100 Top Tips
Business Spotlight feiert seine 100. Ausgabe! Aus diesem Anlass haben SASKIA REBMANN und IAN MCMASTER genau 100 nützliche Tipps für Ihren Berufsalltag ausgewählt.
Useful advice from the first 100 issues of Business Spotlight
In this article, we have put together 100 top tips for doing business in English — one from each of the first 100 issues of Business Spotlight. For each tip, we provide the issue number and page number where it can be found. We begin with a short test, as in the first issue of Business Spotlight back in March 2001.
1. Test: Improve your business English
What do the following abbreviations stand for? (Answers on page 53)
A. CFO
B. M&A
C. ROI
D. SMES
E. IPO (Steve Flinders, 2/2001, p. 17)
2. Socializing: Handshakes
“Don’t assume that a strong handshake will be appreciated in all parts of the world.” (Jeremy Comfort, 3/2001, p. 68)
3. Women at Work: Gender communication
“For both men and women, it is an advantage to be able to think both ‘male’ and ‘female’ — or to combine these ways of thinking for optimum results.” (Shere Hite, 4/2001, p. 38)
4. Management: Styles
“As managers of people, we need to know our own personal style and how it affects others. But that is not enough. We also need to quickly recognize the personal styles of the people we have to work with so that we can deal with them appropriately.” (Ken Taylor, 1/2002, p. 79)
5. What is… cherry picking?
“Cherry picking is choosing the most profitable options from those that are available — in other words, taking only the best and leaving the rest.” (2/2002, p. 81)
“I still have my feet on the ground. I just wear better shoes” “Making money is art, and working is art, and good business is the best art”
“Spend time on team building to create trust and common commitment. Use partners with local knowledge, and employ cultural mediators to coach and support you.” (Robert Gibson, 1/2003, p. 29)
9. Business Skills: Chairing meetings
“If you send pre-meeting literature, it is not guaranteed that anybody will read it. … One way to make sure people read the documentation is to ask for feedback on it before the meeting.” (Bob Dignen, 2/2003, p. 65)
10. Executive Eye: Courage
“The first type of courage needed by managers is the courage to fail. The second type is interpersonal courage. This is the courage needed to dismiss people, to tell them that they are performing badly. … The third type of courage is … the courage to stand up for a moral belief.” (Adrian Furnham, 3/2003, p. 84)
11. Working World: Top office complaints
1. “It’s too cold!”
2. “It’s too hot!” (Source: International Facility Management Association, 4/2003, p. 9)
6. Workplace: Time management
“At the start of each day, spend ten minutes making a list of your tasks for the day. Time spent making a plan of action is never wasted; it saves you time in the long run.” (Ken Taylor, 3/2002, p. 16)
7. The Last Laugh: Speaking
“Always try to stop talking before people stop listening.” (4/2002, p. 104)
8. Intercultural Communication: Projects 12. Business Skills: Selling
“Selling internationally may require an ability to work with Nordic silences, to enjoy English irony, and to feel comfortable with American ‘buddiness’. It is your job to learn that flexibility.” (Bob Dignen, 1/2004, p. 77)
13. Office Blues: Sickness
“The fun part [of being sick] is [that] your colleagues have to be nice to you.” (Kathrin Hauger, 2/2004, p. 63)
14. Business Skills: Persuasion
“Your ability to persuade may depend on your finding new and creative solutions to difficult issues. Remember, however, that creativity requires preparation.” (Bob Dignen, 3/2004, p. 66)
15. The Last Laugh: Multitasking
“Multitasking means that you can fail at several things at once.” (4/2004, p. 104)
16. Careers: Fitness
“Park one kilometer from your workplace, or get off public transportation one station earlier and walk the rest of the way. Wear comfortable shoes.” (Carol Scheunemann, 1/2005, p. 100)
17. Business Skills: Small talk
“Use positive body language (smiles, eye contact, etc.) to show that you are interested.” (Bob Dignen, 2/2005, p. 68)
18. Careers: Image
“…business dress will always be a compromise between corporate culture, industry culture and national culture on the one hand, and individualism on the other.” (Kathleen Becker/ Julian Earwaker, 3/2005, p. 96)
19. Business Skills: Conflicts
“Conflict should not be seen as wholly negative, however. It can be a useful way of discovering organizational issues that need to be dealt with.” (Bob Dignen, 4/2005, p. 67)
20. Business Skills: Audio conferencing
“Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone so that we might communicate more effectively with one another. Remember that when dialling in to your next conference call.” (Bob Dignen, 1/2006, p. 70)
21. Intercultural Communication: Stereotypes
“Lists of dos and don’ts are like freezing the frame in a film and then using it to try to understand the story. Even if they are true, they don’t consider the context in which things happen and the motivation of the people involved. They can never be complete.” (Robert Gibson, 2/2006, p. 38)
22. Office Blues: Questions
⋅ “Why does the boss always walk in just when you’re telling a ⋅ colleague about an interesting dream?”
“Why do you remember important tasks only after you’ve put your coat on to leave? Does wearing a coat improve your ⋅ memory?”
“Why do computer crashes happen only when you haven’t saved your document in three hours?” (Kathrin Hauger, 3/2006, p. 11)
23. Careers: Salary negotiations
“Successfully bargaining for the pay you want is satisfying in more ways than one. Not only will you have more money at the end of the month, the higher value placed on your work will increase your self-esteem and motivation.” (Julie Hawrishok, 4/2006, p. 95)
24. Editorial: Customer and king
“In one area of business life, customers and their wishes are all too often ignored: presentations. … So, next time you give a presentation, imagine all the kings (and queens) who are listening — and put their needs at the centre of your talk.” (Ian Mcmaster, 5/2006, p. 3) 25. The Last Laugh: Business letters “Never ask two questions in a business letter. The reply will discuss the one you are least interested in and say nothing about the other.” (6/2006, p.104)
26. Management: Perfectionists
“There’s nothing wrong with high standards, but they need to be reachable. It’s all about being OK, being among the best without always being the best, and being human, not superhuman.” (Adrian Furnham, 1/2007, p. 80)
27. Office Blues: Bluffing
“Like it or not, one of the greatest forces in business is the power of the bluff . ... After all, it’s not what you know; it’s what people think you know.” (Kathrin Hauger, 2/2007, p. 12)
28. Technically Speaking: Jeans and genes
“Most people worry more about jeans than genes, perhaps because they don’t realize that one fifth of all our genes are already owned by someone else. Well, I say: you may touch my Levi’s, but keep your hands off my genes.” (Eamonn Fitzgerald, 3/2007, p. 88)
29. Intercultural Communication: Body language
“Even when you remain silent, you are communicating in some way; it is impossible not to communicate.” (Robert Gibson, 4/2007, p. 41)
30. Business Skills: Difficult people
“… the people who we experience as problematic are potentially the ones who are the most enriching for us. When we feel ourselves judging another person in a negative way, we should try to switch off this reaction and re-engage with an open mind.” (Bob Dignen, 5/2007, p. 68)
31. Telephoning: Branding yourself
“Personal branding is … especially important when you are in a telephone conference where you cannot see each other. You want people to remember who you are.” (Ken Taylor, 6/2007, p. 75)
32. Authentic English: International English
“Many business interactions in English — perhaps most of them — involve people who do not have English as their native language. In such interactions, both native and nonnative speakers may make grammatical ‘errors’ — that is, they speak in ways that are different from native-speaker norms. But these ‘errors’ do not always lead to communication problems.” (Almut Köster, 1/2008, p. 55)
33. Business Skills: Writing
“Remember the saying: ‘Easy reading is damned hard writing’. But that’s the whole point. When we are writing, our task is to make life as easy for our readers as possible.” (Ken Taylor, 2/2008, p. 70)
“I went to the business school of life”
“There are no disasters, only opportunities. And indeed opportunities for fresh disasters” “In America, we spend more time talking about what can’t get done, what is impossible, and we pass that on to our children. … I don’t want that for my girls”
34. Say It in Style: Health and illness
“In the English-speaking world, the question ‘How are you?’ is usually just a polite greeting. Don’t respond with a complete report of your health status or details of your gastric flu.
The expected answer is ‘Fine, thanks,” or, at worst, ‘Oh, not too bad, thanks’.” (Anna Hochsieder, 3/2008, p.54) 35. Business Skills: Business emails “If you have a lot of contact with the same customer, business partner or colleague via email, try to build a relationship by adding a few lines of small talk to some of your emails — usually in the opening lines or as a closing paragraph.” (Deborah Capras, 4/2008, p. 53)
36. Business Basics: Competitiveness
“Soft factors are becoming increasingly important for competitiveness. For example, being able to attract and keep talent is now seen as a competitive edge.” (5/2008, p. 72) 37. Office Blues: Biorhythm management “It’s good to know your biorhythm, but it’s better to have some coffee ready just in case.” (Kathrin Enke, 6/2008, p. 11)
38. Business Skills: Presentations
“Presentations often fail to make an impact because speakers try to communicate their own objectives to their audiences rather than presenting tangible benefits for them.” (Bob Dignen, 1/2009, p. 46)
39. Intercultural Communication: Gender communication
“The key to understanding communication between cultures, whether national or gender-based, is not to ignore the fact that there are differences, but to see what we have in common — and above all, to continually challenge stereotypes.” (Robert Gibson, 2/2009, p. 40)
40. Careers: Procrastinating
“When you get stuck [on a task], struggle for just one minute. After that, ask yourself, ‘Do I need help? Could I delegate this part of the task? Could I complete the task without the difficult part?’” (Marty Nemko, 3/2009, p. 56) 41. What I’ve Learned: Right and self-righteous “When you know that you are right, the line between being right and being self-righteous can be very thin. And there were times when I was too self-righteous.” (Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 4/2009, p. 64)
42. Authentic English: Using humour
“One form of humour is self-deprecation. … Self-deprecation can be used to try to soften any criticism you think you might receive from, say, a boss or colleague.” (Almut Köster, 5/2009, p. 85)
43. Careers: Self-employment
“Run the business out of your home — even if you’re living in a one-room apartment with a baby. Avoiding the cost of renting office space will save a great deal of money that you’ll need for more important things.” (Marty Nemko, 6/2009, p. 54)
44. Meetings: Leading a discussion
“The key to successful discussion is making regular, short summaries of the dicussion.” (Ken Taylor, 1/2010, p. 51)
“If you can dream it, you can do it”
45. Careers: Job applications
“Prepare ‘PAR’ stories: Problems you’ve faced, how you’ve Approached them, and the positive Resolution.” (Marty Nemko, 2/2010, p. 55)
46. Technology: Documentation
“Technical documents must be correct, clear and consistent.” (Carol Scheunemann, 3/2010, p. 65)
47. What I’ve Learned: Getting better
“Every time you work with someone who’s better than you are, you become greater.” (Lady Gaga, 4/2010, p. 60)
48. Business Skills: Networking
“Networking is both an attitude and an activity.” (Bob Dignen, 5/2010, p. 38)
49. Management: Team selection
“Not every talented person is a team player. Good team players have good listening skills, are cooperative, can represent their own area of expertise, see the project’s success as a group effort and are flexible and secure.” (Vicki Sussens-messerer, 6/2010, p. 60)
50. Business Skills: Trust
“People trust those who trust them. … One of the best ways to develop trust in a team is to show trust to others, even before you really have enough information to do so.” (Bob Dignen, 1/2011, p. 42)
51. Careers: Mentor magic
“Don’t focus on finding just one mentor. Since most successful people are busy, it might be better to have several mentors, each of whom you call on, by email or phone, just for snippets of help.” (Marty Nemko, 2/2011, p. 53)
52. The Last Laugh: Falling behind
“The sooner you fall behind, the more time you will have to catch up.” (3/2011, p. 94)
53. Business Skills: Gossip
“Gossip can certainly be dangerous and destructive for organizations. But it can also be useful, both for staff and for leaders. Combined with small talk and networking, gossip can form a powerful information channel and an opportunity for relationship building.” (Bob Dignen, 4/2011, p. 42)
54. Careers: Speaking
“Unless you’re saying something you know deserves more than a minute, at the 30-second mark, look for a place to stop. Listeners who want more can ask a question.” (Marty Nemko, 5/2011, p. 55)
55. Business Skills: Asking questions
“…if you want further facts, just say, ‘tell me more’ … use this phrase to encourage people to add more information to the answer they have given you. It works every time!” (Ken Taylor, 6/2011, p. 46)
56. Careers: Hobby to job
“If you decide starting a business is not for you, consider giving courses or writing about your hobby for magazines or online sites on your subject.” (Margaret Davis, 1/2012, p. 51)
57. What I’ve Learned: Focusing
“People think focus means saying yes to the thing you’ve got to focus on. But that’s not what it means at all. It means saying no to the hundred other good ideas that there are . ... I’m actually as proud of the things we haven’t done as the things I have done.” (Steve Jobs, 2/2012, p. 64)
58. Business Skills: Telephoning
“Take time at the start of a call just to listen and assess the mood of the other person, the time pressure they are under, etc. If necessary, be prepared to change what you had planned to say so that it fits in with these factors.” (Bob Dignen, 3/2012, p. 40)
59. The Last Laugh: Light and sound
“Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.” (4/2012, p. 94)
60. Executive Eye: Emotional needs
“If an employee’s emotional needs are honoured, it is likely (but not certain) that he or she will be happy at work.” (Adrian Furnham, 5/2012, p. 67)
61. Technology: Robots
“So what will we all do when the machines take over? Well, certainly, the bad news is that a robot will one day write this column, but the good news is that, by then, I will be writing bedtime stories for robots.”
(Eamonn Fitzgerald, 6/2012, p. 73) 62. Language Learning: Collocations
“My top tip for more advanced learners can be summed up in just one word: collocations. … Whenever you read or listen to an English text, underline or write down a few word combinations that you would like to remember.” (Anna Hochsieder, 1/2013, p. 45) 63. Careers: Relaxation techniques “Experts say that one of the best ways to fight stress is simply to move around.”
(Margaret Davis, 2/2013, p. 67) 64. Executive Eye: Talent
“Practice is essential for excellent performance. But practice alone cannot create talent, neither in business nor in sport.” (Adrian Furnham, 3/2013, p. 79)
65. Business Skills: Decisions
“Too often, people fail to tell others clearly what was decided, by whom and why. Yet, unless decisions are communicated effectively, they are unlikely to be implemented well.”
(Bob Dignen, 4/2013, p. 34)
66. Easy English: Presenting a project update “If you are going to use slides in your update, you might want to email them to the team before the meeting so that they can form their opinions and prepare some questions.”
(Mike Hogan, 5/2013, p. 46) 67. Careers: Leaving a job
“There’s only one good reason to leave your job, according to career expert Caroline Ceniza-levine. ‘You should quit your job when quitting is the next step to a better life’, CenizaLevine writes in Forbes magazine.”
(6/2013, p. 68) 68. Say It in Style: Introducing people
“Tell the people you are introducing to each other what they do or where they are from. It is your job to assist them in starting a conversation.”
(Anna Hochsieder, 1/2014, p. 37) 69. Business Skills: Listening
“Although it is important to exchange shared experiences in order to build rapport, we should first stay focused on the world of others and ask questions that help them to talk about their world, their lives and their experiences.”
(Bob Dignen, 2/2014, p. 32) 70. Teacher Talk: Digital skills
“Get as much English exposure and practice outside the classroom as possible. Technology can definitely help with this — internet resources, video podcasts on ... mobile phones, social networks in English.”
(Nicky Hockly, 3/2014, p. 62) 71. Careers: Finding a job
“…if you don’t brand yourself, others will brand you — and it could hurt your career.”
(Michael Browne, 4/2014, p. 68) 72. Careers: Finding a job
“A common mistake among jobseekers is to state that their objective is to find a job that will help them to build their skills or gain experience in a particular field. Employers, not surprisingly, are more interested in how a candidate’s skills will benefit the company.”
(Margaret Davis, 5/2014, p. 70) 73. Business Skills: Meetings
“After each meeting, … ask yourself: How well prepared was I? What could I have done better?”
(Bob Dignen, 6/2014, p. 34) 74. Teacher Talk: Intercultural competence
“‘Speaking’ a foreign culture is like speaking a foreign language. It’s fascinating! And being fluent in a culture will get you further than being fluent in a language.”
(Akos Gerold, 1/2015, p. 62)
“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans”
75. Management: Creating good karma “Good karma may not get you a rise, but could it have a positive effect in your organization.” (Trang Chu, 2/2015, p. 73) 76. Business Skills: Teamwork “People in international teams often have a heavy workload, which can lead to key milestones being missed. Introduce smaller ‘sub-milestones’ to act as an early warning system when problems arise.” (Bob Dignen, 3/2015, p. 33) 77. Easy English: Feedback “Remember that feedback is not just another word for personal criticism, which is not useful and should be avoided. Instead, think of feedback as something that is either positive or can help people develop.” (Mike Hogan, 4/2015, p. 48) 78. Toolbox: Being assertive “We have the right to be ourselves, the right to ask for what we need, the right to choose and the right to make mistakes. Being assertive means exercising those rights.” (Ken Taylor, 5/2015, p. 36) 79. It’s Personal: New words “As we welcome good additions to English, we should reject the bad and the ugly, most of which come not from SMS language but from the business world.” (Elisabeth Ribbans, 6/2015, p. 24) 80. Short Story: The Devil in the details “…and so, ladies and gentleman, if you wish to stay rich, then make sure you always read the small print, because — as we lawyers always say — the devil is in the details!” (James Schofield, 1/2016, p. 64) 81. Executive Eye: Climbing the ladder “Find out who really holds power … and who will be most useful to you. Use moments such as riding in the lift or standing at the coffee machine to introduce yourself.” (Adrian Furnham, 2/2016, p. 77) 82. Business Skills: Public speaking “Here are five key tips for improving your performance:
1. Just say three things
2. Rehearse and rehearse
3. Connect to key values
4. Use real stories
5. Finish strongly” (Bob Dignen, 3/2016, pp. 31–32) 83. Intercultural Communication: Germany “In group-oriented cultures, such as in Asia, [Germans] should use ‘we’ and ‘us’ rather than ‘I’ and ‘you’.” (Christina Röttgers, 4/2016, p. 44) 84. Easy English: Delegating “Delegate tasks that other people enjoy and are good at. You won’t have to check up on them as much.” (Mike Hogan, 5/2016, p. 55) 85. Personal Trainer: International video and teleconferences “One thing you could do is to go round the group and ask each person to express in three words what they think about the issue being discussed.” (Ken Taylor, 6/2016, p. 45) 86. How to… attend a networking event alone “Prepare your elevator pitch … a short description of what you do and what you have to offer potential employers, contacts or business partners.” (Margaret Davis, 1/2017, p. 72) 87 One Question: Women in tech “Stop obsessing about the fact that we are women in tech. Concentrate on what we are doing and tell the world about it.” (Emanuela Zaccone, 2/2017, p. 88) 88. Business Skills: Time management “We are changing constantly at work, learning new skills and taking on new roles. So, your use of time should always be adapting, too. … If you don’t control time, time will control you.” (Bob Dignen, 3/2017, p. 47)
“If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on!”
89. Word Watcher: Chinese wall
“In business English, a ‘Chinese wall’ is an artificial barrier between two parts of an organization that are not meant to communicate with each other. The Chinese wall is intended to prevent conflicts of interest.”
(4/2017, p. 11) 90. Tricky Translations: “Manage”
“‘Manage’ can mean ‘to direct or control a company, business or department and the people involved in it’
(leiten, führen). … Manage can also mean ‘to succeed in doing something difficult, especially after you have tried very hard’ (es schaffen). … Finally, ‘manage’ can mean ‘to succeed in handling problems or living in a difficult situation’ (zurechtkommen, sich zurechtfinden).”
(Mike Seymour, 5/2017, p. 53) 91. Business Skills: Managing your boss
“Try to put yourself in your boss’s shoes. Can you see a positive interpretation of your boss’s actions? Think about ways in which you can take responsibility for improving your working relationship with your boss.”
(Bob Dignen, 6/2017, p. 29) 92. Business Skills: Lying
“So if you don’t want others to lie to you, you need to create a safe environment for them to express their truths.”
(Bob Dignen, 1/2018, p. 45) 93. Executive Eye: Seven strategies for getting to the top
“Become indispensable as quickly as possible. Having a skill set that others need but don’t have is an excellent asset.”
(Adrian Furnham, 2/2018, p. 85) 94. Language Learning: Expert advice
“Do you have a favourite TV series or film on Netflix that is set in a business environment? Then watch it again, but this time, in English.”
(Maja Sirola, 3/2018, p. 16) 95. Intercultural Communication: Unconscious bias
“Unconscious bias is part of being human. … We need to face up to it and, in the context of decision-making, develop processes that reduce its potentially negative effects.”
(Robert Gibson, 4/2018, p. 34) 96. Business Skills: Teamwork
“…it is also essential to learn to isolate oneself at times, to say no to collaboration and the additional work it represents, to maintain a realistic workload and to focus on one’s own priorities…”
(Bob Dignen, 5/2018, p. 43) 97. Executive Eye: Moral managers “To be moral means to distinguish clearly between right and wrong and to have an ethically driven code of conduct . ... Moral managers increase staff morale.” (Adrian Furnham, 6/2018, p. 77) 98. Easy English: Negotiating a pay rise
“Make it easy for your manager to say yes by offering solutions and showing flexibility. … If you are not able to get more money, what else would satisfy you?”
(Mike Hogan, 7/2018, p. 51) 99. One Question: Business storytelling
“Business leaders need to spend more time watching films and reading thrillers if they want to use stories to connect with customers.”
(Dr James Mccabe, 1/2019, p. 86)
“It’s all to do with the training. You can do a lot if you are properly trained”
100. And finally… Put as many of the above tips as possible into practice over the coming weeks.