Business English & Communication Skills

Helping you understand the basic building blocks of the English language – sounds, written expressions, essential spelling patterns and exceptions to these patterns - so you can read and write proficiently.

• The 44 unique phonemes in English, that combine to form sounds, words and meanings
• The 30 rules of spelling, which interplay with phonograms, affecting pronunciation and spelling
• Spelling vs pronunciation: rhymes, patterns & sounds
• British vs American English

Getting Your Style Right

• Practical tips for sharpening consistency in language and structure.
  • Capital letters
  • Names and titles
  • Trade names and company names
  • Nations and places
  • Dates, time and ages
  • Money, numbers, percentages, weights and measures
  • Acronyms

Editing and Proof Reading Skills

• Essentials of how to proof another person’s words and edit so their words are read, understood and acted upon
  • How to use the BSI proofreading symbols
  • Marking-up on paper and on screen
  • Checking accuracy and commercial confidentiality
  • Copy editing various types of text with images and tables
  • Following an editorial style

Key strategies for improving comprehension of written text on the page and computer screen.

• Retelling to develop deeper understanding of what is read
• Visually representing the text with story maps and story frames
• Making predictions from clues in the text
• Questioning what the author is trying to communicate
• Critical thinking: interacting, integrating, evaluating

Analysing Complex Business Literature

• Reviewing documents such as business cases, business plans, briefing papers, technical reports, proposals and bids
  • Understanding summaries, recommendations and conclusions
  • Extracting information from key findings
  • Summarising and presenting your own conclusions

Responding to Letters and Emails

• Extracting key information and acting on it quickly
  • Understanding why the letter or email has been written
  • Skim reading to identify key information
  • Identifying what you are being asked to do
  • Summarising the letter or email for other people.

Preparing for Meetings

• Reading materials in advance and preparing to contribute effectively
  • Understanding the agenda, spotting gaps
  • Reading the advance materials, summarising and asking questions
  • Background reading to ensure you are fully briefed in advance

Become better at listening to and understanding others, taking into account their words, voice, facial expressions and body language.

• Paying attention to words and body language
• Controlling ourselves so we can learn from others
• Asking good questions and listening to answers
• Checking understanding and reframing
• The power of silence.

Effective Facilitation

• Helping teams identify issues, solve problems and make decisions
  • Core facilitation skills and practices
  • A toolkit for facilitators
  • Helping to create collaboration and consensus in teams

Building Confidence & Assertiveness

• Strategies for managing conflict and developing constructive relationships with others
  • Understanding assertive, aggressive and passive behaviours
  • Building self-esteem and positive ways of behaving
  • Handling difficult situations, problems and conflicts
  • Applying assertiveness in different work situations

Managing Effective Meetings

• Chairing and contributing to meetings that are useful to the team and individual participants
  • Producing materials that help the meeting run smoothly including agendas and briefing materials
  • Ensuring everyone contributes and their contributions are valued
  • Maintaining interest and participation throughout the meeting
  • Taking clear notes that summarise discussions, decisions and actions

Writing instructions people find useful and will use

• Mapping out instructions as step-by-step procedures
• Explaining what functions are for and how to use them
• Considering the needs of people with disabilities
• Testing the instructions with real users

Gold Standard Letter Writing for Business

• How to structure letters so your recipients read, understand and act on what they read
  • 10 tips for writing better business letters
  • Using the inverted pyramid structure for letters
  • Writing an attention-grabbing first paragraph
  • Including personality and authenticity in letters.

Powerful Reports and Briefing Papers

• How to create reports that meet the business needs of their readers, are concise, easy to understand and easy to apply to improve business decision making and operations
  • Collating and analysing primary and secondary data, drawing out conclusions & recommendations
  • Structuring reports so readers can easily find the information they are interested in
  • Clearly signalling the action we want stakeholders to take after reading the report
  • Use graphics and illustrations to highlight key findings and messages.

Creating Social Media Content

• Choosing between the wide variety of tools to create social media content including blogs, slides, video, infographics, quizzes and podcasts
• Tips to create engaging content stakeholders find interesting, relevant and useful
• Creating an emotional connection with humour, human interest and storytelling
• Ensuring relevance with breaking news, experiences and personal exchanges

Presenting messages clearly so audiences participate positively and remember your key points.

• Structuring presentations so key points are understood and remembered
• How to include a call to action that leads to change
• A positive image: body language, dress code and voice
• Building rapport with the audience
• Avoiding pitfalls: stage fright, hostile questions, yawning and other problems
• Developing great visual aids.

Win Win Negotiations

• Best practices for contributing positively to negotiations and decision making within organisations and with external parties
  • Core knowledge, skills and approaches in negotiating
  • Identifying interests and positions
  • Bargaining, expectations and concessions
  • Collaborative decision making.

Giving Feedback

• Feedback is the compass that helps people understand what to do and how to do it. They know what is required of them, when they are delivering and when they need to do things differently.
  • Two purposes of feedback – highlighting performance and encouragement
  • Finding time-out space for one2one feedback
  • Keeping feedback timely and motivating
  • Planning a feedback conversation