Business English 360 | Business English Pod

Business English Skills 360 Lessons

BEP — Fri, 03 Mar 2006 09:27:10 +0000

Learn business English and management skills with the Skills 360 podcast.

Skills 360 lessons are focused on the other side of business English. In other words: essential soft skills that are often overlooked in traditional language learning. Through practical tips and strategies, you’ll gain valuable insights into effective communication and management skills.

Our lessons cover a range of topics, including leadership, negotiation, presentation, meeting management, networking, and time management. By exploring these lessons, you can learn about different leadership approaches, negotiation strategies, presentation techniques, and more. You can learn how to adapt your approach and build trust with team members and develop the management skills you need to progress.

Use the links below to access the 100+ Skills 360 business English lessons we have released to date:

Skills 360 – Strategic Planning (2)

Skills 360 – Strategic Planning (1)

Skills 360 – Developing Good Habits (2)

Skills 360 – Developing Good Habits (1)

Skills 360 – Developing a Persuasive Approach (2)

Skills 360 – Developing a Persuasive Approach (1)

Skills 360 – Fostering a Culture of Collaboration (2)

Skills 360 – Fostering a Culture of Collaboration (1)

Skills 360 – Advanced Interview Skills for Effective Hiring (2)

Skills 360 – Advanced Interview Skills for Effective Hiring (1)

Skills 360 – Problem-Solving 2: The Problem-Solving Process

Skills 360 – Problem-Solving 1: Developing the Right Skills

Skills 360 – How to Overcome Cognitive Bias

Skills 360 – What is Cognitive Bias?

Skills 360 – What is DEI: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Skills 360 – What is ESG: Environmental, Social and Governance

Skills 360 – Managing Up 2: How to Manage Up

Skills 360 – Managing Up 1: Working with your Boss

Skills 360 – Keeping your Career on Track (2)

Skills 360 – Keeping your Career on Track (1)

>>> The post Business English Skills 360 Lessons first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.

Skills 360 – Strategic Planning (2)

BEP — Sun, 31 May 2026 18:04:07 +0000

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/bizpod/360.110-Strategic-Planning-2.mp3

Welcome back to the Business English Skills 360 podcast as we continue our look at strategic planning.

A strong strategic plan begins with a clear vision. A vision statement describes what a company wants to achieve in the future and provides inspiration and direction. It helps employees understand the company’s long-term goals and keeps everyone focused on a shared purpose.

Along with a vision statement, most companies also have a mission statement. The mission explains what the company does, who it serves, and how it operates. A clear mission helps guide decision-making by showing what the company values and what is most important to its success.

Once a company understands its vision and mission, it can decide how to achieve them. Strategic planning is not about creating a long list of possible actions. Instead, it requires making choices about which actions will have the greatest impact. This means setting priorities and accepting that not every opportunity can be pursued.

To improve strategic focus, companies should ask important questions. For example, which investments will create new opportunities? What is the best approach to growth? What new skills or strengths are needed to stay competitive? And how can major challenges or threats be addressed?

Answering these questions helps leaders choose the best strategies and set clear priorities. Strategic thinking involves learning from past experience, understanding changes in the market, and recognizing that resources are limited.

A good strategic plan also includes clear and measurable goals. These goals help employees understand what success looks like and allow the company to track its progress. When goals are measured and rewarded, teams are more likely to focus their efforts on achieving them.

Members: Lesson Module | Quiz & Vocab | PDF Transcript

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

Skills 360 – Strategic Planning (1)

BEP — Sun, 24 May 2026 17:23:44 +0000

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/bizpod/360.109-Strategic-Planning-1.mp3

Welcome back to the Business English Skills 360 podcast as we look at strategic planning.

Many people think strategic planning is simply writing a document about business goals for the next few years. However, real strategic planning is much more than that. It is about asking important questions related to a company’s vision, mission, values, and long-term direction.

Strategic planning helps bring people together around a shared purpose. When teams and departments understand the same goals, they can work more effectively and see how their work fits into the bigger picture. This is why understanding the company, its people, its market position, and its business environment is very important.

A key part of strategic planning is gathering the right information. Companies should not only look at their own performance, but also compare it with competitors. Businesses also need to think about future trends and changes in the market.

One common tool used in strategic planning is the SWOT analysis, which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Instead of simply making long lists, companies should focus on the most important areas and ask deeper questions. For example, businesses should think about which strengths are most valuable and whether those strengths will remain important in the future.

Another useful tool is the PESTLE analysis, which looks at political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors. This approach helps companies understand outside forces that may affect future business decisions.

Strategic planning should not involve only senior leaders. Strong companies include employees, customers, and partners in discussions and analysis. By collecting different ideas and information, businesses can create a clear vision and set better priorities for the future.

Members: Lesson Module | Quiz & Vocab | PDF Transcript

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

Skills 360 – Developing Good Habits (2)

BEP — Sun, 18 Jan 2026 17:15:11 +0000

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/bizpod/360.108-Habits-2.mp3

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.

Members: Lesson Module | Quiz & Vocab | PDF Transcript

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

Skills 360 – Developing Good Habits (1)

BEP — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 14:07:32 +0000

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/bizpod/360.107-Habits-1.mp3

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.

Members: Lesson Module | Quiz & Vocab | PDF Transcript

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

Skills 360 – Developing a Persuasive Approach (2)

BEP — Sun, 12 Oct 2025 18:43:45 +0000

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/bizpod/360.106-Persuasion-2.mp3

Welcome back to the Business English Skills 360 podcast as we continue our look at how to develop a persuasive approach in business.

To be persuasive in business, you need more than facts and logic, and you must also connect emotionally. People make decisions with both their minds and their hearts, so showing warmth and friendliness helps make them more open to your ideas.

You don’t need to be overly social; simply showing empathy and genuine interest in others is enough. Asking questions not only builds rapport but also gives you insight into what motivates people, allowing you to adapt your approach.

Emotions play a key role in persuasion. You can appeal to fear (“sales may drop if we don’t act”), hope (“this plan will give us our weekends back”), or pride (“this will make us leaders in our field”). Another powerful emotion is belonging – people want to feel part of a group or shared vision. You can use this by framing your message around teamwork or industry trends (“the whole industry is moving this way”).

A couple of useful techniques are contrasting and hyperbole. Contrasting means presenting two choices where one clearly supports your message. Adding hyperbole, or deliberate exaggeration, can also make your message more memorable (“this could be the most important decision in our company’s history”).

Persuasion isn’t purely an exercise in logic. It’s not just people’s minds that you need to consider, but also their hearts. That’s why we try to make a connection with them emotionally, or personally. We try to learn about them so we can adapt our approach. We appeal to a broad range of their emotions. And we use techniques like contrast and hyperbole to ramp up the impact of our ideas.

Members: Lesson Module | Quiz & Vocab | PDF Transcript

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