Free Resources: Lesson Module | Quiz & Vocab | PDF Transcript Hello and welcome back to the Skills 360 Podcast. I’m your host, Tim Simmons, and today I want to look at leading a group to a decision. If you tuned in last time, you may remember what I said makes a good decision. It’s one that people buy into, and people see the reasons behind. Well, that’s easier said than done. If you’re leading the meeting, you might wish for a simple and straightforward discussion that ends in one - and only one - logical decision. But dream on. You should expect a few obstacles along the way. For one thing, sometimes people can get a bit personal. I mean, one person makes a suggestion, and someone else attacks the person, as opposed to the idea. It might be pretty easy to detect, like “Come on Dave, you always come up with the stupidest ideas.” But it might be a bit more indirect, like “Geez Dave, do you have any other great ideas?” In any case, you need to shut this down immediately. Call...
Free Resources: Lesson Module | Quiz & Vocab | PDF Transcript Hello and welcome back to the Skills 360 Podcast . I’m your host, Tim Simmons, and today I want to look at how you can lead a group to a decision. In fact, it might be better to say we’re talking about how to lead groups to good decisions. After all, any meeting chairperson can push for a quick decision, or call a vote before matters have been fully discussed. But that’s not the kind of leadership I’m talking about. And that doesn’t necessarily produce good decisions. A good decision is one that people buy into, and one that has a strong rationale behind it. Achieving these two things can’t be done quickly, or forcefully. So how can we go about leading a group to a decision? Well, right at the start of the meeting, you need to set the stage for a good discussion, and a good decision. Setting the stage involves a couple of important things. Firstly, you need to be very clear about the purpose. If you’re meeting to m...
Free Resources: Lesson Module | Quiz & Vocab | PDF Transcript Hello and welcome back to the Business English Skills 360 podcast. I'm your host, Tim Simmons, and today I want to look at making your ideas stick. Have you ever been in a meeting or listened to a presentation where someone talks about their big idea? And then, forty PowerPoint slides later, you're still not quite sure what they're talking about, or why their idea is so great? Well, there might be a good idea somewhere behind it all, but for some reason it didn't stick. On the flip side, there are ideas that you couldn't forget if you wanted to. For whatever reason, people understand them, they remember them, and they get behind them. The ones that stick are the exceptions. Business history is littered with ideas - for products or business models - that never became popular. So what's the difference? Why do some ideas stick while others die a sad death? In our last lesson, I talked about keeping it real and keeping it rel...
Free Resources: Lesson Module | Quiz & Vocab | PDF Transcript Hello and welcome back to the Business English Skills 360 podcast. I'm your host, Tim Simmons, and today I want to look at how you can make your ideas stick. Just the other day one of my co-workers came to me and said: "I've got a killer idea for a new app." Then he went on to say that… well, I don't remember exactly what he said. There was something about productivity and something about scheduling… I think. Let's face it: ideas are a dime a dozen. And just having a great idea doesn't mean a thing if you can't get other people to believe in it. And before you can get anyone to believe in it, you need to help them remember it. You need to make it stick. So today I want to share a couple of tips for helping your ideas stick. It doesn't matter if you're giving a presentation, proposing something in a meeting, or pitching to investors. The secrets to stickiness are the same. The first thing you need to do is to keep it rea...
Free Resources: Lesson Module | Quiz & Vocab | PDF Transcript Hello and welcome back to Business English Skills 360 podcast. I’m your host Tim Simmons, and today I want to give you some more tips for using metaphors in English. If you tuned in last time, you’ll remember that a metaphor is when you compare something you’re talking about to another idea. A classic example of a metaphor is “time is money.” But, if you really want to use metaphors to take your English to the next level, you’ll need to learn to think outside the box. Whoa, wait a second. What did I just say? “Take it to the next level” and “think outside the box?” Well, those expressions are idioms, which is one kind of metaphor. But haven’t you heard those expressions a bit too much? I sure have. And that’s why I suggest avoiding these kinds of extremely common metaphors, or clichés. A cliché is an expression that is used so much that people don’t really think about its meaning any more. And if you use cl...
Free Resources: Lesson Module | Quiz & Vocab | PDF Transcript Hello and welcome back to the Business English Skills 360 podcast. I’m your host Tim Simmons, and today I want to give you some tips for using metaphors to make your speech more powerful. Have you ever heard of Alfred Sloan? He was the head of General Motors during the Great Depression. He once gave a speech where he talked about GM at the time as a “great ship in a fierce storm.” From that description, you get a sense of danger, of a big boat getting tossed around in the unpredictable ocean waves. And you can imagine that everyone on that ship has to work hard to get through the storm which, like all storms, would one day end. Alfred Sloan was using a metaphor. GM isn’t really a ship. And the economy isn’t really an ocean. He could have talked about how the company needed to improve its balance sheet during a time of economic uncertainty. But a ship in a storm is a much more memorable and impactful way of describing...
Free Resources: Lesson Module | Quiz & Vocab | PDF Transcript Hello and welcome back to the Business English Skills 360 podcast. I’m your host Tim Simmons, and today I want to give you some more tips for getting the most out of a conference. Some people see conferences as a way to get away from the office for a few days and take a break. And sure, it’s helpful to step back from the daily grind and learn something, or reflect on your work and business. But if you really want to get the most out of a conference, you should look at it as more than just a learning opportunity. I mean, if you’ve got hundreds or even thousands of people in one place looking to connect with others, it’s a golden opportunity for networking. In our last lesson, I talked about conference preparation and gave you a list of things you should do during the conference. Today I want to give you some tips for after the conference, and share some “don’ts,” or things to avoid, during the conference. My first t...
Learn how to effectively learn a language and develop successful habits for learning English.
Learn how to effectively learn a language and develop successful habits for learning English.
Learn how to effectively learn a language and develop successful habits for English learning.