
-
Managing others
- Useful Terms for Performance Reviews
- 70-20-10 Model: Building Listening Skills
- Giving Negative Feedback
- The DESC Model – Giving Feedback
- Giving Feedback
- GPD/ Appraisals
- Employee Satisfaction
- Managing High Performers- the Miles Davis Approach
- Communicating Difficult Decisions
- Delegating
- Interviewing Candidates for a Job
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Presentations
- 3 Elements of a Great Presentation
- Giving a Workshop Tour
- Giving Presentations
- Rule of “Three” in Presentations
- Do’s and Don’ts of Presentations
- Softening Language During Presentations
- Storytelling in business presentations
- Creating Effective Presentation Slides
- Making good presentations great
- How to End a Presentation
- Body Language for Presentations
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Meetings and Negotiations
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International Business
Softening Language During Presentations

We use indirect language in English in many areas of business and for many different reasons: to be polite, diplomatic or formal, or to show respect and build business relationships. Indirect language tends to be soft, positive and friendly.
Sometimes when you are presenting you may need to reduce the significance of points which are not particularly relevant or important, or you may prefer not to stress certain information for some reason. You can use indirect language or ‘softening’ language in many of these cases, too.
Here’s how:
Example 1: Now, we’ve had a bit of trouble getting all our suppliers on board, but we tend to think all will be using our new system by the end of the year.
Example 2: I know it seems rather a long shot, but we may just have to try a different approach to get them to agree to the proposal at the next meeting.
Test yourself! Read the following sentences from various presentations and choose the most suitable softener(s).
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We can soften the way we give information in a presentation by:
-Minimizing: just, only, a bit, a little, rather, fairly, just about, almost
-Expressing possibility: probably, maybe, possibly, might, may, or perhaps
-Adding words such as appear, tend, or seem
-Showing reservation with all in all, to a certain extent, to some degree, in a way, some, somewhat
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