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Not everyone’s a natural at small talk

“By failing to prepare you are preparing to fail.” – Benjamin Franklin Do you prepare for small talk? Not only natural small talkers are good at small talk. How much time do you spend preparing for a presentation? Let’s assume you don’t make those up as you go, why should it be different with small […]

Essential English phrases for purchasers

“I need to do my job in English more and more” said one of my participants in a purchasing department. She was a lead buyer at a manufacturing company who had seen her company go through a rapid internationalization process when they merged. Global purchasing means that many purchasers now need to work comfortably and […]

Giving presentations scares me to death!

Presenting under pressure. Performance anxiety. Stage fright. Call it what you want, but the incredible nervousness some people feel as soon as they stand up in front of an audience is real. And if your audience is your boss, it can really affect how you present. Unless you’re prepared for it. “You’ve felt it. The […]

Preparing for a performance appraisal interview

  What’s changed then? I want to keep my employees in the company. And performance appraisal interviews are important in making sure this happens. So, I use my “5 Keeps” approach: “If you’re reading this, apologies to those individuals who had to live with how I used to prepare for performance appraisals. I’m probably part […]

Open up your small talk

Great small talkers know that the key to creating meaningful and significant conversation is a matter of asking the right questions. Asking the right questions can help build and develop stronger relationships. Your goal when small talking should be to try to learn about and connect with the other person, not just to pass the […]

Leading meetings in English

What makes leading a meeting in English so hard?   Relax – it’s all about the meeting, not you! When I’ve had to run meetings in Spanish or German, it took me a while to realize that it doesn’t help to worry about these questions. I quickly learned that the participants were actually interested in […]

Book Review: Get the most from your meetings

Free eBook Download   Along with our  latest eBook “Keys to effective meetings”, here’s a list of resources you can use to make your meetings more effective. Facilitation Made Easy: Practical Tips to Improve Meetings and Workshops Esther Cameron Facilitation Made Easy is a comprehensive study of the complete process of planning, carrying out and […]

Business English apps for busy people

Business English on the go Maybe you’re as serious as all of my clients about improving your business English – but like them, you have other priorities too! What it comes down to is that learning English takes a back seat when important deadlines loom. Half the time, you’re travelling and the other half, you’re […]

Doing business with Italians

I’m half Italian, half German and I grew up in Germany. I thought I understood both sides of my heritage, but I didn’t really discover how different these two cultures could be until my work as a sales manager took me to Italy. In fact, it took me a year of working in Italy, building […]

Softening your phrases in business communication

English is much less direct than German. If you say “Ich kann nicht am Treffen teilnehmen, da ich zur Zeit beschäftigt bin”, your German colleagues will have no problems with how you communicated that information. However, using that sentence (I’m too busy to come to the meeting) with your English partner/colleague may cause problems in […]

Leading interactive virtual meetings

What strategies can be used to make virtual meetings as effective and engaging as possible? One of my clients recently asked me to listen in on a virtual meeting and give feedback to the chairperson of the meeting. This person wanted to make the daily meeting more interesting, interactive and motivating for the participants. Regularly […]

Building business relationships with the Chinese

One of the companies where I train recently opened a plant in China, so doing business with Chinese people has become a topic of great interest for a lot of the participants in my training program. Some of these participants recently had the chance to attend an intercultural training session that highlighted some of the […]

Brainstorming in English

Contributing ideas in English is a common problem for both native and non-native speakers of English. Brainstorming requires you to speak spontaneously and multi-task which can be both stressful and demanding – especially in a foreign language. Participants often have to listen to a lot of people speaking at the same time which can push […]