Learn these Business English expressions to motivate your team with praise [+worksheet]

Index:

1. Business English vocabulary: congratulating your team!

2. Business English phrases to help you keep your team motivated with sincere (and specific) praise.

3. Business English phrases to recognize your team’s hard work.

4. Business English phrases to tell your team how they’ve helped your entire organization

1. Business English vocabulary: congratulating your team.

First, let’s start with a little practice to help you learn how to talk about praising your team. I’m going to share an example so you can see some key business vocabulary you’ll need in real life (and in this lesson).
You’ll see some of the key expressions in bold. If you’d like to listen to all the examples in this blog post, be sure to watch the video.

On this first reading, see if you can understand them. And see if you can imagine using them this way in a sentence.

Praise is really important for keeping your team motivated. But it’s important to do it right.  

You may want to regularly point out what your team did well. To tell them exactly what they did right. What makes for great praise? 

First, it’s important to be sincere. To mean what you say so that your team will trust you! 

And if you want to sound sincere, you probably are going to need to be specific. Don’t just say “Great job.” 

So did you get those expressions? Let’s recap:

To praise someone is to tell someone what they did right.
To keep someone motivated means to help them find the desire to continue working hard.
To point out means to show or bring attention to.

I think you already understand being sincere and specific–but you’ll need those to complete your worksheet later.

And remember, just because you understand a word in English when you read it or hear it, doesn’t mean you will be able to actually use it in a sentence the way a native speaker would. For that, you’ll need a little extra practice.

GET THE WORKSHEET: Make sure you practice these expressions so you can use them in real life with this worksheet made for you by a Neurolanguage coach.

2. Business English phrases to help you keep your team motivated with sincere (and specific) praise.

If you want to sound sincere, you need to also be specific. And that can be a little tricky without the right expressions.

Start learning by reading and understanding this example in English.

Notice these natural expressions a native speaker would use to be sincere and specific:

“Alicia, thanks for coming up with that idea in the meeting yesterday.”

I’m very impressed with the way you handled the negotiations–you knew a lot about our clients!

And nice job on the presentation…Your analysis was right on.”

Also check out my lesson: How to smoothly start a meeting (when you’re in charge).

3. Business English phrases to recognize your team’s hard work.

One way to make sure your praise is really effective is to make sure your team knows you see the work and effort they put in.

Notice the expressions in the next example. You’re probably going to understand them, but you’ll want to review them so you can sound natural and confident when you use them in real life. To recognize your team’s hard work, you might say something like this:

“Mike, I want you to know how much I appreciate this.

Thanks for putting in the extra hours it took to get this done.

This really went above and beyond all expectations.”

Also check out my lesson: Understand Americans in Conf Calls.

4. Business English phrases to tell your team how they’ve helped your entire organization.

Something that is really motivating to your team is seeing how they play a role in the big picture–in your entire business.

See if you can find and understand the expressions a native speaker might use in this next example:

“Karen, your efforts helped us to meet our deadline.

We couldn’t have done it without you!

I love the way you brought everyone together and got this done.

You are a real asset to our team.”

Small, consistent steps add up to big progress!

Congratulations! You’ve taken the first step toward praising your team in English–naturally and confidently–by listening and understanding expressions a native speaker would use!  Being better in English and better in business means taking small steps like this–over and over!

GET THE WORKSHEET: Make sure you practice these expressions so you can use them in real life with this worksheet made for you by a Neurolanguage coach.

Take the next step: Improve your English in the comments

The best way to become more confident using Business English is to practice!

Here’s your Confidence Challenge for this week:

1. Tell me about a time when you were praised or congratulated at work.
2. Share a phrase from this lesson you’d like to use with a member of your team.

If you learned something from this lesson, please share it with your coworkers & friends. You can send your message to them in English for more practice!

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