How to MOTIVATE YOUR TEAM - Business English Vocabulary lesson for managers

In this Business English vocabulary lesson we talk about some natural and native sounding phrases, idioms, and words that we can use to motivate our teams and reward their performance. So if your a leader or a manager and you want to sound more native when you speak English and talk to your colleagues then hopefully today's podcast will help. We hear a quote from a past leader and take a brief look at some research on what staff really want from their managers and companies and hear both formal and informal vocabulary tips and ideas.

Also, if you're studying for the IELTS, TOEFL, or Cambridge English tests and exams then you might find some of the vocabulary in this episode really useful.

This podcast is all about helping you to communicate better, in English, at work. I work with international English speakers from around the world who use English, at work, as a second or third language and I hope that I can bring some of the ideas, vocabulary, and grammar, from those sessions, to you in this podcast.

Don’t forget that my full time job is helping international professionals who use English at work to improve their communication skills. So, if you need English to do your job but don’t speak it natively then maybe we can work together to help you to achieve your language goals. 

Book a class: https://www.breakoutbusinessenglish.com/start

Transcript

Welcome to the Breakout Business English podcast. Where I help you. To communicate better. That's work. In... English. Hi everyone, my name is Chris and I'm a business English coach and tutor. Thank you so much as always for listening and today's topic is motivating your colleagues. Motivating your colleagues.So this week's podcast is for managers. Or people who want to be managers, or maybe just people who have managers and want to communicate better with them, which I'm guessing is most of you. I've worked with hundreds of managers from all around the world in many industries. One thing that I think I can confidently say from speaking to them, and from my own experience managing teams, is that Managers like Happy. Teams. Happy teams deliver better results and a generally better atmosphere at work. Who wouldn't want a happy team? Today, we're going to talk about how to motivate your staff and some ways that you might deal with low morale. We'll discuss some natural and native sounding vocabulary that you can use to talk about this idea. And we'll hear some great examples of ways that you can speak to your colleagues regarding this important topic.So, let's get started. Let's start today with a quote.Something that somebody said. And our quote today comes from Dwight D. Adams. Eisenhower. Maybe you recognize the name Eisenhower. . He was an American. And personally, I think he had one of the coolest job titles I've ever heard. During World War II, he was Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe. I always think that's a really cool job title, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe. I wonder how many people applied for that job, if there were open interviews and open applications for that one.So I don't think there are many job titles that sound quite that cool. However, he was best known... As the 34th President of the United States of America. And here is what he... I had to say about morale and motivation. Eisenhower said that the best morale exists when you never hear the word mentioned. When you hear a lot of talk about it, it's usually lousy. One more time, he said the best morale exists when you never hear the word mentioned. When you hear a lot of talk about it, it's usually lousy. Okay, so there are a couple of words in there that we should probably discuss. The first one is MORALE. Morale is a couple of things. Firstly, it is POSITIVITY. It is. Enthusiasm and Happiness. We especially use this when talking about teams. The second part of morale is a little harder to define. It's a team's Confidence. Their ability to work together as a collective, as a team, and their belief in themselves and what they are doing. In short, morale is when a team is working really well and enjoying their work. Notice the spelling here. This word is 'morale'. M. R. A-L-E. Morale. That "e" on the end is really important. Maybe you know the word "moral". Without an e on the end. Same spelling, but no e on the end. This has a slightly different pronunciation, 'moral', and a very different definition. Morals are our idea of what is right and wrong. If someone always makes the right decision, the decision that is ethical, then you might call them a moral person. Maybe something happens at work, a terrible mistake is made and a client or customer is really upset. And your boss is really angry, they say, "Who did this? Who caused this terrible problem?" Well, instead of letting the whole team be punished for this, maybe a moral person would say it was me, I was the one who did it. That would be the moral thing to do. The word that we're focused on today is morale. Not moral, morale.So. ...make sure you get the pronunciation right on this one. When talking about morale, We can describe it as being high or low. Usually morale is high or morale is low. For instance, someone might say: "Morale has been really high since we moved into the new office." Morale has been really high since we moved into the new office. Or maybe the team's morale is pretty low right now. They really need a boost. The team's morale is pretty low right now. They really need a boost. The second word that we should briefly mention from that quote is lousy. L-O-U-S-Y. I'm guessing this is a new word for most people listening to this podcast today. Lousy is an informal word that means bad. I think it's starting to sound a little old-fashioned now, but if you really want to, you can take a page out of Eisenhower's book and describe anything from the morale of your team to the food at a really bad restaurant as lousy. I had a manager many years ago who was much older than the rest of his team. And he would tell us when we were doing lousy work. I think this is a really interesting quote, and it definitely splits opinion. It's quite polarizing. People either really agree with Eisenhower on this, that when morale is good, we shouldn't talk about it, we shouldn't need to talk about it, or they really disagree with him. I've actually been discussing motivation and motivating teams with a few managers who I coach recently. And I'd love to get your opinion on this quote. Feel free to leave your opinion in a review over on Apple Podcasts or any other podcast player where you can leave a review. I'd love to hear your opinion on this quote. Quote. A moment ago, we heard the word "boost." Boost. B-O-O-S-T. Which in this context means something that encourages people or causes an improvement in their mood. I think one of the easiest things that a leader can do is to show their staff that their hard work is Appreciate it. To tell them how grateful they are for this. And with that said, let's take a listen to a couple of natural and native sounding examples of managers trying to give their teams a little boost. I want to take a moment to acknowledge the hard work that you've all been putting in. And to reassure you that it hasn't gone unnoticed. I want to take a moment to acknowledge the hard work that you've all been putting in. And to reassure you that it hasn't gone unnoticed. Thank you all for your contribution. You should be patting yourselves on the back for the great work you've been doing. Thank you all for your contribution. You should be patting yourselves on the back for the great work you've been doing. You are hands down the best team I've worked with in a long time, and I can see that you put your all into your work. You are amazing. And down. The best team I've worked with in a long time. And I can see that you put your all into your work.Let's take a closer look. At some vocabulary from that second example. We heard the phrase to pat yourself on the back. To pat yourself on the back. I really like this idiom, this phrase, because it's one that you can really picture and understand where it comes from, which is always nice for idioms.Some of them are really confusing. If I tell you that you deserve a pat on the back, Aww. That you should give yourself a pat on the back.I mean that you deserve to be congratulated. You deserve recognition for your work.Sometimes, if we think that people have done something well, we reach over and, well, them on the back just like we could pat a dog on its head we might pat our friends on the back literally putting our hand on the back and tapping them Well. It's not just the action of patting someone on the back that has this meaning in English. But even the words on their own are enough to show your appreciation.So the next time your friend or your colleague does something particularly good, you can pat them on the back or maybe you can just say to them Wow, you really deserve a pat on the back for that. You really deserve a pat on the back for that. In the third example, we heard the phrase 'hands down'. Hands down. This is an informal Phrasal verb. That means that something is easily achieved in an effortless way. We usually use this phrase to talk about superlatives. These are words like biggest, Smallest. Most expensive or best? For instance, I might say that my boss is hands down the hardest working person I've ever met. Or I could tell you that this is hands down the nicest group of people I've ever worked with. My listeners are hands down the nicest people I know. And if your ability to communicate in English is hands down the most important thing for you to improve, then don't forget that my full-time job is helping international professionals who use English at work to improve their communication skills.So if you need English to do your job but don't speak it natively, then maybe we and work together to help you to achieve your language goals. If you'd like to book some time to meet with me through one-to-one video calls just you and me working together, then you can go to breakoutbusinessenglish.com. Come. That's The title of this podcast, BreakoutBusinessEnglish.com. Come. . And find out more. I sometimes have offers and discounts on class packages and entering your email address on the website is the best way to be the first to find out when those limited time deals are available. I've worked with over 1,000 non-native English-speaking professionals, from new graduates up to CEOs and government leaders, to help them to achieve their goals, and I look forward to meeting you. Okay, let's keep going. Okay, let's move on to incentives. Incentives. Time and time again, research shows that the incentive that people are most interested in is, and I'll give you one guess... Money. Everyone wants more money. People want their great performance to be rewarded with, well, great paychecks. They want cash. There was a survey done by the website SurveyMonkey.com. Working with another website, Bonously. Back in November 2023, which showed that 33% of colleagues preferred to be given gifts at work as recognition for their hard work. With words of affirmation, encouragement and support being a close second at 32%.So. While you're saying thank you to your colleagues with some of the vocabulary from our first set of examples, let's take a look at some ways that we can talk about some other forms of rewards. I think we should incentivize the staff a little more. Maybe give them a bonus to work towards. I think we should incentivize the staff a little more. Maybe give them a bonus to work towards. I really appreciate the new incentive scheme they've started. It's nice to hear how well we're doing, sure, but I'm glad they've decided to offer us something more tangible. I really appreciate the new incentive scheme they've started. It's nice to hear how well we're doing, sure, but I'm glad they've decided to offer us something more tangible. These incentives are actually quite good. Hitting these KPIs is finally worth our while. These incentives are actually quite good. Hitting these KPIs is finally worth Our. WILD. Okay, so the most important piece of vocabulary to discuss here is the noun incentive and the verb incentivize. The noun incentive and the verb incentivize. In the first example, we heard: I think we should incentivise the staff a little more. I think we should incentivize the staff a little more. And... In the third example, we heard it as a noun. These incentives are actually quite good.So an incentive is a thing that motivates you to do something. This could be anything from additional vacation time to more money in your paycheck at the end of the month. Incentive is a really formal and professional way to talk about rewards. And we spell this word C-E-L-L-I-N-G. N-T-L-E-N-T. IVF. E. Incentive. The verb form of this word is to incentivize. Maybe your company wants to start thinking of good ideas for improving efficiency at the company.So they send out an email. That says that anyone who contacts the leadership team with a good idea that can make a process more efficient can get up to five extra vacation days this year. We could say that they've incentivized their staff to come up with some good ideas. Vacation days, extra money, maybe even the use of a company car. We can call all of these incentives Tangible. Tangible. The possibility that your boss will tell the whole team how great your work is in the next team meeting, maybe that's an intangible incentive.So. What does the word - Tangible. Mean. In the first example, we heard: "They've decided to offer us something more tangible. They've decided to offer us something more Unshable. The main definition of tangible is something that you can touch and hold.So, if I buy a car, for instance, then the car itself is definitely a tangible thing. The insurance policy that I have to take out on the car, however, is not tangible because I can't touch it. I can't hold it. I remember working in business-to-business sales in around 2012 and spearheading a couple of intangible product launches for the company I worked with. They're always more difficult to train staff on and to talk to customers about. We can use the word tangible to talk about the size or amount of something. If the amount of money that you get as a reward, as an incentive is only a couple of euros or a couple of dollars or a couple of pounds, then maybe that's not that hard. Great of an incentive. However, if someone offers you a thousand euros, a thousand dollars to work over the weekend, well, that's definitely more expensive. Tangible, that's a really tangible reward that you would be getting. I do remember hearing a conversation years ago, or maybe I was reading a piece of news about a company that to its best sales staff, offered the use of a really expensive car for the month. I think they were... Hi-fi company in the UK and At least for the first few years when they were still a small company. If you were the top salesperson in that company, then they would give you a... Horseshore- I dunno. A really fast car, a Lamborghini, to drive around for the month. I always thought that was a pretty cool incentive, but then... What if you've been don't live very far from work or you don't drive very far or maybe you can't drive or any other reason that you wouldn't really want to drive around in an expensive car as a reward. But still definitely an interesting. ...incentive scheme there. I wonder if I would work harder for the opportunity to drive a Lamborghini for the month. Possibly. Okay, let's discuss the phrase worth your while, to be worth your while. In the third example, we heard: Hitting these KPIs is finally worth it. Our while. Hitting these KPIs is finally worth our while. If something is worth your while, Then, You mean that the reward will be enough, the reward will be worth it, even if it requires a little effort? Let's say that your boss wants you to go into the office on a Saturday. It's optional, but they'll buy you lunch if you do it. I've definitely been offered. Pizza to work on the weekends before.Well, maybe it's not worth your while. Going into the office on a Saturday for pizza, for lunch, yeah, maybe that's not worth your while. But then your boss offers you a $200 bonus to come in on Saturday.Well, now maybe that is worth your while. And then he tells you that with lunch, he'll even pay for dessert.Well, now that's definitely worth your while. It's worth the effort. The value that you are being offered is worth the effort that you are putting in. Worth your while. And, well, everyone likes dessert. Okay, and just a quick note, KPIs. KPI stands for KPIs. He... Performance, indicator. Performance indicator. These are how companies often measure your success. I spent almost 10 years working in sales and I was always thinking about and worried about hitting my targets and KPIs.So one more time, KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator. That's everything for today. Don't forget that between episodes of the podcast, you can get videos every couple of days on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Just search for Breakout Business English. If there is a topic that you'd like to hear me talk about on the podcast, then I would be excited to hear your ideas. Leave me a message or a comment on one of my YouTube videos. And I look forward to hearing from you. And if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, then I invite you to leave a review. Every review really helps me out and helps to push the podcast to new listeners and to grow the show. If you found this podcast useful and you think there are some valuable things in here, then feel free to write a couple of kind words and I thank you in advance. That's another great place to request a topic for a future podcast. One more time, if you would like to book some time with me to work one-on-one on your English, then you can go to breakoutbusinessenglish.com. That's the title of the podcast, breakoutbusinessenglish.com and find out more. As I said, I've worked with over 1,000 non-native English-speaking professionals. It's what I do every day for anywhere between five and seven hours a day of calls, meeting with people around the world. From new graduates up to CEOs and government leaders, helping them prepare for job interviews, presentations and just generally improve their professional communication skills in English. And I look forward to hopefully meeting and working with you. That is it for today. Thanks a lot for listening. As always, I really appreciate the time that you've given me today. And I'll talk to you again next time on the Breakout Business English Podcast.