Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on using visuals and describing charts and trends in an English presentation.

We’ve all sat through boring presentations, with PowerPoints that are just slide after slide of too much text. If all you’re doing is reading off your slides, then why do a presentation at all? And if your audience falls asleep, then you’ve effectively communicated nothing.

If you really want to grab people’s attention, you use visuals. That could mean not just pictures, but graphs and charts. There’s no better way to represent data than with graphs. But the graph doesn’t do all the work for you. You still need to give it life and make it a seamless part of your overall presentation.

The first thing you might do is introduce the point you want to make, before you use the visual. And remember that your audience might have some understanding of the topic already, so you should acknowledge that. And you can make it dramatic by using foreshadowing and highlighting important points. And just like in any presentation, it’s good to use clear transitions between points and slides.

In today’s dialog, we’ll hear a presentation from Pat, a director with a cell, or mobile phone manufacturer called Ambient. He’s presenting to the company’s sales team about how they’ve regained market share after a rough couple of years. We will hear how Pat uses visuals to enhance his presentation.

Listening Questions

1. At the start of his presentation, what does Pat say they will focus on?
2. When talking about the company called Sirus, what does Pat “draw people’s attention” to?
3. What does Pat say to transition to showing information about Ambient?

Download: Podcast MP3>>> The post BEP 103c – English Presentations Charts and Trends 1: Visuals first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.

Welcome back to the Business English Skills 360 podcast as we look at how you can help others to develop good habits at work.

Making and breaking your own habits is hard enough. But as a manager or leader, how can you make or break habits in other people? I mean, how can you make sure your employees have good habits? Well, here’s the sad truth: you can’t make people change. But you can create the conditions that foster good habits and disincentivize bad habits.

One thing to be mindful of from the outset is the difference between habits and simple compliance. I mean, do you want people to do something only if and when their boss is watching? Or do you want that behavior to be automatic, something that the employee does because that’s just how things work in your company. In other words: how things work in your culture, which includes people’s shared habits.

Download: Podcast MP3>>> The post Skills 360 – Developing Good Habits (2) first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.

Welcome back to the Business English Skills 360 podcast as we look at how to develop good habits for success at work.

The start of a new year feels like the right time to make big resolutions, or promises to yourself. You’re going to call people back promptly. You’re going to keep a tidy desktop. You’re going to stop reading new emails as soon as they come in. You’re going to manage your time better. It sure feels great to make these resolutions. But what doesn’t feel great is the realization in February that you haven’t made good on any of your promises.

In most cases, the problem is that people intuitively believe that setting a goal or making a resolution is enough. But it’s not. Setting a goal without looking at the systems that support specific habits or behaviors is useless. Intention isn’t enough. You need to break down what happens around habits, both good and bad, and create the right conditions for the right behaviors.

Download: Podcast MP3>>> The post Skills 360 – Developing Good Habits (1) first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.