Let's continue answering more of your burning business English questions.
On the agenda today a question about an extremely common business verb and how can you add more impact to your messages as a senior manager?
Let's crack on, shall we?
Hello and welcome back to Confident Business English.
My name is Anna.
I am your neuro language coach.
My job here on this podcast is to provide you with lots of practical tips as well as, I hope, useful insights that you can take away and build your confidence with.
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Let's crack on with some of your questions.
In my experience, clarifying a question and a doubt can help stop you breaking the flow when you're speaking, for example, in meetings.
And it just helps you feel confident you've got the right option.
All of these questions have been sent in from other senior managers who listen to this podcast from all over the world.
And first up on the list, we have Oliver.
I'm going to play the question to you and then I'm going to give you the answer.
Hello, Anand.
First of all, thank you very much for your very useful podcast.
My name is Oliver and I work as an engineer in a German company with locations worldwide.
The English verb consider is used very frequently by native speakers.
I would like to use it more naturally as well.
Because it has several slightly different meanings, I sometimes find it difficult to choose the correct usage.
Could you please explain the different ways to use, consider and provide some clear example sentences?
Thank you very much and best regards from the Black Forest in Germany.
All right, I got it.
And thank you so much Oliver, for sending in your question, because I'm sure it might be something that you've had on your mind too, right?
So what I can tell from what you've asked me is essentially, you want to understand how to use the verb consider.
The key point I would say here is this is definitely a very core business English verb which pops up quite frequently.
So it's definitely worth your time to feel more confident with it.
If we start with the definition, the definition of consider is to think about something carefully, usually before making a decision.
If we compare that with something like think about, for example, it's more formal and it implies, I would say, more evaluation.
Which of course means.
No wonder it's common in a business context, because we are evaluating things and thinking carefully about different options all the time.
The next part I want to share with you is there's three very common structures with consider.
The first one is to use a gerund.
For example, we're considering launching a new project.
We're considering expanding into a new business.
We're considering reviewing our current protocols.
The second one is to have a noun.
For example, we're considering a new strategy or we're considering a new approach.
Thirdly and finally, another one to bring to your attention here is to consider whether.
We need to consider whether this is a viable option or not.
We need to consider whether this is the right approach.
How do we use it and in what setting?
It's a very strategic piece of vocabulary, which is great for you, of course, as a senior manager, because you're generally talking high level.
In the context of evaluating options, it's perfect.
We need to consider the long-term impact.
If I compared that with the sentence, for example we need to think about the long-term impact.
Consider is more formal, more thorough evaluation, more examination.
There are some more areas we need to consider before moving forward.
Let's consider the wider impact on the organization.
Another time that we can use it is when we want to be a little bit more diplomatic.
So rather than me coming out and just saying, okay, I think you need to think about this again.
This is wrong.
You may want to consider another approach.
You may want to consider holding off on this until next year.
Again, it's got that slightly more formal touch than think about.
However, one thing that consider doesn't show is urgency.
And I think this is important.
Imagine you're in a situation where you want to get across that something is extremely urgent.
For example, we need to make a decision now.
If I were to compare that with something like we need to consider our options, that certainly doesn't get across the urgency that I want to give.
In the end, what it means is thinking about something carefully evaluating something, examining something.
So I hope that clarifies that for you, Oliver.
And for anybody else who had that question, those are some clear examples and structures that you can use with the wonderful business verb consider.
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Next question we have is sent in by Lourdes.
Hi, Anna.
My name is Lourdes and I am a senior account manager based in Valencia.
For my question today.
I would really like to ask you about some phrases that can be used in business conversation to emphasize the message.
I tend to use evidently, or obviously quite a lot, but I was wondering if there are any other specific expressions that are better suite to a business context.
Thanks so much for your support and have a wonderful day.
An excellent question.
Thank you so much.
And I hope you have a wonderful day too.
What you're asking me then, is how can I add emphasis to the message without sounding repetitive and using the same things like evidently or obviously?
This is so important in terms of adding emphasis to your message.
If you are a senior manager that has to convince or persuade people whether that's selling an actual product or whether that's selling a project, adding these little touches into the way that you speak makes a big difference.
In my view, what this boils down to is both the technical part of what you actually say and secondly, how you actually say it, which is the delivery.
I'd like to pick up on three points then.
The first is about some adverbs, second, phrases, and finally, delivery.
For the examples I'm going to give you.
We're going to have some context and I'd like you to imagine that you're meeting with a potential client.
They currently have inefficient reporting processes.
What a surprise.
And you're presenting your service as the solution which is going to save them time and hopefully improve their accuracy a little bit as well.
Let's start with one of the best adverbs for emphasizing scale.
Significantly.
This will significantly reduce your reporting time.
We believe this will significantly improve your service.
So simple, but so powerful.
If I compare that with just, this will reduce your reporting time.
Okay.
Well, that doesn't sing to me.
It doesn't draw my attention.
It doesn't have any impact.
This will significantly reduce your reporting time.
Notice how I'm putting the stress on that word to give it more boom, to give it more impact.
Next, an adverb that you can use to show complete commitment.
We fully understand your challenges.
The team here is fully behind you, will fully support you, we're fully on board with this project.
This just adds that extra touch.
If I said we understand your challenges okay great, but we fully understand your challenges and you put that emphasis on the word, it just hits different right.
Next.
If you want to highlight priority, I would recommend using something like particularly or especially.
Particularly is quite a mouthful, even for me, actually.
I really don't like pronouncing that word.
I'm not really sure why.
Imagine you want to get across that it's a big priority for them to update the reporting processes.
You could say something like In our view, updating your reporting processes is particularly or especially relevant, given your expansion plans.
This is particularly important given the vision for the organization, the expansion plans, the direction that you want to go in for the future.
Finally, I think another adverb that I would absolutely recommend if you want to show your opinion or recommendation, is strongly.
I strongly recommend that we start with a pilot project, for example, and then we roll it out throughout the organization.
I strongly recommend that you include these features if this is your objective.
Small touch, big payoff in how it comes across in terms of your messaging.
Those are some specific adverbs you could use.
Then, in terms of the phrases, I would get on autopilot, some phrases that really drive them to what's important.
The key point here is what really matters here is the main issue here is.
These sentence stems should be on autopilot if this is something you have to do all the time.
If you focus them on what's important and you show them your deep understanding and knowledge about what the key point is, this is extremely persuasive.
Very simple sentences, no revolutionary vocabulary, but very powerful.
Finally, the delivery.
Speaking at a controlled pace.
Not too slow because that can be frustrating.
Not too fast because people get lost and that also looks a little bit like you're not in control.
Controlled.
Intentional.
Added a little extra benefit, of course, is that if you speak with a more controlled pace, you have more control, which enables you to use some of these phrases.
It gives you a little bit more time to think, a little bit more time to put your words together.
As I've come back to several times here, put the emphasis on the content words.
As a first step, I would just put the emphasis on the adverb, for example.
This will significantly reduce your reporting time.
We fully understand your challenges.
The team here will be fully behind you.
You don't have to exaggerate it as much as me, but I'm trying to get across a point, right?
If this is something you want to work on, first of all, pick an adverb that you could work with.
Build a sentence you can imagine yourself saying and try to practice, just putting a little bit more emphasis on it.
Make it stand out a little bit more than the other words.
A nice way to think about it that I've heard before is think like you are putting a highlighter on your voice.
Show people what's important.
All right, let's wrap it up there for today.
A big round of applause.
I'm doing a silent one here with my mic.
For our questioners today, thank you so much Lourdes and Oliver for sending in your questions.
If you would like me to read out your question on the show and give you an answer, you can send in your audio to my email address.
The only caveat is the audio can't be more than one minute long.
Send it to me at info at confidentbusinessenglishcom.
Thank you again for choosing Confident Business English for your training.
Always a privilege to be here with you.
And I appreciate that you're squeezing it in around your very busy week.
Looking forward to speaking with you again next time.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
