Performance appraisal: solutions for poor verbal skills

Are you a manager who is working on performance appraisals now, or dreading them in the future? One of the toughest training decisions a manager can make is how to help genuinely talented employees who struggle with a skill set such as communication.

The first step is to be clear about the skill that needs to be improved, and how it impacts the individual's career progress. List a few examples of what the employee said that were incorrect. How does this impact the employee and company?

There are several basic options for improvement:  e-books, books,  mp3 files,  online webinars, and coaching (individual, small group and online).

To change communication skills, the person needs practice and expert feedback. While e-books, books, mp3 files and online webinars are economical ways to impart knowledge, which is good, usually skill practice with a coach is necessary. The feedback provided by the instructor is also vital to determine if the skill was done correctly.

If your employee needs to improve his or her pronunciation, speech rate, telephone skills,  presentation skills, communication skills for leadership, or other verbal skills, Business Speech Improvement offers a wide variety of options. The training is intensive and customized, designed for each learner.

When training is done intensively, less review time is needed because lessons quickly build on each other and there is less time to forget! Employees seem to stay more engaged in their learning, and there are few excuses to skip a session. Little or no travel time is also required, beyond arriving in the first place.

A seminar on American English Pronunciation Improvement for Non-native Professionals is now enrolling learners.

Past learners have been amazed at how much they've learned in a mere three days!

As one person mentioned, "I want to speak better - but I don't know how."

Business Speech Improvement  provides that intensive guidance to better speech! Visit us to check out the options today!

Supervising international employees? Assumptions and your bottom line

Your employees' cultural assumptions may affect your bottom line - if you forget to discuss some of them. In an seminar on American English Pronunciation for Non-native Professionals, an attendee walked in one day shaking his head. "I know the answer to the problem my boss is struggling with - but of course I can't tell him," the new employee said. The entire class chorused, "Why not?" The employee replied, "I'll get fired for insubordination." Thankfully, the group included a manager of another department in the same organization, who assured the man that in this American company, he wouldn't get fired for saving his company a lot of time and money solving the problem. In another case, a new employee had an extraordinary background in her field, but was the newest hired in her department. When a supervisory position opened up, she told the group she wished she could apply. When asked why she wasn't doing so, she said, "I'm the last hired. It must go to the person there the longest," which was the case in her native country. Convinced to apply, she was quickly promoted. Here are three steps to take, with all your employees, to overcome such cultural assumptions. Remember that an employee can be American-born but be bi-cultural. 1. Let all employees know, verbally and in writing, how promotions are determined. If experience, education, motivation, certifications or other factors are involved, make that clear. Factors may be different in other countries. 2. Have supervisors explain repeatedly to new employees that questions are welcomed about procedures. This is not true everywhere. 3. If a person is exhibiting a communication behavior that is unusual to you, such as hesitating before shaking hands or being reluctant to show emotions or use the telephone, ask sincerely if things are done differently in his or her culture. Business Speech Improvement provides intensive training in verbal skills, including American English Pronunciation Improvement for Non-native Professionals. It offers e-books such as Coming to the USA:American Cultural Differences as well as others on diction, and more!