Invest in Your Executives!

In our increasingly global economy, English is rapidly becoming the international language of business. This is obviously a reflection not only of historical circumstances, but also of the strength of the US economy: global players are only really global if they have a slice of the American pie. There are a lot of executives working in global teams who struggle with English, and the wise boss will try hard to put this right. Either you hire only those who have good English in the first place (which is clearly not a good idea if the need for English is not a key part of their job description), or you invest in training.

Such investment might be difficult for the accountants to justify, but top results are clearly worth it: an officer of your company who can communicate competently, confidently on the International stage is worth their weight in contracts.

So invest in quality training! One-to-one is far and away the best option, as the teacher and student can work closely, following a course designed for that individual. A native speaker is also key to good pronunciation and a clear understanding of the subtleties of the language. The trouble is, such training isnt cheap!

The rewards, however, are difficult to quantify (hence the accountants problem!), though with quality training the results should be self-evident, so not too many companies are prepared to invest in their staff.

But, invest in your key staff afford an intensive course to bring out the talent that is already there. Find a good teacher either at home or abroad, and allow your employee to escape from desk, e-mails and meetings for a designated period of time to talk without distraction to a good teacher about whatever they want to talk about in English. The returning exec should have had an excellent time, and be able to enthuse about his course IN ENGLISH!

Andrew is a qualified TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) teacher, with 15 years experience of the global Automotive Industry as a Sales manager with an International component and systems supplier. For more information about learning English with Andrew at his home in the UK, visit the Lets Talk 2 website.

The Power of Positioning
The time-honored story around the Midwest is The Wizard of Oz. Can you imagine what a shock it would be to go to sleep in the Midwestern United States and wake up in the Land of Oz!The splendor and excitement of arriving in a new land, full of new possibilities you never even dreamed possible seems to be a kindred reaction of sales professionals wh...

Time And Money Invested In Lawn Care
Are you one of the people that spend a lot of money on lawn care to the point where you are putting more into maintaining your lawn over your home? This may be because you really want that amazing green lawn that looks better than anyone else in your area. You may just have the need to keep your lawn at the right length. No matter what your reas...

More Bad News About Effective Meetings
Effective meetings cause enough woes to warrant being banned. And some business have successfully done this for the duration of their tenure before disappearing into bankruptcy.Besides the problems cited in the previous articles (Bad News About Effective Meetings), you will have to contend with:Problem #4: Others may succeed.This is completely unac...

How to Avoid Making a Bad Hiring Decision
It is amazing how many executives, at one point or another, feel they have made bad hiring decisions. I'm not talking about hiring an executive who has fraudulently misrepresented their career accomplishments or capabilities either. I'm talking about hiring great executives with well substantiated track record of success that simply did not work ...

Time: Do You Spend it or Invest it?
Time is our greatest and most precious asset. Time is the great equalizer of all us human beings. Why then do we not recognize and treat it with the respect it deserves?Whether you are rich, poor, healthy, ill, or just humming along in your life somewhere in between, we all have only 24 hours in each and every day to invest wisely. We often spen...

A Private Jet - Your Personal Flying Office
There are now thousands of business executives around the world who use a private jet as a way of conducting their businesses on the move. This is no longer a realm restricted to World Leaders.Aircraft as varied as Boeing 757 or the Gulfstream G150 are used as flying offices by celebrities and athletes, business executives and professionals. For th...

The Value of Today
TimeImagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening it deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day.What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course.Each of us has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 ...