Important English Phrases to START & RUN Business Meetings

0:00 Have you ever had to lead a meeting at work?

0:03 Can you imagine yourself hosting a meeting at work that's completely in English?

0:08 I mean this can be stressful to do in your own

0:12 native language so the thought of running a meeting in English,

0:16 it probably puts butterflies in your stomach, right?

0:19 Well I've created this lesson to help you learn lots of useful

0:24 and essential English phrases that will help you to lead a meeting.

0:30 Make sure you download the workbook that we've created for you

0:33 to help you plan and organise your meetings in English.

0:37 It'll keep all of these useful phrases that you're

0:40 going to learn during this lesson right next

0:43 to you handy so that you can use them

0:46 and put them into practice whenever you need them.

0:49 Are you ready to get started?

0:50 Let's do this!

0:53 It doesn't matter whether your meeting is a social or a professional meeting,

0:58 whether it's online or it's in person,

1:01 there are some elements that will always be the same

1:04 no matter what style or type of meeting you're hosting.

1:08 And at the start of any meeting,

1:10 it is essential that you greet and welcome participants.

1:14 There are a few different phrases and expressions you can use to do it.

1:18 It can be as simple as: Hello everybody and welcome!

1:22 Good morning, I'd like to thank everyone for coming today.

1:25 If your meeting has less than ten people at it,

1:29 make sure that everyone is introduced.

1:32 If there's more than ten people, the introductions can kind of drag on a bit.

1:37 You might need to take it out or do

1:39 it differently but introductions really do help break the ice

1:42 and people feel more comfortable speaking up and sharing

1:46 their opinions when they know the other people in the room.

1:49 Now when you know some but not all of the participants at the meeting,

1:54 you could say: I know most of you but I see a few unfamiliar faces.

2:00 Let's do a round of introductions.

2:02 So that means let's just go round in a circle so everyone can say their name.

2:07 What about when it's an entirely new group of people, you don't know anyone.

2:12 Before we get started, let's go round the table and introduce ourselves.

2:16 If you're at work or at a conference or in some professional setting,

2:21 you can ask everyone to say their name,

2:24 their role and the company that they work for.

2:28 Please just say your name, your role and the organisation that you're from.

2:33 And if it's a more informal social setting like maybe you're hosting an online

2:38 book club meeting or a meeting with a group of neighbours for the first time,

2:44 then say: Share your name,

2:46 where you're from and perhaps an interesting fact about yourself.

2:51 Hi, I'm Emma from Perth,

2:53 Western Australia and I've lived in every Australian city.

3:00 This is especially useful if the meeting that you're hosting is online

3:04 and the people who are joining you are spread out all over the world.

3:08 It can be really interesting to find out where everybody else actually is.

3:13 It's a great way to spark some small talk before things get too serious.

3:19 As the founder of Hey Lady!

3:21 I might be a little bit biased but there is no better place

3:26 for women to practise their online English meeting skills than inside Hey Lady!

3:33 The thought of running an event or running a meeting in front of your colleagues

3:38 might sound impossible right now but I promise you that with our support,

3:43 and regular speaking practice,

3:45 you'll develop lasting skills and the positive experience

3:50 that you need to start hosting work meetings with confidence.

3:55 All Hey Lady!

3:56 members get access to our host training course included in their membership

4:02 and they have the opportunity to become a certified Hey Lady!

4:06 host.

4:07 Most importantly, you'll have the freedom and the people

4:11 to practise with regularly so any fear that you

4:15 have about speaking up at a meeting at work

4:18 or leading a meeting can be overcome inside Hey Lady!

4:22 Come and put your skills into practice inside Hey Lady!

4:26 For more information about how to join,

4:29 visit our website or follow the link in the description below this video.

4:33 It's time to build your skills

4:36 and your confidence as a professional English communicator.

4:40 See you inside!

4:43 So there are three essential steps to kick start a successful meeting.

4:49 The first is to start by stating the goal or the purpose of the meeting.

4:54 The second is to make sure you outline the agenda

4:58 or talk about the different things that everyone is here to discuss.

5:02 And the third is to set any ground rules

5:05 before the meeting to make sure it runs smoothly,

5:09 that there is no interruptions.

5:11 So let's take a closer look at some useful phrases

5:14 that can help you to move through these three important steps.

5:18 It's important for everyone at the meeting

5:20 to have an expectation of how the meeting

5:23 is going to be run and what they're going to get out of it.

5:27 So start by stating the goal or the purpose of the meeting.

5:31 Our goal today is to plan the social media strategy for March and for April.

5:36 Or you can focus on the outcome that you'd like to achieve.

5:41 By the end of this session,

5:42 everyone will know how to use the new accounting software.

5:46 And if you want to sound a little more casual,

5:49 then you could say: We're here today to talk about George Orwell's novel, 1986.

5:56 If you have an agenda for the meeting, now's the time to go over it.

6:00 I'll just draw your attention to the agenda.

6:03 We've got a few things to get through today.

6:05 And then of course, you would name all of the important things on the agenda.

6:09 And if there's no agenda, it's a good chance to just tell the participants how

6:15 the meeting or this session is going to be structured.

6:18 What are the different sections of the meeting?

6:20 This way, everyone is going to know what to expect and it will be easier

6:25 for you to transition between topics and get

6:28 through everything that needs to be discussed.

6:30 Discourse markers and signposting language really comes in handy here.

6:36 Words like first, second, then, after that, next and finally.

6:43 Something like this.

6:44 The first item on the agenda is social media and then

6:48 we'll move on to item number two which is customer satisfaction.

6:54 And then we'll take a look at customer feedback.

6:59 And finally, we'll discuss the new marketing strategy.

7:02 And of course when you're hosting a meeting,

7:04 it never hurts to go over some of the ground rules.

7:08 Sometimes we refer to this part of the meeting as housekeeping.

7:12 Housekeeping in this context doesn't mean cleaning or maintaining a house.

7:18 In a meeting, we commonly use this phrase

7:21 to talk about the administrative parts of a meeting,

7:25 the part of the meeting where you lay the rules

7:28 out and you explain how things are going to run.

7:31 We just have to get through some housekeeping first.

7:34 Now saying this is a great way

7:36 to transition away from the introductions and the agenda.

7:40 And to talk about what you expect from everyone for the duration of the meeting.

7:44 You might ask them to switch off their phones.

7:47 If you have your phone with you, please take a moment just to turn it on silent

7:52 or to switch it off just so we don't have any disruptions.

7:55 Or you could let them know what to do if they have a question.

7:58 If you have any questions outside of the agenda, just save them for the end.

8:04 If you're running an online meeting,

8:06 this is especially important just to make it easy and manageable for everyone.

8:12 If you have any questions during our discussion today,

8:15 please just use the 'raised hand' reaction or raise

8:19 your hand so I can see it on screen.

8:21 Feel free to share your comments and your questions in the chat and please

8:26 make sure you put your microphones on mute to keep disruptions to a minimum.

8:33 When you're running a meeting,

8:34 part of your job is to manage and control the discussion.

8:39 You want it to be effective.

8:40 Sometimes you might need to prompt people to get the conversation started.

8:45 To kick things off, why don't we brainstorm a few ideas together?

8:49 I think it's best to ask some general questions that are

8:52 open for everyone to answer rather than singling people out initially.

8:57 You could try asking for their opinion with one of these phrases.

9:01 What does everyone else think?

9:03 What are your thoughts on the survey results?

9:06 I'd like to get your input on the new design.

9:08 Sometimes you put a question like that out there and no one answers.

9:13 So then you might need to call out a specific

9:16 name just to encourage someone to share their point of view.

9:19 What do you think about that Amy?

9:21 Now what about when you need to ask for clarification?

9:25 A really great way to do that is to ask for a bit more detail.

9:29 Can you explain that in a bit more detail?

9:33 Would you mind going over that again please?

9:36 To go over means to explain something in a detailed or a more careful way.

9:42 Or you can paraphrase what you think a person wants

9:46 to say or what you think you heard them say.

9:49 And it's a really useful conversation skill generally but in a meeting,

9:54 it's good to check that you understood someone,

9:57 that you heard them correctly without asking them to repeat

10:01 it so this is a really great way to do that.

10:04 So what you're saying is You're not really concerned about

10:08 the deadline as long as the job's done well, is that correct?

10:13 Another similar phrase is something like: If I understood correctly,

10:18 you're saying that all of these figures are incorrect.

10:22 Perhaps it might be useful to rephrase what someone else said,

10:27 maybe in a way that's a little simpler for everyone to understand.

10:31 So in other words, the report won't be finished on time.

10:36 When you're leading a meeting, it is super important that you keep

10:41 the meeting on track by keeping track of time.

10:46 Nobody likes meetings that drag on or they run over time.

10:50 If you're running the meeting,

10:52 it's your job to practise effective time management.

10:55 Now you could always ask anyone else to keep an eye

10:59 on the time but you may not always have that help.

11:03 So in those situations you can say:

11:06 If nobody has anything else to add, let's move on.

11:10 I'm conscious of time.

11:11 Sometimes you might even have to cut the discussion short in order to make

11:16 time for other things that you've got to talk about on the agenda.

11:20 I'm sorry, but I have to stop you there.

11:22 And you could follow that with: We're running out of time,

11:25 so we have to move on.

11:27 Sometimes when the conversation is flowing really well,

11:30 it's easy to get sidetracked or to go off topic or to go off track.

11:35 A good way to keep the conversation moving in the right direction is to say:

11:41 I'm afraid we don't have time to talk about that in today's meeting.

11:44 We'll add that onto the agenda for next week.

11:49 You might like to summarise the key points of the meeting so

11:52 that everyone else walks away with a clear idea of what happened.

11:56 Let me briefly summarise what we discussed today.

11:59 And at this point, you can also mention any

12:02 specific tasks that people at the meeting agreed to do.

12:06 We've all agreed that Aman will write the report.

12:09 After you've summarised the main points, you'd thank everyone for coming,

12:13 for their time, for their participation at your meeting.

12:16 Thank you so much for your time and your participation today.

12:20 The thank you at the end of a meeting

12:22 is usually the sign that the meeting is over,

12:25 that you're starting to wrap up and if you have a future meeting planned,

12:29 now is a good time to mention it.

12:32 The next meeting is on Tuesday so I'll see you all then.

12:35 And you might sign off with something friendly,

12:37 either in an online meeting or in person.

12:40 You could say: Have a great day everyone!

12:43 Or have a great week!

12:45 So that's it!

12:46 I hope you enjoyed this lesson and that you

12:48 feel more confident about hosting your next meeting in English.

12:53 Make sure you save or you print the PDF that I created

12:56 for you so that you can keep it with you during your meetings,

13:00 during your online conversations so that you

13:03 can start using these expressions fluently.

13:06 And ladies, don't forget if you want to practise

13:09 hosting meetings in a supportive space with friends,

13:12 come and put your skills into practice inside Hey Lady!