This is the the first of a two-part Business English Pod series on motivating your team.
Motivation is an important force in business. Much of what gets accomplished is driven by a team’s motivation. When employees feel energized about a project, they’re more likely to contribute ideas and work hard toward success. But if they’re not motivated, their commitment – and the chances of success – diminish.
Sometimes, motivation is difficult to achieve. Circumstances such as a poor economy or downsizing can devastate employee morale, or optimism. Employees may feel defeated, uncertain about their future, and not at all excited about the work ahead.
In this lesson, we’ll look at some ways to motivate your team. We’ll discuss how to acknowledge obstacles that may hold a team back. We’ll cover ways to convey enthusiasm and make people feel valued. And we’ll talk about how team members can contribute to the discussion and brainstorm.
Today we’ll listen to Joe, a manager at a resort, try to motivate his sales team. The department has been downsized considerably and morale is low. Still, they have important work to do.
Listening Questions:
1. Why does Joe say that the team looks different now?
2. What idea does Carl suggest?
3. What is Nick’s idea?
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We’ve all dealt with angry people before. But dealing with an angry person on the phone, in a business setting, can be tricky. Sometimes you don’t know the person, so his or her situation may be completely new to you. You can’t see the person, so you can’t read facial expressions or body language. Sometimes the person yells or talks so quickly that you can’t understand exactly what they mean. And sometimes they might be rude, which can make you angry yourself. 
We hope that all of our customers are satisfied ones. Indeed, a basic goal in business is to keep customers happy and coming back. But we can’t please all of the people all of the time. Angry callers are often upset because they don’t understand why something happened or disagree with a policy. They might believe that a company has made a mistake. And to get the results they want, they might be rude, yell, or want to speak to someone in authority. 
This is the first in a two-part Business English lesson on talking about your job and company.
What can you say about your company? How would you describe it? There are a number of things to consider. There’s the company size, its employees, and its branches. But there’s also company history, culture, reputation, and future plans.
This is the first in a two-part Business English Pod lesson on dealing with telephone inquiries.
When you’re helping a caller on the phone, unexpected things can happen. You might need to get some additional information from another source or have the caller to speak to someone else. Or, there may be some interference with the telephone connection that makes it hard to hear someone. It’s good to be prepared so that you can handle the call efficiently, without irritating the customer.
This Business English Pod lesson is the first in a two-part series on idioms that come from football, or soccer.
The World Cup kicks off in just a few days. That gives us some time to look at some more idioms related to football.
This is the first in a two-part Business English Pod series on the work of administrative assistants. We’ll be looking at vocabulary and collocations related to office duties and daily routines.
This is the second in a two-part Business English Pod series on administrative assistants, their jobs, and related vocabulary and collocations.