There’s a weird atmosphere on the call because there is too much silence. I can’t understand certain people when they talk. Our teleconferences are “always” a waste of time. So, if you can give me a few minutes by reading on, I will try to give you some quick and easy ways to overcome these […]
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 […]
I used to work for a large German logistics company as an in-house Business English trainer. Every morning I walked into the building and I would greet the security guard. Many of my German colleagues did this too. Not everyone learned his name though. I began to exchange daily pleasantries, talk about the weather, the […]
I recently took part in a management training workshop. Aside from what I learned in the two days, it was very interesting to be a participant for once and not a trainer! As a participant, I was able to experience the training from a different perspective. Sometimes I felt a little bit nervous, especially during […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
More specifically, how do you measure the success of training when learners don’t have a test to pass? The goal of our training is for participants to be able to do their job better. How easily can that be measured, taking into account all of the other variables that can affect job performance? When we […]
Over a period of eight years, I’ve worked in India in various multinational companies. I’ve had the opportunity to experience Work-Life-Balance of normal working class people, both in India and in Germany. I believe that success in business ultimately boils down to understanding different cultures beyond the surface. Doing business with different cultures can be […]
Love them or hate them, emails are part of working life. We have probably all dreaded the moment we return from our holiday because we knew we were facing a mountain of emails. Or maybe we have a colleague who has a gift for writing emails that seems like coded messages – except that you […]
Originally published on 10.02.2014 1. Congratulate them (when appropriate) Congratulations on… Well done…. I hear congratulations are in order. 2. Tell them you’ve enjoyed working with them / that you’re going to miss them It’s been great / nice / a pleasure working with you. We’re going to miss you around here. The place won’t […]
What do you say when you wish a colleague a happy birthday? In the modern business world, we have contact with a lot of people on a day-to-day basis. We all have one thing in common: birthdays! Wishing a colleague a happy birthday is a great opportunity to strengthen your relationship with them. Regardless of […]
Do you ever feel your meetings have gone off track? You’re in a meeting to talk about one thing, but someone is talking about something completely different, someone else is discussing an unimportant point, and others are debating something completely irrelevant – the whole meeting has gone off track! When this happens, it’s hard to […]
Originally published on 25.03.2013 I know enough people at my company. I have enough friends. I’m not comfortable speaking and reaching out to people I don’t know. I’m not a salesperson. The list of excuses on why not to engage in professional networking can go on and on. As undesirable as it can seem, networking […]
Originally published on: 05.06.2014 One of my program participants recently mentioned the workplace value of the skills of moderation and facilitation. This conversation piqued my interest, so I searched the Net for the best books about facilitation and chose one that is considered a classic text on the topic of facilitation: The Skilled Facilitator: A […]
Giving and asking for recommendations Have you ever wanted to recommend a person, their services or even a good restaurant to someone else but didn’t know how to do it? Have you ever wanted someone to recommend you to others? Maybe you have a special skill that you’d like others to know about. You might […]
Not your typical phone call Teleconferences are a great way to connect to people around the world. They’re less expensive than face-to-face meetings, often take less time, and solve problems more efficiently than emails do. Conducting a teleconference should be easy. All you have to do is connect everyone on the phone and make decisions […]
Professional email communication is essential in business situations. However, people sometimes let their emotions get the best of them and send an email they later regret. Multiple punctuation marks, all-capital letters along with a rude and unprofessional tone are often used to show how upset the sender is. We have all received them at one […]
What are the challenges in your virtual team? Each virtual team has their own unique challenges, but there are always a few that seem to be consistently present. In this short video, Scott Levey, Director of Operations, focuses on two of the most commons challenges we see when training virtual teams. Having awareness of these, […]
