Four Tips: Improving Your Business English as a Senior Business Professional

Whatever your industry or experience level, working in a professional setting where you lack fluency in the native language of business, it can be stressful and intimidating. 

A common cause of this type of stress might be your coworkers struggling to understand you. No doubt, this is likely to make you dread public speaking or presenting. 

As a non-native English speaker, you might also feel insecure about the quality of your written communications, such as with your emails which most likely, frequently have grammar or sentence structure errors. 

As you pursue your career, challenges that impact you as a multilingual professional may shift, but they will never entirely go away. Perhaps, you were promoted and the primary language of business is English, but you only speak English as a second language. Maybe your company has gone through a merger, now your primary communications are with individuals in another country. 

Whatever the reason, for many business professionals, the pressure to improve their communication skills only increases as they take on more professional responsibilities and senior roles. As a leader in your company or organization, you may feel embarrassed that your level of English is not at the same level as your native-speaking colleagues or employees.

Language barriers can inhibit an employee’s career climb because of a perceived difficulty in adapting to an English-speaking workplace. After all, learning professional skills and concepts can be more difficult when you are also working on your language skills and your understanding of English slang and idioms.

As a bilingual, trilingual, or even multilingual senior business professional, these practical tips will help improve your English language skills and build confidence when communicating in the workplace.

Tip #1: Work With a Language Coach 

An English language coach that specializes in providing resources and programs to senior business professionals can have immeasurable benefits. Working individually with a language coach will help you improve your written and oral English fluency. With this coaching, you will develop more confidence in your communication skills.

A business-specific English communications coach can hone in on the specific language requirements of your role and industry, rather than just provide a one-size-fits-all approach. Other language learning services such as apps or language software can be too general or simplistic for your unique needs. As a result, you will end up wasting your time learning irrelevant vocabulary that may not apply to your day-to-day role.

Tip #2 Learn to Speak Like Your Audience

Another way to help improve your English, especially in the workplace, is to pay attention to the colloquialisms, slang, and idioms colleagues, employees, and clients use when speaking. This type of informal language learning is invaluable for improving your confidence when speaking in English. Similarly, it is important to review your colleagues’ written communication to familiarize yourself with the phrases and keywords that will help strengthen your writing skills. This is particularly helpful when you need to craft your emails and other business communications.

According to this 2018 article from Forbes.com, combatting language barriers can be proactively addressed by creating a common, simplified language to use in the workplace. This includes encouraging all employees to adjust their way of speaking to “be more direct, to the point, and to leave out superfluous words.”

Tip #3 Use Online Tools

If working with a language coach is not within your budget, there are a multitude of online English language learning resources that tailor their resources to your specific needs and learning style. Whether you prefer to learn through the spoken word, a game-style format, or an easy-to-use app, there is an option out there for you. This is a great overview from Forbes that provides the best online language learning tools on the market today.

Another way to leverage online tools to help support your communications skills is through online grammar and spell-check functions. Grammarly is a great Chrome plug-in that will automatically check your spelling and your grammar, as you craft your communications. This plug-in is extremely helpful for improving your writing. With the Premium paid option you can even see suggestions for how to strengthen sentence structure, flow, and verbiage. You can do all of this for a very low monthly price.

Tip #4 Lean in to Your Unique Skill Set

If you’ve been hired for a new position or you’ve just been promoted and are insecure about your English language skills, remember that being multilingual is one of the greatest assets an employee can have! Don’t be afraid to lean into this unique skill set and leverage your language skills to your advantage. This is particularly true in industries or companies that operate internationally.

Finally remember: you’ve made it this far. As an experienced business professional in your industry or profession, you have already made a positive impression with your skillset, professionalism and yes, even your communication skills. Don’t be afraid to let your work speak for itself.

Schedule a 30 Minute Complimentary Meeting to meet Sandra via phone or video. Find out if you both are a good fit to work together. Come to the call with your questions and what business communications challenges you’d like to get help with.