The “physics” of Business English: how to master the 4 basic elements, and speak naturally and confidently
“Mankind’s greatest achievements have come about by talking, and its greatest failures by not talking. It doesn’t have to be like this. All we need to do is make sure we keep talking.”
Talking about physics, you must have expected me to start with a famous quote by no other than Einstein, perhaps one of the greatest minds ever on this planet.
I chose differently and found these remarkably wise words by no other than Stephen Hawking, another great mind of our times.
He spent a large part of his life not able to talk with his voice, so I believe he knows the value of talking, right?
Listen to what he said: “it’s all about talking.” The same goes for you and your business English.
It only matters if you put your knowledge to practice and talk.
It matters more if you let go of all the self-blockages that hold you back from speaking English at work.
As Mr Hawking suggested, we as humans (and professionals) can achieve the most by talking, and we need to make sure we keep doing it, no matter the circumstances, obstacles or failures.
Taking inspiration from my son’s Physics and the Environment subject at school (although at an early school level), I decided to share the basic principles of business English or “quantities” of business English to help you master your skills.
You don’t have to be a scientist to speak English naturally and confidently, after all.
All you need is to focus on the right things, work on them CONSISTENTLY and practice.
By practice, I mean to talk on every possible occasion, not missing out on any opportunity to do so at work.
Even if you don’t feel like it (because you believe you are not in the mood or at your best), seize the day and the opportunities that come up.
Einstein (I couldn’t help it) once said that “You never fail until you stop trying!”.
Mark those wise men’s words and follow my tips below to master the most crucial skills in business English and let your personality and talent shine!
It doesn’t matter if you were good or bad at physics at school.
The four elements of business English I explain below are the skills you have to work on and master in any case.
Speed: fast or slow? And towards what direction?
It’s a fundamental quantity of physics, but in the case of speaking English, it’s what can make a huge difference.
One of the most important success factors of speaking English with ease and confidence is your speech speed.
Way too often, professionals whose native language is not English feel a rush to speak English fast. As if they’ve turned on the fast forward mode.
They believe that the faster they speak, the more proficient they sound.
Well, this doesn’t seem right. It’s a false perception that can only neutralise your efforts to communicate effectively.
There is no need to let your tongue run fast. Words may come out the wrong way, or your pronunciation may be bad enough to make it hard for others to understand what you are saying.
Apart from the technical aspects of talking at a fast pace, there is also an issue with how you present yourself.
You certainly don’t want to look unprofessional, in a hurry, bored to engage deeply in the conversation, or simply running an errand because your boss told you so.
No matter your English level or proficiency, this fast-talking can ruin your image, more so the first impression others make of you when they first meet you at a meeting or presentation.
The right way is to go slow. Take a deep breath and start speaking mindfully.
There is no rush, and you don’t have to spit out words or fancy phrases to impress. Take the time to work on what you will say in English in your head before opening your mouth.
This way, you avoid mistakes and misunderstandings and signal professionalism and confidence.
Confidence can take you far. Sounding and looking like a robot on fast forward won’t.
A slower pace also helps you to control your breath and align your mind and body. This allows you to look calm and relaxed, focused and to the point.
Body language is crucial and can account for most of your communication, so please care about your talking speed.
Think of it as a theatre act and not a Formula One race: the slower and more confident you talk, the more you can influence those listening to you.
This is how you can start building trust and showing your competence early on in essential conversations at work.
Length: how to keep it short and to the point
Length is about measuring the distance from point A to point B, right? And when you were instructed to do so by your teacher at school, you always took the ruler and voila!
You took the shortest straightway to reach the destination and receive a “Well done!”. So, why change as an adult?
Most professionals believe that using as many words as possible makes them look proficient and competent.
They also tend to use fancy words and phrases to impress their audience and get extra competence points.
This rarely happens in reality, though. The more complicated you convey a message, the more difficult it becomes for others to understand it. Plain simple as that!
They say that work tends to extend to the length you allow for it. If you say you need one whole hour to write that email, it will take one hour.
The same goes for when you talk in English. If you’ve prepped yourself to use lengthy, sophisticated words and phrases and long sentences, you will feel the need to speak that way in any case.
The truth is that length compromises the clarity and conciseness of your sayings. It doesn’t add any value. Instead, it depreciates your message.
You certainly don’t want your audience to feel bored with what you are saying or baffled about what you mean when you talk.
Your goal must be to use as few words as possible to get your message across. And those words must be carefully selected.
This quantity of “business English physics” is closely related to the previous one about speed. The faster you talk, the more words will come out of your mouth and the more complicated the communication.
Humans are made for choosing the easier, and most effective and efficient way to get things done. It’s been in our DNA since the early days of humans on the planet.
The more complicated you make it for others to understand what you mean, the more likely it becomes they will move away and try to find someone else who can communicate effectively.
This may mean lost opportunities with potential clients, your boss or the stakeholders of your organisation.
As Einstein put it, “If you can’t explain it to a six-year-old, you don’t understand it yourself.”
To change your mindset, keep this in mind: less is more.
That’s a principle that can work in most aspects of life but can be particularly helpful in communication.
Simplicity wins over complexity. Always.
If you can say the same thing with fewer words, do it. If you can get straight to the point when answering a question, please do it.
Avoid lengthy introductions when presenting an idea or outlining your boundaries during a negotiation in English.
Keep it short and to the point. Your audience will thank you for that (even if they will never express it!).
Volume: how to tune it to the right frequency & sound confident
Confidence. This word carries so much weight when we are talking about communication. It’s all or nothing.
If you are AND sound confident, you are almost there.
If you lack it, chances are you will find it much harder to get your message across and reach your whatever goals.
Your voice plays a vital role in your confidence. After all, it’s the means of your communication when speaking.
Most of my clients come to me with more or less the same general issue: how can I speak English confidently?
They believe it’s their knowledge of English that holds them back. Their English level is not high enough, and they won’t live up to others’ expectations.
They often dread the moment they need to speak in English in front of their boss or during a presentation or meeting.
Confidence comes from two things: preparation and mindfulness. If you are prepared to speak English the right way, simply by using what you already know, you will sound confident enough.
And if you have practised mindfulness (like my clients do when we work together on their business English), you will find your true authentic voice.
So, your voice is your tool to reach your goals at work. You need to speak and speak up. And the volume of your voice can make it or break it.
People usually ask me this: when I am in front of an audience (be it my boss, team or stakeholders), I feel frozen, losing my voice, a knot in my throat and so on.
My answer is this: you need to let go of all the self blockages that hold you back and take a mindful approach.
Find your voice and tune in to the right frequency.
When it comes to volume, you have to opt for the louder part of the spectrum.
If your voice is low, other people find it challenging to hear what you say, but you also signal a lack of confidence (trust and competence, too).
Make yourself clearly heard around the room. You don’t need to scream or shout, but you have to tune in high enough to reach everyone taking part in the conversation, meeting, etc.
If you happen to be on the low volume side by nature, you need to work on it more and practice finding the power your voice needs.
But what if I sound too loud or aggressive? Well, if you have to choose between a low voice signaling lack of confidence and a louder than normal voice, opt for the second.
People will appreciate your strength to fill in the room and expand your presence (metaphorically).
They will never appreciate someone who is whispering or mumbling, though.
If you combine a confident, clear voice with keeping it short, you got this and will go far.
Energy: how to manage your mental batteries & always be in shape
Energy management is one of the trickiest and most difficult tasks for any professional.
You usually work long hours, and meetings and presentations take looong.
How is it possible to maintain high mental energy throughout these sessions, especially if most of the communication occurs in a language other than your native one?
Let’s see how physics approaches energy and take some inspiration from them. I don’t want to bore you with science, but scientists have agreed that energy is always conserved. It just changes form.
The same applies to humans. We all have specific mental and physical energy. We spend or consume it in different ways.
So, it’s the way we do it that determines how much we have left. Now, allow me to talk about the famous introversion issue a little bit.
First of all, introverted professionals are just like extroverted ones. There is nothing wrong with either of them. It’s just the way each group consumes and replenishes their energy.
Introverts wake up with a certain amount of coins and consume each one with every social interaction.
Extroverts wake up in the morning with no coins but receive one with every social interaction.
See? It’s a different way of energy consumption and conservation.
When you speak English or any other language different from your native one, you spend a little more energy as it takes a bit more to process information and express it accordingly.
I have to credit that to all of you and pat on your back with a well deserved “Bravo!” for your efforts.
But your energy levels are the same, more or less, so you have to change how you use them.
The key to success is to keep a steady pace and find a balance between high energy and lower intensity moments.
Keeping a steady pace when you talk English (not a fast one nor a slooow one) helps you manage your energy more efficiently:
– You don’t deplete your mental batteries very quickly
– You let your body align with your mind, allowing for a more controlled and positive body language.
Speaking of body language, let me make this clear: it accounts for more than 90% of your communication. Only the rest is verbal (that is, your vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation etc.).
And managing your energy productively contributes to a more confident body language, which in turn can elevate your communication skills.
Next time you happen to attend a meeting, present in front of an audience or negotiate with stakeholders or clients, remember that part of your success will come from your body language and energy management.
Mindfulness can help you enormously with both. Stay in the moment and enjoy the present, appreciate what you are doing, know where you stand and where you have to go and be kind to yourself.
Let your body and mind sync by controlling your breath and use of your body parts like your hands, head, arms, legs and eyes.
Bonus tip
Want more? Closing this article, let me explain something of fundamental importance. There is a natural tendency of things (like all things in the universe) to decline into disorder and chaos. This is what they call entropy.
In other words, no matter how good you are, your level will start deteriorating with time. It’s the way the cosmos works.
In the context of business English, no matter how hard you prepare and how high your English level is, they will only start to depreciate with time.
There is only one remedy to reverse that, or at least to slow down the inevitable decline: keep working on it, don’t stop practising, iterating and improving.
And mark my words: mistakes are not to blame for your hardships with English. They are natural, and I dare say welcome. Mistakes make you stronger and help you improve over time.
So, don’t be afraid to keep expanding your English language skills and put them to practice on any opportunity that may come up.
You are the one who creates the opportunities, and they do show up more often to people who are open to them.
~~~~~~~~~~
Here at ProEnglish, this is my end goal. To empower non-native, highly-skilled professionals like you to claim what they deserve in their career by breaking down the language blockage in a safe, kind and trustful environment.
I am Vera Daskalaki, your mindful English coach. You, being here and reading this, really means a lot to me. Let me know if anything above hit a nerve, and feel free to send me any questions.
If you want to talk about your personal goals with speaking English and create a customised plan, just like we did with Marta, book a free discovery call by clicking below.
It’s a free 30-min call. No commitment, no obligation. We can talk about your challenges and needs for business English and lay out a path to achieve your goals. No catch. Let’s talk and take it from there.