This is the second in a two-part Business English Podcast lesson on resolving conflict, in which we’ve been focusing on solving everyday disagreements in the office. Ben, a new training specialist at a manufacturing company, feels that he is doing an unfair share (that is, too much) of the work in his department. Gerry, Ben’s manager, talks with him to solve the problem.
In the first episode, we studied how Gerry opened the discussion in an informal, non-threatening way, and we looked at how he listened actively to Ben to win his trust.
In this episode, we’ll pay attention to how Gerry and Ben work together to come up with a solution. In particular, we’ll focus on how they state common goals, raise concerns, and agree action.
Where we left off last time, Gerry had just asked a question to resolve the conflict: Gerry wants to know what Ben would suggest doing to fix the situation.
Listening Questions
1) What solution does Ben propose?
2) In which area does Ben feel he could make a real contribution?
3) What action do Ben and Gerry agree on?
People do not always get along, so dealing with conflict is part of any job. And as often as not, work disagreements get resolved as much as in informal discussions in the hallway, as they do in the conference room. So, in this two-part series on resolving conflict, we’ll be studying useful language for discussing and resolving disagreements.
We will be focusing not on major conflicts between companies or inside organizations, but rather on the everyday sort of disagreements that all of us have to deal with to be successful in our work.
In the listening, Elegant is a company that designs and manufactures bathroom fixtures – sinks, toilets, and so on. Ben has recently joined Elegant as a training specialist. When he started, he was promised that Elegant would hire someone to help him with his work-load, but instead he is still doing almost everything by himself. He was also promised the opportunity to do some course design, but instead his manager, Gerry, insists on closely supervising all of Ben’s work. Ben feels like he is working harder than anyone else in the office: He is always the last one to leave the department in the evening. But he doesn’t feel that his hard work is getting recognized.
As you listen, pay attention to the language that Gerry and Ben use to deal with this disagreement.
Listening Questions
1. Gerry says he wants to “sit down informally and thrash things out a little.”
2. What do you think this means? A strain is something that is tiring and, perhaps, irritating.
3. What does Gerry say is “getting to be kind of a strain?” What solution does Gerry propose?
The American poet Carl Sandberg once said, “Nothing happens unless first we dream.” To this we can add the words of time management expert Diana Scharf Hunt: “Goals are dreams with deadlines.”
To reach our dreams, it’s necessary to set goals. Without goals, there is no change, no development, no success. This is just as true for an individual as it is for an organization. That’s why, along with feedback, goal setting is a very important part of the appraisal process. So in this follow-up podcast on job appraisals, we’ll be focusing on strategies and expressions for setting goals during the appraisal interview. Much of the language we’ll be learning in this lesson is also useful in any meeting where we need to discuss and set targets.
Wendy and Derrick, Wendy’s manager, have already discussed her progress and set goals for the areas of customer satisfaction and job training. As the listening continues, they turn to talking about two important productivity measurements.
Pay attention to the language Derrick uses to structure the conversation and to negotiate and agree goals with Wendy.
Listening Questions
1) What are the two important productivity measurements that Derrick discusses with Wendy?
2) How does Derrick feel about Wendy making one-off (that is, special) solutions for each customer?
3) What does Derrick advise Wendy to tell a customer who has not booked enough bandwidth?
Performance appraisals – sometimes called job performance evaluations or reviews – are a powerful way to develop staff’s potential. These skills are important not just for HR (Human Resources) professionals, but for any manager or supervisor who has responsibilities over other staff.
For performance appraisals to succeed, however, it’s important that they are conducted in a structured way. In addition, it’s important that skill and diplomacy are used to handle the two main tasks of the appraisal – giving effective feedback and setting goals.
So this is the first in a two-part Business English Podcast lesson that focuses on structure, skill and diplomacy in performance appraisals. In this podcast, we will deal with giving feedback. In the second, we will handle setting goals.
This episode focuses on giving effective feedback that creates a positive environment and builds trust. These feedback skills are useful not only in performance appraisals, but also in any situation that requires making critical comments to someone about their work.
Wendy is a new hire at ConStar’s videoconference call center. She has been working there for about 10 months, including training, so now it’s time for her first six-month performance review. Derrick, the manager of the operations department, will be giving Wendy her appraisal.
As a “videoconference coordinator” for ConStar, Wendy’s job requires using special equipment to set up and connect videoconferences for Fortune 500 clients. ConStar’s customers hold regular remote meetings among multiple locations all around the world. Wendy’s job is to make the connections between locations and to solve customer’s problems when they call into the help desk.
What kind of feedback will Derrick give Wendy? She is really smart, but she tends to get hot under the collar when she works under pressure. That means, she gets upset when she feels job stress. Sometimes she loses her temper, and her colleagues have complained about it.
Listening Questions
1) How many meetings is Wendy handling per day at the moment?
2) What’s the main issue that Derrick wants to give Wendy feedback on?
3) What advice does Derrick give Wendy to help her correct the problem?
This Business English News podcast examines the topic of offshoring jobs. “Offshoring” means to move part of a company’s operations (usually supporting functions such as finance or HR) to another country – literally “off shore.” Another commonly used term related to this topic is “outsourcing” – this means to use a different company to handle some supporting tasks. The key difference is that outsourcing doesn’t necessarily mean the work is done in a different country.
The topic of offshoring, or outsourcing work overseas, is certainly a popular one these days, and many people in Western Europe and North America are quite concerned that this practice will lead to less job opportunities in their countries. However, our story details a report from a well know management consultancy that concludes these concerns may be exaggerated or “overblown.”