Business English Skills 360

Free Resources: Quiz & Vocab | PDF Transcript Transcript Hello and welcome back to the Skills 360 podcast. I’m your host Tim Simmons, and today I want to continue our look at how to defend yourself and your ideas in a competitive world. One of the tough things in business – and life for that matter - is that you’re not just dealing with ideas, and numbers, and rational decisions. You’re dealing with people. And people don’t always take a cool and logical approach to things, even if you do. They get emotional about ideas and worked up about disagreement. And you might get that way too. Passion is a good thing, but too much negative emotion is counterproductive. So how can we manage people’s emotions while continuing to defend ourselves? Well, one thing I’d like to emphasize is the importance of patience. Listen carefully before reacting, and think before speaking. If we think someone is attacking us or our ideas, it’s easy to start firing back. But the war of words is usually won by the person with the more strategic approach. Don’t get into mudslinging. Just be patient, and keep your cool. The opposite of this is getting defensive, which means being emotional and reactive. So when a difficult colleague says, “Sam, I’m afraid your plan will never work,” don’t respond with something like, “What are you trying to say? I spent a lot of time on this, and you just shoot it down…” Instead, show patience and listen, which means you could respond with, “Okay Dave. Can you explain exactly why the plan won’t work?” You see, like I said in our last lesson, we need to keep it focused on ideas. And we want to keep it positive. Believe it or not, that can mean actually praising the people who seem to be attacking us, like, “Thanks Dave, you’ve got some good points there.” And it can mean actually thanking them for their comments, like, “Dave, I appreciate your feedback.” Even when that feedback came in a way that you don’t like, praising and thanking is part of taking the high road in debate. And in many cases, you get back what you give out, so you may find that aggressive colleague actually toning it down a bit. Of course, there are times when you have to say something negative, when someone continues with an aggressive approach. And at times like these, sometimes you have to address the issue directly, or call someone on their behavior. The important thing there is to make sure you focus on behavior, not character. What’s the difference? Focusing on behavior means saying, “Karen, could you please lower your voice and just stay calm about this.” But focusing on character means saying, “Karen, you are too loud and emotional.” Which do you think is going to serve you better in an argument? So, we exercise patience and we stay positive. That’s great. And the third big thing we need to do is watch our language. You’ve surely been in an argument that starts out about ideas, but pretty quickly becomes about the words people choose or the way they phrase things. And I’d bet that a lot of those arguments have been about two big words to avoid: “always” and “never.” You can just strike those words from your professional vocabulary right now. They will only lead to trouble. Watching your language usually means making your statements softer and gentler. We sometimes say that we qualify our statements. And there are many ways to do that. One way is by using words that show uncertainty, like “maybe” and “might.” Another way is to find indirect ways to make a point. For example, saying something like,

*** Get all the Skills 360 lessons on our free Business English App for iPhone & iPad: Download from the App Store Free Resources: Quiz & Vocab | PDF Transcript Transcript Hello and welcome back to the Skills 360 podcast. I’m your host Tim Simmons, and today I want to take a look at how to defend yourself and your ideas in a competitive world. Some people might think that good ideas will win the day, simply because they’re good ideas. But it’s not that simple. If you’ve got good ideas, you’re going to have to convince people of their value. And you’ll definitely have to defend them against all the people out to criticize or compete with you. It’s a dog eat dog world, as they say, and you want to make sure you’re not the dinner. So what do you do when you’re in a meeting, you’ve just laid out your plans for a new new marketing strategy, and the guy across the table jumps up and yells that what you’ve suggested is impossible? Well, it starts with attitude. And having the right attitude means being calm, diplomatic, and logical. What you don’t want to do is get dragged into an argument that’s personal, petty, or unproductive. One way to do that is to reference your organization’s broad mission and goals. Show how your ideas fit with the larger strategy. Say something like, “Well, as an organization we decided to expand our target market, right? I believe my strategy helps us do that.” Referencing broader organizational goals helps to elevate the debate. And elevating the debate means ensuring that the discussion is about ideas, not people. So instead of, “Dave, you always do this and it drives me nuts,” It should be, “I can’t agree with this approach.” Or, instead of, “Com’on Dave, you’re always fixated on cost!” You can try, “I don’t think cost should be our primary concern.” And if you are able to elevate the debate, then what you’ll get in return is not, “John, you must be crazy to think that will work.” Instead, you should get something like this, “John, I think your plan has some problems.” And that makes for a better discussion. So, if the debate is about ideas, how can you get people on board with yours in the face of criticism? One great way is to use questions. One kind of question is a leading question, one that has an obvious answer. For example, you could say, “Does everybody here agree that we need a really professional and slick ad campaign?” What you’re doing with this kind of question is getting people to nod, to agree, and that’s an attitude they’ll carry over to other things you say. You can also use negative rhetorical questions. A rhetorical question is one that doesn’t really need an answer. For example, someone might ask, “Don’t you think we need to increase our market share?” Or maybe, “Isn’t a website an important part of any business’s marketing strategy?” Who could answer “no” to those questions? Now, sometimes people are actually right. You might not like the way they’re criticizing your ideas, but they’re right. So, what’s the logical approach to take? Well, admit it. You might say, “You know, you’ve got a point there.” Or, “Yes, well, the plan does appear to have some problems.” You don’t have to defend your ideas just because they’re yours. Remember, we talked about being logical and elevating the debate.

Free Resources: Quiz & Vocab | PDF Transcript Transcript Hello and welcome back to the Skills 360 podcast. I’m you’re host, Tim Simmons, and today we’re going to continue our look at the 10 key characteristics of the successful business leader. And just like last time, we’re going to match these qualities to useful words or phrases that you can use in your everyday work life. To begin, I want you to imagine you’re called to an emergency meeting to talk about a crisis. Like there’s a big project to finish and you’re short-staffed. One person says “oh no, this is never going to get done.” Another person says “This happens all the time and it drives me nuts.” But this is not what the good business leader says. The good business leader starts by saying “how about…” As in: “how about bringing staff over from another department for a couple of weeks.” And what does this show? It shows that you are solution-minded. When problems arise, and problems always arise, you can’t moan and complain. You have to think of solutions. Being solution-minded is related to another quality of a good businessperson: optimism. A great man once said “if you plant potatoes, don’t be surprised if you get potatoes.” Now, you might not be in the farming business, but what this means is that if you think and talk negatively, you get negative results. But if you think and talk positively, then you get positive results. And the key expression here is “I believe.” So when your colleague says “is this going to work?” You say “Yes. I believe it will work.” Others might not believe. They may be filled with doubt and pessimism. But optimism will see you over many hurdles that will force the pessimist to give up. Of course, thinking positively means keeping your eye on the prize, even when the prize isn’t right in front of you. A wise business leader can see that prize miles away. He says, “in the future…” to help people overcome the present. This is what we call “vision,” or the ability to imagine what success looks like down the road. In fact, how can you know which road to take if you don’t even know what the ultimate destination is? Well, we ask the people with vision, the people who say “in the future…” Okay, so we’ve talked a lot about overcoming problems, and how optimism, vision and being solution-minded can help us do that. But there are a couple of other qualities that you may need. One of them is the ability to say “no.” Not “maybe”, or “maybe not”, or “let’s think about that”, or “well, I’m not sure.” I mean just a plain and direct “no.” Sometimes people come up with bad ideas, ideas that clearly won’t get you to where you need to go. And while sometimes you need to be diplomatic about things, at other times you need decisiveness. And that means saying “no” when you think “no”. The road to success can be bumpy, as we all know. And if you ask successful entrepreneurs and business leaders how they got where they are, they will have a lot of different answers. And they’ll show the qualities we’ve mentioned in different amounts. Jack might be more diplomatic than Helen. But Helen might be more visionary than Jack. However, there is one quality that absolutely every successful business person displays. And this quality relates to a phrase that these people think and use all the time. That phrase is “yes, we can.” And what it shows is determination. You can’t be on the fence about success. You have to be all-in and 100% determined to make it. And every organization is led by people like this, who can persuade everyone through the strength of their determination that “yes, we can.” So, can you?

Free Resources: Quiz | PDF Transcript Transcript Hello and welcome back to the Skills 360 podcast. I’m you’re host, Tim Simmons, and it’s great to have you back for a new season of podcasts from Business English Pod. For today’s lesson, I want to take a look at 10 key skills or characteristics that every successful business leader needs. You’ve probably heard this kind of list before, but I want to do something a bit different. I’ve matched these key skills with simple but powerful words or phrases that you can use every day. In business, competition is fierce, and you want every advantage you can get, right? So let’s find out how you can get a leg up. Okay, for the first one, let me give you a couple of situations. Say your boss tells you her plan to reorganize the office. You love the idea, and you want to show your enthusiasm. Or say your business partner comes up with an idea for a new app that you think could go gangbusters. You want to convey your energy for the idea, right? So what can you say? How about “Let’s do it!” This is a great way to show your enthusiasm and energy. And without those qualities, you can’t go anywhere in business. Just ask the folks at Nike. Now, enthusiasm is great, but you also need balance. You can’t rush into everything headlong without careful consideration. It’s often impossible to undo a bad decision, and every room needs someone to play devil’s advocate. So when everyone is getting fired up about your colleague’s latest bright idea, you can provide that balance. When he lists the advantages of his plan, you can say “on the other hand” before pointing out some things he might have failed to mention. In this way, you show a more balanced perspective. Next, I want to talk about a pair of simple words that we all know, but many of us don’t use enough. That pair of words is “thank you.” And I don’t just mean saying thanks casually and automatically. I’m talking about looking someone in the eyes, maybe shaking their hand, and saying with all sincerity “thank you.” It might be for a business lunch, for someone’s time, for someone’s purchase, or for someone’s service. And what does saying thank you show? It shows respect. And believe me, I know that business can be tough, but you’ll go much further if you learn to show all the respect that you yourself like to be shown. Yes, business and work life can be tough, but we still need to mind our manners. And at a very high level, minding our manners means being diplomatic. Someone who is diplomatic can disagree, can negotiate, can criticize, can express displeasure, and do all of these things while still being polite and respectful. The magic expression here is “Yes, but…” As in, “yes, I understand your point, but there’s something else we need to consider…” My friend Dave is a genius at this. He can make you feel great about your opinion, but still reject it. Like this: “Yes, Julie, I think that’s a really fantastic idea. But in this situation I don’t think it will be possible…” Okay, so we’ve done enthusiasm, balance, respect, and diplomacy. There’s one more for today, and it’s the characteristic of every successful entrepreneur. It’s something people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs had a ton of. It’s ambition. And the simple word that I want to encourage you to use properly here is “yes.” When your boss asks if you think you might want to help expand the company into new territory, what do you say? You say “yes.” And when your friend asks you if you want to create a business to market the fantastic piec...

*** Get all the Skills 360 lessons on our free Business English App for iPhone & iPad: Download from the App Store Free Resources: Quiz & Vocab | PDF Transcript Transcript Welcome back to the Skills 360 podcast. I’m your host Tim Simmons, and today I want to help you receive feedback with a positive attitude. Okay now, on with the lesson. How do you feel when you hear something like this from your manager: “Listen, I really need to talk to you about the work you’ve been doing on that big project…” If you’re like most people, your heart starts beating a little faster and your mind starts racing. In fact, this is a common reaction to the idea that we’re about to receive feedback. We naturally don’t like it. But it’s important, so we need to learn how to receive feedback constructively. Receiving feedback properly begins with thinking about feedback positively. First of all, if someone is giving you direct and immediate feedback, it’s a sign of good communication and a healthy work environment. The alternative is not getting feedback, or getting feedback too late to use it constructively. That’s not a good situation. How would you feel if, six months after finishing a project, a colleague told you that your boss wasn’t really happy with your work? Next, when you get feedback, understand that it’s not personal, but about producing better results. Humans have a natural tendency to take feedback personally, but that will only hinder your performance. Focus on the ideas in the feedback, rather than the way the feedback is given or your relationship with the person giving it. Don’t think “why is he really telling me this?” or “why does he have to say it with that tone?” Instead, think “what exactly is he saying and how can I use that to improve my work.” Not taking things personally also means resisting the urge to become defensive. Just listen carefully and ask for clarification if you don’t understand. Try not to start every response with “but…” That’s a sign of defensiveness. Now, sometimes it’s true that feedback is not delivered effectively. If this happens, be upfront about it. If a manager is constantly criticizing what you, tell him that you need the feedback differently. Good feedback is specific, so ask for specifics if you don’t get any. Good feedback is also actionable, so if it’s not obvious how you can use the feedback, then ask how. So if someone says “That report really needs some work,” you can say something like “is there any specific section that you think could be improved?” Now, we’ve been focusing on negative feedback, or feedback about what you need to do better or differently. And people naturally focus on this kind of feedback. But you shouldn’t forget to recognize positive feedback when you get it. Let the praise inspire and motivate you. Build on that positive feedback and learn to apply your strengths in different areas. And if you really feel you don’t receive much positive feedback, then ask for it, like this: “Could you tell me what you thought worked really well in the report?” So, stay positive and open-minded when you receive feedback, keep lines of communication clear, and you’ll be able to use the feedback constructively. And finally, pay attention to how people are giving you feedback. Whether you think they’re doing it well or not, you can learn how to provide better feedback to others.

*** Get all the Skills 360 lessons on our free Business English App for iPhone & iPad: Download from the App Store Free Resources: Quiz & Vocab | PDF Transcript Transcript Welcome back to the Skills 360 podcast. I’m your host Tim Simmons, and today I want to talk about giving feedback. Say “feedback” and a lot of people will immediately think of a performance review. You sit down with someone you manage and explain what they’re doing well and what they need to improve. It’s a situation we’ve all been in, on both sides of the desk. However, feedback is much more than what we do in a structured and scheduled situation. Feedback is an ongoing process, and we give feedback to everyone around us, not just those who report to us. That includes colleagues and co-workers, and our managers or superiors. Feedback happens every day, between everyone in a company. You might be giving feedback and not even realize it. Every time you let someone know what you think about what they’re doing, you’re giving feedback. Okay, now let’s talk about the kinds of feedback we give. First, there’s negative feedback, or criticism, such as “Joe, I think you need to shorten your sales presentation and work on your delivery. I think it’ll be more effective that way.” Then there’s positive feedback, or praise, such as “Tanis, I think your presentation was great. You didn’t overwhelm people with information and the visuals really helped emphasize the key points.” Those statements are easy to recognize as feedback, but feedback can also be daily reassurance in which you let people know you’re okay with what’s happening. Like this: “Yep. Looks good.” Or this: “That makes sense. Let’s do it.” It’s very important to balance these kinds of feedback. You don’t have to deliver every critique sandwiched between praise, but be aware of your overall balance. Too much negative feedback can damage a person’s confidence and sense of well-being. It can be demotivating, which is the opposite of what we want to do. How do you feel when someone keeps saying “Well, you could have done that differently.” Or “that just doesn’t work.” Or “that idea is never going to fly.” It’s very easy to dwell on what people need to improve, but we can’t ignore what people do well. And we should tell them about it. Positive feedback can inspire, motivate, and reassure. How do you feel when you hear things like “Great job.” Or “I think that looks fantastic.” Or “Just wanted to let you know I read your report, and it was just what I was hoping for.” Now, good feedback has a few important qualities: it is immediate, direct, and specific. Feedback is immediate when it comes not long after the work or behavior you’re giving feedback on. Feedback is useless, and rather annoying, when it comes months after the fact. Feedback is direct when it’s delivered to the person who it’s intended for. That means you shouldn’t get others to deliver feedback for you. It feels disrespectful, and there’s a good chance that it won’t be delivered in the way you want. And feedback is specific when it includes evidence to support the central idea. An example of specific feedback might be: “Joan, I noticed that some of the personnel files are incomplete. We need to make sure that each file includes signed performance reviews.” By being specific, especially with negative feedback,

*** Get all the Skills 360 lessons on our free Business English App for iPhone & iPad: Download from the App Store Free Resources: Quiz & Vocab | PDF Transcript Transcript Welcome back to the Skills 360 podcast. I’m your host Tim Simmons, and today I want to help you get good customer service. More specifically, we’re going to learn how to complain properly and get a good solution. It all starts with a problem. You buy a product and it doesn’t work right. Or you buy a service and you are not served well. You get frustrated. You paid good money but you’re not getting what you expected. It’s time to complain. So you go back to the store or you ring up a customer service line. This interaction could end with more frustration or it could end with satisfaction, depending on the outcome. So how can you get a good outcome? The first thing is attitude. Always begin with a polite approach. Don’t assume that you’re going to get bad service. If you plant an apple tree, you’ll get apples. And if you plant a positive and constructive attitude, you’ll get positive, constructive solutions. Customer service reps deal with a lot of grumpy people, and you might just brighten their day by being nice. And they might reward you for it. Now, your feeling might change. You might feel less positive or friendly if you encounter resistance, but you should always remain polite and professional. Okay, when it comes to describing your problem, there are a few important dos and don’ts. First, explain the problem clearly, including any details that might help the person figure out what went wrong. Don’t exaggerate or become emotional. That will only damage your credibility. So it’s good to say something like “I have turned the machine on and off 5 times and each time I get the error code E44.” That’s clear and detailed. Don’t say “I’ve turned the stupid machine on a thousand times and it just won’t work.” Next, you need to highlight your dissatisfaction and that your problem needs to be remedied. In other words, you need to tell the person you are not satisfied and that you need a solution. This might mean communicating your frustration, but you should do it by stating that you’re frustrated rather than showing your frustration. That could sound something like this: “This situation is very frustrating to me, and I need a solution.” Now let’s talk about solutions. Sometimes you start the conversation with a solution in mind. You have already decided what will make you satisfied. In this case, you should propose it directly. If you want a refund, say “I would like a refund.” Notice that we are still being polite and professional. But sometimes you don’t have a specific solution in mind and you would like the company to give you one. In this case, let them offer something. If you’re happy with the solution, great. But if you’re not, you need to say so. Often a customer service agent will start with the solution that is easiest or cheapest for the company. And you won’t get anything more unless you ask for it. Sometimes you don’t get the solution you ask for and you’re not satisfied with what is being offered, not matter how hard – and politely – you push. What can you do then? Well, you can try talking to someone else. That could mean calling back at another time. You may find that you get a different attitude, and different solutions,

Free Resources: Quiz & Vocab | PDF Transcript Transcript Welcome back to the Skills 360 podcast. I’m your host Tim Simmons, and today I want to help you get good customer service. You probably know what bad customer service looks like. We’ve all been there. Maybe you’ve stood in line at a computer store to return a defective piece of equipment and the clerk asks you rudely “Well, how do you know it’s broken? Did you plug it in?” Or you’ve called your phone company to change your service and when you finally make it through the voice menus to a real person, you get put on hold for 10 minutes. It’s crazy, right? We are paying customers, and we get treated like this? So if you’ve ever felt your blood boil in situations like these, listen up. Let’s talk about how to get good customer service. For starters, you have to think about timing. Basically, the busier people are, the more stress they have and the less time they’ll be able to give you. So avoid Mondays. On Mondays you’ve got business, and frustration, that has built up over the weekend, and customer service agents are usually overwhelmed on that day. Also think about the time of day. If you’re calling in to a customer service department or centre, do it early. The early shifts are considered plum, so the more experienced, and more able, customer service reps work at those times. Now, you might think it’s their job to serve you. And you’re right. It is. But if you can make their job a bit easier, they’ll do it better. That starts with having the right paperwork and information ready. If you have to dig in your bag for your receipt, or if you have to rummage through your desk for your account number while the person waits, they’ll be frustrated. You know what information they’ll ask for, so be prepared. You can not only make their job easier, but you might also make it more pleasant by being pleasant yourself. Some people think they’ll get better results if they communicate a sense of urgency and frustration. But in many cases, that backfires. Be polite and friendly, and you’ll probably get the same attitude back. Remember that it’s a person you’re talking to. That person can want to help you a lot or just a little. And the difference might depend on how much they like you. Use their name and try to create a personal connection. Even if you are really irked, maintain a positive attitude. Okay, we’ve covered how we communicate. Now let’s talk about what we communicate. If you’re dealing with customer service, you either have a need or a problem. And you need to be able to explain that need or problem very clearly. Stick to the facts. Describe exactly what happened or your situation. Don’t go on about things they don’t give a hoot about. And don’t give them your life story. What you should do, however, is give them your customer story. Tell them why you bought the product or service. Don’t hesitate to say something about the positive aspects of whatever it is you bought. This shows that you’ve got a balanced perspective. Still, tell them what your expectations and needs are. But remember, don’t get too verbose. So, what might a customer story sound like? How about something like this: “Well, you guys came highly recommended by a marketing buddy. I told him we wanted t-shirts for our event that people would keep for a long time, and he said you folks would do a bang-up job. The quality of the shirts is fantastic. But I’m concerned about how the colors look. Our event is in two weeks and we need to make sure these shirts look awesome.” That’s a much better tack than “We ordered shirts and they don’t look good.”

Free Resources: Quiz & Vocab | PDF Transcript Transcript Hello and welcome back to Skills 360. I'm your host Tim Simmons. In today’s lesson we're going to build on last weeks ideas and look at how you can implement at positive attitude at work. Think about this for a second: what kind of people do you like to be around? People who moan and complain and talk about how lousy their life is? Or people who have a sense of humor, who smile, who say "great to see you," and who can find solutions to problems? Well, I'm going to venture a guess here and say that you prefer to spend your time with the second type of person. Why? Because they make you feel good. In our last episode we talked about positive thinking. Today it's all about maintaining a positive attitude toward others. And we've just identified one great reason to do this: it makes people feel good. And if you can do that, then customers will want to do business with you, colleagues will want to work with you, and bosses will want to see you do well. That's certainly a recipe for success. But as you know, it's not always easy. Staying positive can be very difficult, especially when other people are negative. Sometimes we're faced with mistrust, jealousy, fear, and blame. Sometimes the people we work with seem determined to drag us down. And sometimes things don't go our way. We make mistakes. We don't meet deadlines. We encounter huge problems. At times like these, it can be pretty hard to smile and say, "what a great day." But it's important to try. Others may complain, but we should refuse to participate. We can still be empathetic. We can still say, "I'm so sorry you feel that way." But we should try not to give in to negativity and say, "yeah, life really does suck." So what does having a positive attitude involve? Let's start simple, with a smile. Smiling is one of the only universal human expressions. It means the same thing, and has the same power, in almost every culture. Smile at others, and they'll smile back. It doesn't matter what business you're in, or what situation. Whether you're a computer tech helping a company with its servers or an executive walking into a high-powered interview. Just smile. Another part of a positive attitude is courtesy. Yes, that means saying please and thank-you and how do you do. But it’s more than that. Hold the door open for people. Shake their hands. Buy them a coffee. These simple things can do a lot to make people feel good. And here's a tip: it's pretty easy to surprise people by showing courtesy in email and other online communication. Technology has killed a lot of common courtesy, so stand out by showing you haven't forgotten how to be polite. Now, it's not just about how you say things, it's also about what you say. Think about the last few people you talked with at work. What did you talk about? What did you say? Did you talk about problems and failures, or did you talk about successes? It can be pretty easy to focus on what is going wrong and on what needs to be improved. But we can’t forget to say good things. That means complimenting and praising people. Like this: “Hey Dave, I think you did a great job on that report.” Or “Susan, I’m really glad you’re working on this project with us.” Most of us could do with more of this positive talk in our lives. Success is addictive, and reminding people of their successes is motivating. Of course, balance is important. You don’t want to constantly gush with praise. You don’t want to “things are great!” when they really aren’t. Because you don’t want people to think you’re a pollyanna. A “pollyanna” is someone who only sees good things and thinks e...

Free Resources: Quiz & Vocab | PDF Transcript Transcript [0:11] Happy New Year to everyone and welcome back to Skills 360. I’m your host Tim Simmons and today we’re going to talk about staying positive. [0:24] When you look ahead at the year to come, what do you see? Do you see great things for yourself, for your business, or for your career? Or do you see doom and gloom, trouble in the workplace, and a global economic mess? [0:43] Well, I hope you focus on all the positives, even if the negatives exist. And what I want to do is to help you focus on these good things, because positive thinking can help us get where we want to go. [1:01] So what do I mean by positive thinking? Let me start by saying that it’s not the same as optimism. Being optimistic means believing that everything is going to work out great. But positive thinking is more than that. It’s a mindset, or a way of looking at the world and what you do. It’s a belief in possibility, solutions to problems, and the big picture. [1:35] The opposite of positive thinking is, of course, negative thinking. Negative thinking means focusing on problems, obstacles, and difficulties. And most of those problems are external. We blame coworkers, the economy, our boss, the competition, a lack of money… And what’s the result of all this? Limits. We limit ourselves and what we do. We think we can’t do things before we even try. And that’s no way to succeed. [2:19] Okay, so how do we think positively? First of all, we need to look at problems, mistakes, and failures as normal. Imagine you bomb a big job interview. A negative thinker will be bummed out by the fact that he didn’t get the job. [2:43] A positive thinker will learn from the experience. He will analyze what he did and figure out how to do it better next time. And he’ll also think about what he did well, and try to repeat or improve on those successes. This means focusing on the big picture. That one job interview is not the end of the world. It’s a bump along your career path. There are many more opportunities out there, and probably many better jobs. [3:25] One trick to positive thinking is to imagine how you’ll think back on things that are happening now. You know from experience that the passing of time brings a fresh perspective. There are bad things that happened last year that you can probably laugh about now. You understand what was a big deal and what was not. Try to do that in the present. [3:57] Positive thinking often means separating the past and the future. A negative thinker will focus on the past, especially past failures. But the past can’t be changed. It’s done and dusted. The future, however, is yet to be written. And that’s where the positive thinker will focus his attention. How do I do this better next time? [4:30] Learning is important, and we can see the power of positive thinking when it comes to problem-solving. The negative thinker looks at problems as end points. He says “we can’t do this.” The positive thinker understands that there is a solution to every problem. He says “how can we solve this?” And if you believe there is a way to do something, then there is a way to do something. [5:06] Positive thinking is a mental habit. It takes practice. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves to focus on the future and on possibility. Sometimes it’s hard to learn from our failures or see the big picture. [5:26] But if you can do it, there are some great payoffs. You’ll have greater confidence and a better chance of success. And there’s a lot of research to show that positive thinking actually makes us healthier.

*** Get all the Skills 360 lessons on our free Business English App for iPhone & IPad: Download from the App Store Free Resources: Quiz & Vocab | PDF Transcript Hello and welcome back to the Skills 360 podcast. I’m your host Tim Simmons, and today I’d like to help you organize your ideas. Before we get into that, a quick reminder that our Business English App for the iPhone and iPad is now available in the App Store. The app comes packed with over 100 great lessons from Business English Pod – including all our Skills 360 lessons. And the best news of all? It’s free to download. Just head over to Business English Pod [dot] com for the App Store link. Okay, now here’s a situation we all find ourselves in: we’ve got a purpose and we have a bunch of ideas. And we have to figure out how to make those ideas serve our purpose. Maybe the purpose is to convince your manager that you deserve a promotion. Or maybe you want to develop a personal goal plan. Or maybe you have to give a presentation to the Board about recent technological trends. No matter what your purpose, you can’t just rattle off a bunch of ideas one after another. They need organization. And this is why we take time to prepare. Last week we looked at several ways to generate ideas. But once you have a big list of ideas, what are you going to do with them? That’s what I’ll talk about today. You need to start by revisiting your purpose. What is it you’re trying to do? Inform, persuade, set goals, warn, recommend? And who are you organizing your ideas for? A group of potential investors? Your boss? A customer or client? Or are the ideas just for yourself? With a clear purpose and audience, you can go through your list of ideas and cross out those that don’t really apply. For example, maybe you’re trying to convince a customer to switch from the competition to your company. You’ve brainstormed all the great things about your company and its products. Somewhere in your list is “positive workplace culture.” That’s wonderful. But does a potential customer care? Probably not. So nix it. Great, so you’ve whittled down your ideas. Now what? Now you need to start combining and grouping what remains. Look at the ideas and see if any themes jump out at you. You may notice that several ideas are linked to one bigger idea. Or one big idea in your list seems to include a bunch of smaller ideas in your list. You can rewrite these groupings of ideas on a new piece of paper, or you can just draw lines connecting them. For example, maybe you are going to be introducing your company to a potential foreign partner. You’ve come up with a big list of ideas related to your business. It includes things like salespeople, products, brand image, executive, history, founder… You peruse this list and see that salespeople, executive, and founder are all people, so you put them in a group. How many groups you end up with will vary. But if you’re going to make your ideas work for you, it’s good to aim for a manageable number of groups. Most people deal well with 2, 3, or 4. Any more than that and it becomes more complex and less memorable. Once you’ve grouped your ideas, explore them a bit more. Remove the ideas that don’t really seem to fit perfectly, and try to think of others that you’ve missed. Strive for balance. You want your groups of ideas to have roughly the same amount of content.

*** Get all the Skills 360 lessons on our free Business English App for iPhone & IPad: Download from the App Store Free Resources: Quiz & Vocab | PDF Transcript Welcome back to the Skills 360 podcast. I’m your host Tim Simmons, and today I want to help you organize your ideas. So, back to ideas. Sure, you’ve got lots of them. And sure, they’re important to you. But are they important to others? Well, they could be, but only if they’re clear and organized. You’ve probably been frustrated when people run on at length about what they think using vague language. And you’ve probably tuned out when someone jumps around chaotically from idea to idea without tying it all together with a purpose. That just doesn’t work. And sometimes it’s not the best ideas that win, but the ones that are most clearly articulated. But exactly how can we do this? Ideas can be very wild animals. They don’t always come into our heads in an organized manner. Sometimes they don’t seem to come into our heads at all. And they don’t just get together in their own groups and organize themselves. So we need to generate them, tame them and get them into usable form. Today we’ll look at a few different frameworks for generating ideas. In this case, we’re using a form of organization to actually get the ideas flowing. But first, think about your purpose. What is it you are trying to do? Do you need to persuade someone? Are you trying to inform people? Are you trying to warn, recommend, guide, criticize, defend, describe, or inspire? Understanding your purpose will help you decide which ideas to highlight and which to deep-six. Once you understand your purpose, try getting out as many ideas as possible. Lay it all on the table. Everything is fair game at this stage. Don’t be afraid of things that are off-the-wall. Just feel free to brainstorm, and write down whatever comes to mind. You can evaluate the ideas later. For now, you just want to generate them. But sometimes this is easier said than done. And that’s why we use different tools or techniques for idea generation. One useful technique is mind mapping. To make a mind map, start with one word in the center of a piece of paper. From that word, you’re going to create a radial branching system of ideas. What word do you start with? Any general idea or topic you want to explore. Say you’re planning your goals for next year. Maybe you start with that word “goals.” Now write a few words around the middle, and connect them to that central word with lines. These are major themes that relate to the central idea. So around goals, you might have “work,” “health,” “financial,” and “social.” Then do the same for each of these major themes. Keep writing new ideas around each new subword, until you have a big branching structure around the central word. We also have something called concept maps. Concept maps have a branching structure like mind maps, but they branch down rather than out. And they illustrate how ideas are connected. Start with an idea at the top in a circle. Then jot down related concepts in circles below. Draw lines to these related concepts, and on those lines write how the first idea is related to the second. You can use phrases like “leads to” or “results in” or “creates” or just “is.” For example, imagine you’re putting together a presentation about social media, so you write that phrase at the top.

The Skills 360 podcast is now available in iTunes: Free iTunes Subscription Free Resources: Quiz & Vocab | PDF Transcript Hello and welcome back to Skills 360. I’m your host Tim Simmons, and today we’re going to look at more ways to mind your language. If language was just about meaning we would probably communicate very directly with as few words as possible. But it’s not, and we don’t. Every time we speak, we are not only conveying meaning but also acting socially. We need to consider relationships, feelings, and perception. So we mind our language. Last time I talked about modals and the difference between saying “you must” do something and “could you” do something. Those two ways of speaking are miles apart. Today I’ll talk about lots of other ways to soften our language. Let’s start with three relatively simple adverbs: “rather,” “quite,” and “fairly.” You can use these words before an adjective to soften the tone a bit. A co-worker asks you about a letter he has written. You think it’s too wordy. But you don’t say, “It’s too wordy.” Instead, you soften the effect by saying, “It’s rather wordy.” Or instead of saying “It’s too formal,” you say, “It’s quite formal.” You’re only switching one small word, but it makes a big impact. Now let’s look at three relatively simple adjectives: “little,” “slight,” and “minor.” Think about the difference between “The website has a problem,” and “The website has a slight problem.” It’s neither here nor there how big the problem is. Calling it “slight” helps to make the statement less forceful. It’s really amazing how adding just single words can change the effect of what we are saying. Two of the most common softening words are “maybe” and “perhaps.” These words can transform a definitive statement into a mere possibility, like this: “Perhaps we need to consider letting a few employees go for the summer.” Or this: “Maybe what you should do is talk to Jane directly.” All of these words I’ve mentioned are part of what we call “hedging” language. Hedging language simply makes our statements less assertive. There are more ways to hedge. One useful technique is to qualify the number, frequency, and certainty. Qualifying numbers means using expressions like “a few,” “some,” or “several.” So instead of saying “There are mistakes,” you can say, “There are a few mistakes.” It’s softer. Qualifying by frequency means using expressions such as “occasionally,” “sometimes,” or “from time to time.” On a performance review, for example, it may be useful to say, “From time to time Joe does not prepare sufficiently for presentations.” And qualifying by certainty means using modals such as “might,” “could,” and “may.” So rather than saying, “Our bid will not be successful,” you can say, “Our bid might not be successful.” In all of these examples, you can see how one expression can tone down the strength of our statements. Sometimes hedging and qualifying require more than just one word. There are a variety of expressions we can use to change a statement of fact into one of opinion or curiosity. Here’s a situation: a designer shows up at a meeting with some new brochure designs. You think the designs are too trendy for your company. So here’s what you say: “I wonder whether these designs are a bit too edgy for our brand.” By introducing the idea with “I wonder whether,” it sounds like you are just thinking out loud,

Free Resources: Quiz & Vocab | PDF Transcript Welcome back to the Skills 360 podcast. I’m your host Tim Simmons, and today I’m going to encourage you to mind your language. What on earth do I mean by, “mind your language?” Well, consider a statement like this: “We have to cut costs. Meet me in your office at 2:00 so we can talk about how to do this.” How does that sound? The statement doesn’t have any problems with grammar or vocabulary. But how does it sound? Is it acceptable? Well, what if I said this instead: “I think that cutting our costs might be a good idea. How about sitting down to talk about this? Would 2:00 in your office work?” You can surely see that the second statement is softer than the first. I don’t just mean it’s more polite. I mean it’s less forceful and more diplomatic. Now, I don’t want to suggest that forceful or authoritative language is never useful or necessary. It is useful for some people in some situations. But in the majority of our everyday communication, we need to mind our language. I’m not just talking about keeping things nice for clients and customers. I’m also talking about fostering good relationships with colleagues, superiors, and subordinates. Yes, today’s managers have to mind their language when speaking to those they manage. So let’s talk about how we can do this. For starters, we need to look at a very important group of words called modal verbs. Modals are words like, “might,” “would,” and “must.” These words carry not just meaning, but power. Just think about it. A project leader comes to you on a Friday morning and says “You must come in tomorrow to finish the report.” And you grit your teeth. Or he comes to you and says “We really should get that report done before Monday. Would you be able to come in tomorrow and help get that finished?” The difference is clear. The second statement uses “should” and then “would” to make a request. But the first statement uses “must,” which is too forceful. Come to think of it, how often do you really hear people use the word “must?” In fact, it’s simply too strong for most situations. Okay then. How are these modals grouped? Well, we’ve got a bunch of strong ones, including “must,” “have to,” and “need to.” These modals present no choice. They are used to give orders or showing obligation. Then we have a group of medium-strength modals, such as “might,” “may,” “can,” “should,” “could,” and “ought to.” These expressions can be used for recommendations, suggestions, and advice. Then we have requests, which we can make with words like “can,” “will,” “could,” and “would.” Now listen to how changing one word slightly can change the tone of a statement. Imagine a colleague comes into your office to talk about a presentation you have just given. He says, “You should have used fewer slides.” Or he says “You could have used fewer slides.” Can you see how using “could have” sounds like a gentle suggestion while “should have” sounds too opinionated? This is really about tone and effect rather than just meaning. The trick here is that we often use softer language even when we want to express a stronger idea. For example, what if I’m a senior engineer talking to a junior technician. I want to tell him to do something. He doesn’t really have a choice. But I really don’t want to come across as a jerk. So I don’t say, “you have to finish those drawings today.” Instead, I say, “We really should have those drawings finished today.” Or “those drawings are important, so could you have them done by the end of the day please?” You see? I’m using the language of recommendation or req...

The Skills 360 podcast is now available in iTunes: Free iTunes Subscription Free Resources: Quiz & Vocab | PDF Transcript Hello and welcome back to the Skills 360 podcast. I’m your host Tim Simmons, and today we’re talking about how to say “no.” That’s right, someone asks you for something or to do something, but you have to say “no”. That’s not always easy, but it’s important. Think about the results of not saying no. If you accept everything, you’ll have too much to do and the quality of your work will suffer. Timelines will become unrealistic. You will be seen as nice, but possibly unreliable. And for you, it will mean more stress, anxiety and frustration. We’ve all experienced this. We’re overwhelmed with work and realize that we should have said “no” somewhere along the way. And when we only have ourselves to blame, we feel terrible. In our last episode, we learned some great ways to be firm, clear, and honest when saying “no”. This will help you protect your time, your work, and your reputation. But of course you don’t want to offend anyone. Sometimes we need to manage other people’s feelings when we say no. Or we need to make sure we’re not seen as uncooperative. Today, we’ll look at some ways to do this. One very common method is to use the word “but”. If your co-worker asks you to sit on a special committee but you don’t have the time, here’s what you can say: “That committee is important, but I have too much work right now so I’m not going to be able to help.” What you notice here is that you still have the clear and firm part: “I’m not going to be able to help.” But before the word “but” you’ve acknowledged the other person’s request. Saying “that committee is important” recognizes the other person’s work. Also notice in this case that there is a reason for the refusal: “I have too much work right now.” You shouldn’t give a long explanation, but reasons can definitely help soften the “no”. And specific reasons are better than general ones. For example: “I can’t commit to that because I am heading up the new design project and we are facing a big deadline.” As you can see, your reason for saying “no” is a sense of responsibility to something else. And that is not a bad thing. Another way you can soften your refusal is to offer something else in return. That something else could be a suggestion. For example: “I’ve got a big deadline so I can’t help. But you might want to ask Todd. He’s not busy today.” You see? We can’t help out directly, but we can offer a possible alternative solution. The something that you offer could also be another part of you or your time. Imagine a colleague at another branch asks you to pay a visit and teach him how to use some new software. You don’t have time to visit, but you could offer help in another way. Like this: “I’m too busy to come by, but I could give you a half hour of help over the phone tomorrow.” You can see that in these situations, “no” is not the final word. You have a refusal and an alternative, which is still an attempt to help. Remember that being firm and clear and protecting your time and integrity does not mean being rude. Someone might really need help, and you should show empathy. If you can manage all of these things in your refusal, you will earn people’s respect. Think about how this sounds: “I understand you’re under a lot of pressure Brenda. With my workload,