeah um doing the best work a plus work basically so yeah if we send rick and camilla in there they will close the deal they're our a team yes good and just a little extension from this sometimes when we think about individual players right individual people you might say you know they're an a player player right so that's the idea they come from the A team maybe I'm not sure if they're connected but if you're just an individual
contributor at work and you just provide a lot of value you're an A player okay right yeah and it kind of reminds me of like a list like a list Celebrity right the top of the top right the Brad Pitt the Tom Cruise everyone knows right exactly exactly um and then I I love this next one.
This is also used very frequently outside of business.
Tell us about this one, Lindsay.
Yeah, this is super fun.
Partners in crime. So Michelle, is this really, does this mean that we're out on the street committing crimes?
No, it doesn't. I hope not.
But yeah, it means you do things well together.
You work well together or maybe you're just great friends.
You go on a lot of adventures together.
Maybe you get in some trouble together, kind of good fun trouble, that kind of thing.
Right? Yep. Totally.
So the crime quote unquote could be having those adventures as friends or could be succeeding as a team at work.
Again, you're making sales, you're making presentations together, you're going to conferences together and building networks for your company.
Okay. Partners in crime.
I think of this as like oh you got some kind of successful benchmark created with someone you high -five them you say hey partners in crime nice work right that's the vibe right yeah exactly so for example i know taylor and penelope are partners in crime especially when it comes to making social media videos i can see them opening a business together one day yeah nice wonderful all right michelle who's your partner in crime at work you know oh michelle i was hoping you would say that you and aubrey i would say we're all partners in crime what about you exactly feel the same way you know when you
and i podcast something different comes out when aubrey and i podcast when you and aubrey podcast it's a different vibe it's very cool that different vibes different kinds of chemistry can come out in the conversation between different pairs okay it's true yeah really we've been we've been podcasting a long time so we'd really for the og team here the oh that's true that's true yep so um yeah and as we talked about already and teamwork is just so important to have that good team know your strengths and know the best way to have everybody you know take their part so yes yes okay so let's play time
yeah let's do a role play so here we are managers and we're trying to decide which members of the team will be going on a business trip to close an an important deal.
This happens all of the time.
Just a few weeks ago, my partner went to San Diego to try to close a deal with a company there.
And it really matters who gets paired up to go into that room with the company, right?
Yeah, you have to make the best choice.
Yeah, for sure. All right.
All right, here we go.
So, okay, how about Jasmine and Lisa?
That could work. I just want to make sure we're sending the a team though maybe let's add a couple more people okay dream team here we go who are you thinking how about trish and marcus they're kind of a dynamic duo with public speaking that's true and we need that and luca he's marcus's partner in crime they're kind of sinister but work so well together they could get this done perfect all right looks like we're adding more people on the on the flight right yeah we just have money to throw around i guess nice oh and we had a bone another high high level bonus words they're like a little bit they
cause a little trouble okay nice yeah we'll do another episode about that word one day too there's a lot of ways that word could be used right do they cause trouble do they do they like uh scheme in ways that you know cause problems but really interesting yeah so let's go through what we said michelle all right here we go you said i just want to make sure we're sending the a team so i'm kind of questioning your initial choice of jasmine and lisa i think we could do better right which looks like we're not sending them at all as like as i go down it yeah they're not going we're having a brainstorming
session here a business decision at the highest level so you said okay dream team here we go who are you thinking and that means like start the brainstorming start the thinking start the ideas right building the dream team yep yeah um and then you said how about trish and marcus they're kind of the dynamic kind of a dynamic duo yeah i said that dynamic yeah you could have said i think that is better you could say the i mean you could like if it's it's kind of elevating it though right they're the dynamic duo you could actually use the or branding them like if you say the dynamic duo it's like
you're branding them a little bit it right branding is yeah yep yeah but both um both do work there yeah exactly and then here we go with luca and marcus um he's marcus's partner in crime they're kind of sinister but work so well together so i'm using i mean do you think when i say sinister here though do you think i'm saying it's like a good thing or a bad thing or just kind of um i think you're saying they have like different methods of achieving goals yeah so maybe they're sneaky or they're strategic in a different way uh so but you want to succeed so i don't think it's a negative thing i think
it's a positive thing in this context i'm saying like oh maybe they're they're kind of bad boys but they'd get it done so i'm happy right just to just circle back to what we said earlier maybe they play the good cop bad cop in a sales environment maybe they do that and you could say that might be a little bit of a sinister thing to do because most people just want to go in and build a relationship with a client but marcus and luca they play good cop bad cop though i don't think we have any inventory left for this next year marcus right i think we have to put them on a waiting list and then you
build the need i mean you know so you're funny yeah yeah exactly there's Marcus and Luca.
Anyway, so yeah, partner in crime.
Speaking of dynamic, we have episode 404 of the Business English podcast that was Don't Miss This Dynamic Episode.
Nice. I love it. What's our takeaway for today?
Talking about your team.
Any thoughts, Michelle?
I mean, there's so much here.
Being aware of your team, acknowledging that you're close to someone, one, right?
Like saying, oh, Lindsay, you're my partner in crime with podcasting.
I mean, that might make somebody feel good about themselves as well.
Like to kind of include them in that team feeling.
There's endless ways to use this at work, really, I think.
Yeah. On this show, we come back to basic human needs, human connection.
People need to feel connected.
This is a variation of it.
People need to feel like they're a part of a team.
They want that. We don't want to just be individuals floating in the universe.
So So it really quickly builds that connection if you do pair up with someone and say, hey, that went great.
We're partners in crime here.
Let's go for it next time.
Let's let's do this.
Let's go for this next account.
Right. Yeah. Yeah. I totally agree.
All right. Oh, man.
Well, this was fun.
I'm glad we talked about this.
And let's continue being the dream team.
Sounds good to me. You have a good day.
I'll see you next time.
You too. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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