I'm going to give you my top three Business English phrases that I would encourage you to try and use this year.
One of the best ways you're going to see progress and build your confidence is by using new phrases that you didn't before.
Let's crack on then, shall we?
Hello and welcome back to Confident Business English.
I'm Anna, your host and Neuro Language coach.
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Right then, let's get straight to it.
I've got three phrases on the list for today, and what I'm going to do is I'm going to start with the context, then I'll go through the meaning, I'll give you some examples, and there'll be an opportunity for you to practice alongside me.
The first phrase I want to show you is all around decision making and taking action.
Imagine you're in a meeting and you want to get across what you think is the best approach.
a lovely phrase you can use is the best course of action.
The best course of action.
This simply means the most effective or appropriate steps to sort out an issue or a problem or handle a situation.
Let me give you some examples.
I really feel the best course of action here is to postpone the meeting until we have more information.
I think the best course of action is to prioritize the most critical tasks first.
And then we can revisit the other things later.
You might even want to ask somebody a question.
What do you think the best course of action is here?
Now over to you. I want you to practice these sentences, repeat them out loud or in your head if you're in a public place and you don't want to look a little bit weird.
I believe the best course of action is to continue what we're doing.
What do you think is the best course of action?
I believe the best course of action is to wait until we know more wonderful we move on let's go into a different context now and this is really about expressing how you feel about business performance this phrase in particular I feel is really really really underused and I would absolutely encourage
you to add this into your speech.
Context. Imagine you have a meeting this month and you need to report on the performance of 2024 and you want to express that you're happy with the performance but we're not going to use the word happy.
We're going to use the word pleased.
I'm really pleased with how the team did last year I'm very pleased with how the team performed I'm really really pleased with how everything came off that just essentially means how everything happened equally you could use it in the negative you could say well actually I'm not really very pleased
with the performance last year don't worry I know you're thinking okay but Anna so what's the difference between to be happy with something and to be pleased with something?
A very valid question, of course.
To be pleased with something, you're talking about, yes, I'm satisfied with the outcomes and the performance.
That's why it's such a great fit in business English.
Whereas happy is getting across more of a general personal feeling of contentment or joy.
Both are used in a business context, but you can see how with performance and results and outcome, I'm pleased or I'm not pleased with something is actually a much better fit.
Let's practice then.
I'm going to give you some sentences.
Just repeat wherever you are.
Overall, I'm really pleased with last year's performance.
I'm really pleased with how the project's going.
I'm not very pleased with the work that's being done.
I'm really pleased with your progress so far.
Last but not least, we go into another territory and this phrase is actually in the context of next steps and action planning.
It actually appears at the end of a sentence rather than at the beginning.
And the sentence we're going to look at is, and then we can take it from there.
Let me give you an example so you can see how this works.
Imagine you're working with your team on a project to develop a company survey.
You're just in the beginning phases and you've had a meeting to decide on the different actions.
you decide that the first step is just to brainstorm what information is that you want to get out of your employees so I might say to you well why don't you go away and speak to the HR team get an idea of what they're looking for and then we can take it from there essentially what I'm saying is we'll
decide on the next steps based on the outcome of this task I mean how common is that in a business environment we're always doing that Here's another scenario, and as a senior manager, this is definitely a situation that you might come across.
Imagine you're interviewing for a role and you have to have multiple interviews.
In fact, I've got a client right now that's going through this process.
If you're involved with a headhunter and you've contacted them, they might say something like this to you.
Well, look, Anna, send me across your CV.
I'll take a look at it and we can take it from there.
Meaning we'll decide what to do next once I've had a look at your CV.
Here we go, repeat out loud wherever you are.
If you don't mind, send me across the information first and then we can take it from there.
Let's schedule a meeting with the client, speak to them and then we can take it from there.
let's get in touch with the U .S.
office first find out what they have to say and then we can take it from there that's a wrap on your session today then just to recap then the first phrase is the best course of action the second phrase is to be pleased or not pleased with something and last but not least and then we can take it from there
you've got the phrases then and now it's over to you try and actually practice these use them in your next meeting throw them into a little conversation give them a whirl and let me know how you get on thanks again for squeezing your session in with me today if you love the episodes don't forget to
sign up and become a member and I will see you again next week have a good one bye
