Do you ever feel like your communication style becomes much more limited in English?
Today's episode is about changing that.
I want to train you on business phrases to help you sound more natural and more like yourself at work, which I hope will make you feel more confident.
Let's crack on.
Hello and welcome back to Confident Business English.
My name is Anna.
I'm a Neural Language Coach.
This podcast is perfect for you if you find yourself in a senior manager role.
You can already speak English, but you lack confidence when you do it.
This can manifest in different ways.
Perhaps you feel insecure when speaking in front of other people.
Perhaps it's a specific task that you have to do.
Whatever it is, you are in exactly the right place.
I give you practical tips, but also thoughts about mindset, to really help you take on this challenge.
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So the inspiration behind this week's episode.
I was speaking with one of my clients recently and they are a senior manager that works in a role in the UK.
They have a really solid level, but one of the things that's always in the back of their mind is the way that they express themselves.
And they said something like this.
In my own language, I tell stories.
I use storytelling in business.
I use analogies.
I have these little sayings that I use to connect with people.
But in English, it just feels a little bit flat.
What we're going to cover today then, is I'm going to walk you through several different types of business proverbs and business expressions.
We'll look at what it means, when people use it, how to use it naturally.
And hopefully, by doing that, of course, we help you feel more confident when you speak, because that's what we're aiming for underneath all of this.
The key message I want to get across here, first of all, is that context is very important with expressions and phrases, right.
You can't just use them here, there and everywhere and whatever.
Some expressions are more informal.
Some can sound a little bit cliche if you overuse them.
And you've got to kind of find the right situation and the right moment to say it.
So they can be a little bit tricky.
Second, it's very important how you learn the phrase.
And I really recommend doing it in chunks, which is what we're going to have a look at today, which is not only the expression, but what fits around it, right?
Because sometimes we have these little phrases that we use to introduce the phrase.
Thirdly, I would like to reiterate that The things we're going to cover today, these are not essential things.
You don't have to use these things to be able to communicate in business.
Remember, the most important thing overall is a clear and understandable message.
Let's have a look at the first category here, which is around tasks and executions.
Why does this matter for you?
Well obviously, because you're spending all of your time thinking about prioritizing tasks, managing time.
Where do we need to focus resources?
And all of these phrases and expressions are connected to the same idea, which is it's better to make some progress than waiting for the ideal situation.
In most cases not always, but if you're working in a fast paced, fast moving job, often delivery over perfection is best.
Three ones that you can use here.
Something is better than nothing.
Done is better than perfect.
And finally, better late than never.
Those are the phrases on their own, but how can you actually use that in context in a natural way?
It's going to sound something like this.
Imagine where you have a draft presentation.
People keep going over it, going over it, looking at all the notes, editing things, and you're like look guys, at this stage, done is better than perfect.
So we just need to move on.
We need to leave it as it is and we can come back to it later in the future.
Let's think about a situation where, for example, you have delayed some work.
You're a little bit behind a deadline.
The client is kind of getting a little bit agitated and you're like well, we're behind schedule, but better be late than never, right?
Also, we have to think about the context here.
This is probably not an excuse that you would give to the client, for example.
You're not going to be like, oh, well, better late than never.
Again, I think you would know to use the best judgment here and decide that that would be something internally facing potentially.
But just so you know, that would be the tone, right?
It's more informal, more casual.
Then if you have a team that's always overanalyzing something, right?
Maybe you can think of a team member like that rather than taking action.
And you're like, look, let's just share the first draft today.
Something is better than nothing.
So let's just get it out there.
We can always come back and review it later, which is a really nice way to focus on the fact that just yeah, something's better than nothing.
Let's just get it out there.
It's not going to be perfect.
We just need to move forward.
Then if we have a look at risk taking, this is a really nice one, because often when you're in your role, You're having to balance different things right.
Different opportunities.
Should we do this?
What's the cost of doing that?
But especially if you're in a role that's looking at growing things and moving into the unknown, maybe taking business risks.
This is a beautiful one.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Which essentially is a little bit more of a formalized way or a business way of saying if we don't try, we'll never know.
Imagine that you're trying to enter a new market and you want to do it despite the uncertainty.
You could say, well, yes, launching internationally involves risks, but nothing ventured.
Nothing gained.
Therefore, I believe that this is a good way forward.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
And you'll notice that I introduced it with just a but, right?
Yes, it's risky, but, you know, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
This could be quite a persuasive argument potentially in a more informal context.
I wouldn't say this is something that you would bring to the board meeting, for example, which is where you might like to lay out your case more formally.
Next, let's think about communication.
And this is really important for you, because you probably spend some of your time communicating strategy expectations and also advising your team and guiding them about what messages they need to be putting out there.
This next one is a little bit long.
It's a little bit of a mouthful.
Okay, by what I mean by that is it's a little bit complex to say.
I'm going to say it slowly and then I'm going to give you the short version.
So the long version is this.
Tell them what you're going to tell them.
Tell them, then tell them what you told them.
What does that mean?
It's like you have to keep reinforcing the key message all the time.
Tell them what you're going to tell them.
Tell them, then tell them what you told them.
This is actually often a piece of advice I give to clients in the session when I go through their presentations and I'm like look, your key message that you told me at the beginning isn't coming through when you're speaking.
And it's a case of see how I'm linking it in there.
It's a case of tell them what you're going to tell them.
Tell them, then.
Tell them what you told them.
Now you might be sitting in your car or in the gym thinking good grief, Anne.
I'm not really sure how you expect me to remember that.
So let's do the little shortened version, which I think might work a little bit better for you, which is tell them what you told them and then tell them again.
Next, let's look at time.
And I want to actually come back to the one that I used in the example.
You're always trying to find ways to be more efficient, right?
And maximize your resources and time.
This is where this idiomatic expression, but also doubles up as a proverb comes in.
Kill two birds with one stone.
This is a really, really old expression. which means to achieve two goals with one action.
It's quite similar in other languages, but not exactly the same.
It's quite violent in English.
It's like kill them with one stone.
It's just kind of a brutal way to kill the birds.
But there you go.
This is often used in the sense, of course, when you're talking about two things side by side.
So let's imagine you're like OK well, why don't we just meet up for a coffee tomorrow and then we can update each other and we can have a look at the budget at the same time, right?
Two birds, one stone.
This is a very natural way to use it.
We tend not to use the whole thing.
You could also say, well, why don't we meet for a coffee in the morning?
We can catch up and we can have a look at the budget and we can kill two birds with one stone.
Or you could just do the shortened version where it's like yeah, let's meet up, catch up, have a coffee.
Look at the budget two birds, one stone.
Whatever way you would feel most comfortable.
But it's a beautiful little phrase that you can throw in there to talk about using your time efficiently, which is why I wanted to include it.
Finally, the last proverb that we're going to have a look at today.
I was inspired to include this one because I had a client yesterday who was talking about a problem that they have identified.
They know something is going on and they need to investigate it further, and this could happen with you, right?
You're seeing things happening across your team and you want to investigate a little bit more.
The proverb is Where there's smoke, there's fire.
And that kind of makes sense, right?
If something's happening, if we're getting some early warning signs here, I think we need to investigate to see what is going on.
And obviously it comes from the literal connection between smoke and fire and it becomes a metaphor for hidden problems or truths.
Imagine that you hear several people talking about the same manager or the same problem, suggesting a little bit of a deeper issue going on.
That's exactly where you could use it.
You could say, for example, I can see that there's something going on here.
We're getting quite a lot of complaints.
And in my view, where there's smoke, there's fire.
So I think we should look into it more.
So let's conclude.
How do you take it forward to actually feel confident saying it?
Because it's one thing to hear it, but then you've got to say it.
I would really recommend picking a phrase from today, literally writing it down exactly as I said it.
One that you would really like to use and you can imagine yourself saying it.
Write it down and use it exactly like that.
You don't need to do any funny business.
You don't need to change it, whatever.
Write it down in its entirety and give it a whirl.
And hopefully, as always, underneath what we're hoping to do is by giving you the tools to use some of these phrases, we're helping you feel more confident, more like yourself. and more like the senior manager you want to be and the leader that you want to be.
That's it for today.
And thank you so much for tuning into Confident Business English.
It's been wonderful to be here with you.
And I will see you same time, same time, same time, same time, same place next week.
Bye-bye.
