This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 161, Good Leaders Send Signals, How to Do It in Business English. welcome to the business english podcast from all ears english get the english skills you need to achieve your dreams in global business for a presentation a meeting or your office party this is real business english with your favorite american hosts lindsay and michelle coming to you from new york city and colorado usa Still translating in your head when you speak English?
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Hey, Lindsay, how's it going? Hey, Michelle, I'm feeling great.
How are you? What's going on? I'm good. I'm good.
Yeah. So do you ever need to alert someone that something's coming soon so they should pay attention for it?
Like maybe you're sending out an assignment soon or a special email or something like that? yeah for sure i think that's always a good thing to try to do to give people a heads up um like at our company here we we did uh time tracking last week or in the last few weeks and i'm not sure if i gave a heads up for that i may not have i think the time before that we did give a heads up so as much as you can it's really good to prepare people for things that are coming i think for sure Yeah, yeah.
So that's what we're going to talk about today.
We're going to talk about that situation.
So how you can alert someone that something is coming up in a short and easy way.
So we're going to also talk about why that's beneficial, why that's really good.
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Bring them into our community. Welcome. Yes. welcome all right michelle so examples of how to do this right well what well let's talk about some situations where situations come in handy right so like contact so so maybe you are going to be sending an email soon regarding schedules right you know your employees are waiting on it and you you want to let them know that it's coming soon but it's not there yet right so that could be a possible situation uh what's something else lindsay you're planning a meeting soon but again you're not quite planning that yet right but it's coming so you want to make sure people are ready for it when that email comes about the meeting so right or maybe you're sending out a new assignment Yeah.
Yeah. Or you'll be out of the office. Right.
For a time. Maybe it's summertime. Everyone's out of the office.
So making sure people know what's going on.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So I think an employee or a supervisor can use these. depending on the situation.
So we're going to go through some in a second.
But guys, recently we just did this really fun episode.
It was episode 156 was can you use howdy in business English?
So that was that was a fun one. That was a really fun one.
So go listen to that one. Yeah, that was such a fun episode.
And I think that episode, by the way, Michelle, was based on a student question.
Yes. So we love your student questions. Guys, send us your questions.
Right. Send us your questions. If you are working in the corporate world, a small business, whatever comes up in English, send us a very specific question.
Okay. Those are the best ones. So yes, please do that.
So guys, let's go through some expressions today.
So Lindsay, you already mentioned this one, naturally.
Oh, did I? Oh, wow. Didn't even realize it.
What was it? Okay. So we must be teaching real English here.
That's right. All right. So just a heads up.
And there's two things I like about this.
We're adding just which change. We've done episodes about adding just we have.
What does it do? What does it do if I put just before it really anything?
It can do a lot of things. Like sometimes we say try not to use it because, you know, it could kind of be a little too indirect or show insecurity.
Insecurity. Yes. Right. But sometimes it is good because it's saying like, oh, real quick.
It's like saying, oh, just like real quick.
This is what. Yeah, it's casual. So it really depends on the situation. yeah and i think in this case if you're a leader at your company i don't think it's showing weakness or insecurity i think it's showing hey i'm gonna i'm just saying this casually right like you know to not be too intimidating to people you don't you don't want to make it a bigger deal than it is so saying something like just a heads up i'll be sending over schedule requests soon okay And I feel like if you said just heads up, I don't know.
I feel like it's missing something. I mean, people do say just, you know, they say heads up.
That's fine, too. But for some reason, I feel like it sounds more like it flows better when you say, oh, just a heads up.
Yeah, you're kind of changing the grammatical structure there.
When I hear heads up, I think okay something's coming from my i'm going to physically duck right right right volleyball and i'm about to get wonked on the head you know right and somebody might and in that situation if you were playing a sport somebody might just shout out like heads up yeah totally totally that's the primary way the original way we've always used it yeah but here we are taking something from summer sports into the workplace right so you could say just a heads up i'll be sending over schedule requests soon yes what else michelle what else can we say all right look out for So this is another one.
How would you say that, Lindsay? Yeah, I like this one.
Look out for an email from me in a couple of days about the conference dates.
And this is kind of asking people to make sure they keep their eyes open, stay aware something important is coming.
It's kind of putting a little bit of the responsibility on them, which is good, right?
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because they should know what to expect and...
You know, maybe they get a lot of emails and you just want to let them know that, okay, this will be an important one.
Yes, 100%. 100%. These are really useful.
Oh, man. What else? I like the next one.
Well, the next one is watch out for. So this one could be more of a warning.
I think it's a little different than like, oh, I'm sending out schedules, you know, like watch out for.
Um, this one, like, for example, you can say, watch out for glitches in the system, do a test run before you start.
So you're alerting someone of a potential problem.
Right, right. So being careful. So, you know, company security, information security, things like that.
This is where I could see this. So it is a little bit different from a manager saying, hey, this event is coming or this email is coming.
It's going to be important. A little bit different.
Could you actually use watch out for, for kind of a schedule email coming?
Watch out for this. I think it's possible.
Yeah. Yeah, watch out for an email. Yeah, I think it's okay.
I think some of the other examples are a little bit more natural sounding.
Yeah, I think so too. I like this next one, our fourth one today, keep an eye out for.
Right? So how would we say that? You could say keep an eye out for the next assignment.
I'm sending out instructions soon. And this one's more in line with the first two.
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Exclusions apply, see details online. Okay, Michelle.
So let's see, which one do you think, here at All Ears English, we're most likely to use?
Maybe the heads up one. What do you think?
Yeah, we're pretty casual, right? Yeah, I think so too.
Yeah. And one of my goals this year has been to get more organized around letting the team know when things are coming.
Because it can be hard when it's a small company and we don't always know what's coming next.
And that can be scary for people when something is just thrown on them, right?
Mm-hmm. So, I mean, I think I think it's a good.
Yeah, these are good ways to signal, you know, this is it is good to signal that something's coming to let someone know, alert them about something.
I think, you know, it it's like a courtesy.
It's nice. Yeah. It's also helpful. I think it's even more than that.
I think it's actually a trust builder because it means that especially if you're in a leadership position, your team sees that you're in control and that respects you and is able to give you these warnings and things are under control.
I think it's even more than just respect.
It's trust. It's a good foundation. My company is on good, solid foundations and I'm good.
I'm okay here. I think there's some fundamental about that that's a good point i didn't think of it like that but that is true yeah so i yeah really good really good point there yeah what else michelle what else do we need to know okay well i i i think you know basically we already talked about this but remember uh a watch watch out could be more specifically used as a warning right maybe looking for mistakes but i think all of them could be doing that in a way but i think that one specifically yeah watch out a little bit more negative you think yeah i would say yeah maybe for something that could go wrong right the other ones i i don't know like some of these have more i think that they could be used for positive or negative things coming up um it's not so much about that it's more about the signal but i think watch out for is a little bit more like oh there could be a problem right right i would agree with that yeah yeah very good so should we do a role play okay let's do it so here we are co-workers we're planning a project here we go all right so okay so i'm almost done just a heads up i'm out next week but i'll be finished before then oh good to know i can still work a little while i'm away thanks so just keep an eye out for an email uh for me with the schedule I will watch out for any indication that Stacy isn't doing her fair share.
Ooh, I will. Of course I'll look out for that.
Okay. And that's another good example too.
I'm not sure if we mentioned that before when someone's going to go on a vacation.
Yeah. Really important. Right. So especially if someone plays a key role in a company, it's really good.
If a month in advance or more than that, people can say, Hey, just a heads up.
I'll be off in August for two weeks. You know, how can we start planning?
Really? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, definitely. All right.
So let's go through it. So I said, just a heads up, I'm out next week, but I'll be finished before then.
Perfect. And what's the next one? I said, thanks.
So just keep an eye out for an email with for me with the schedule.
Keep an eye out. That's kind of a mouthful to say.
Keep an eye out for an email, right? That's right.
And then, yeah. And then I gave a little warning about Stacey, who we know causes some trouble.
I feel like Stacey is a recurring character in your role plays here, Michelle.
Is it? I don't know. I feel like I always go Stacey, Tracy.
Like, I know. I try and like... you know when i'm coming up with the names i need to get a little bit more creative with my name so it's so funny yeah that'd be funny i want to hear some interesting names here okay yeah some more interesting names okay i'm not hey no no yeah no trashing on stacy it's a beautiful name if that's your name of course of course Yeah, we probably have a listener named Stacy now who is like tears coming down her face.
Oh, no. We like Stacy. We just want to hear new names.
Yes, we'll hear additional kinds of names.
Okay. So, but I said, watch out for any indication that Stacy isn't doing her fair share.
Yes. Oh, I will. And then I said, I will, of course, I'll look out for that.
So again, different, like you're telling me that you're going to look out.
Right. So that kind of points to something a little bit more negative to be a little bit more kind of on alert for that.
Yeah. So again, I mean, why do we need this?
Why is this a connection skill? well signals are helpful if somebody knows what's coming up they might feel they also might feel more relaxed and focused um because they they they know you know how things are gonna go i agree with you lindsay it builds that trust so that's a good idea um and i think these are all just really good for rapport building and getting everybody kind of on the same page yeah i think that if people are in a workplace where they don't feel safe or they don't feel they just don't know what's coming and maybe that becomes kind of negative they can't be creative because the brain the mind the human human beings can't protect themselves and expand in a creative way so they can't think clearly so as a leader if we want to create companies that people are creative and are building amazing things yeah we kind of have to lay that foundation Right.
And let them know what's coming up, what's coming.
And so that's a management skill for our listeners.
Yeah. Good point. Yeah. Yeah. Good. Well, guys, thank you for listening.
And we gave you lots of expressions to use today to send out these signals.
And Stacey, thank you for listening to the podcast.
If we have a Stacey, please email us. I love it.
I love it. So good, Michelle. I'll see you back here on the next episode.
Thanks for having me. All right. Bye, Lindsay.
Take care. Bye. Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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