Have you ever heard the expression “play to your strengths?” Then you may have wondered, “What are my strengths and how can I play to them?” An even better question would be, “Who should I play these strengths to and how?” We’re speaking to the international job seekers in the US market because we want to share a very important message: you have both an amazing advantage and disadvantage in this competitive market, but you must play to your strengths.

Before going straight to the practicals, let’s look at some encouraging data for those who do not speak English as a first language. “Nine out of ten international recruiters believe the ability to speak another language is ‘critical to success.” [“Talking World Class: The Impact of Language Skills on the UK Economy,” The National Centre for Languages ] According to the Chief Learning Manager of Deutsche Bank, “Multilingualism is an indicator of general mental ability and an internationalist outlook.” The shifting global workforce demographic is no secret and linguistic ability is hot! The fact that you speak more than one language is the good news.

In your job search, seek where your linguistic skills might be leveraged. Look at the specific job qualifications, the percentage of internationals working at a particular firm, specific multinational companies, diversity statements on the company site, and at whole industries where speaking more than one language is in high demand.

Now for the not so good news– which really depends more on what you will DO about it.

Strong written and verbal communication skills are a necessity for almost any job you find in the U.S. today. What are typically meant by these skills are professional writing ability, strong presentation skills, meeting management and participation, negotiation, and interpersonal engagement among others. When it comes down to the last 2-3 candidates for the job (often possessing the best technical skills), hiring managers will often first let go of the candidate possessing more mediocre communication skills. They may ask such questions as: “How would he do overall at meetings? Would he participate, be vocal, and advocate for ideas?” If the recruiter has decided “No” based on your performance at the interview, what your references had to say, or what your whole professional package (resume/CV, cover letter, dress, LinkedIn and other social media profile pages, the way you shook hands, your eye contact, etc.) conveyed, then this is indeed the “bad news” that you should start seriously thinking about changing.

Professional communication skills are tremendously important to companies—do not rely solely on your technical strengths and certifications to get your foot in the door, get you the job, then get you the promotion. This has seen its day of discouragement and disillusionment. At a time where many are vying for the same jobs, do not give the hiring firm an excuse to disqualify your cover letter or use your communication skills as deciding factor against your candidacy. Decide now to get your professional communication skills evaluated and decide whether some training is in order, whether it be a one-workshop commitment or a long-term communication coach to complement your own efforts or those of the executive search consultancy.

Not sure if you have the time or funds for this? Here are two things to consider:

1. Like all education, professional development costs are an investment. If you’re serious about success, personal improvement is an ongoing process that will continue well into your career. If you’ve gotten clear feedback that your language and communication skills might be to blame, it’s time to invest more earnestly in your best asset—yourself.
2. Be upfront with the recruiter or hiring manager. If your next interview is tomorrow, in all likelihood you’ll not have the chance to get polished in these areas. Explain the advantage of your multilingualism and tie it specifically to the job (if indeed it can be). Then, be prepared to give examples of your commitment to professional development now, such as through a Toastmasters membership, or enrollment in a managerial writing course. Do not go to great lengths to point out an inadequacy—simply point to the positive things you are doing. Showing your commitment is far better than winging it and hoping they didn’t notice.

Now is not the time to cross your fingers and hope for the best. Please let us know how we can help. Post your comments and questions or shoot us an e-mail: info@springboardsltc.com.

Assuming we are writing to an audience looking to get ahead in their careers, and many of our clients have shown this to be true, why should we be concerned with “self-advocacy” in the workplace, the competing job market, or in business school? If you have done a definition search for “self-advocacy” at this point, you may have found this description:

an individual’s ability to effectively communicate, convey, negotiate or assert his or her own interests, desires, needs, and rights.  It involves making informed decisions and taking responsibility for those decisions. (VanReusen et al., 1994)

So where does that leave you, the aspiring manager or partner, the job seeker, or the international MBA student? More importantly, where does that leave you as an English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) speaker working and competing in the U.S. marketplace?

Aspiring Manager

Daily workplace challenges often present themselves to our clients in the form of cultural distinctives, or stem from the differences in a cultural mindset often times in opposition to the American business practices around them. One major example is the notion of “bragging,” or publicly or forcefully declaring one’s own work as worthy of particular recognition. Many cultures outside the U.S. prize the efforts of the group over the individual. While this is not entirely lacking in many American firms, it is more often expected that one “advocate” for him or herself in the workplace; thus the independent actions are often emphasized. Without proactive movement on the part of the individual, many workplace efforts may go unnoticed, unrewarded, or at worst, claimed by one’s peers. This can indeed be a defeating and frustrating experience for many ESL professionals. If this describes you, here are some practical tips that you can take with you this week and begin to apply immediately:

1. If you are still wondering whether “self-advocacy” is no different than “bragging,” take some time to meditate on the definition provided here. Seek the perspectives of your American peers and advisors and successful ESL executives. Try to think back on instances of “unacceptable” or “unrewarded” behavior shown by ex-pats in your own country. What cultural business practices could they have benefited from had they embraced them early on? What cultural mindsets were counter-productive?
2. Determine your strengths, needs, and interests first. If you are not sure, seek the advice of your mentor or a close advisor who is senior in rank.
3. Write out a career goal for the rest of 2009 and a list of communication obstacles—individual (language, culture, etc.), interpersonal (team meetings, client engagement, etc.), and organizational (hard-to-penetrate in-groups, information sharing not actively encouraged, etc.)—which appear to be the most prohibitive to your goals. Knowing your challenges is the first step. Self-knowledge is the first step towards advocating for your rights. You need to know your strengths, needs, and interests before you can begin to advocate.
4. Identify someone in the firm (ESL speaker) who, from a communication standpoint, seems to have done “all the right things” to reach career goals. Start paying more attention to their approach to communication, whether through memos, emails, management of team meetings, presentations, networking, or other. If it is at all possible, reach out to this person for insights. It can be a casual coffee; you can say you are interested in learning more about how he or she (as an ESL speaker) has exploited their strengths in the company.
5. Keep a record of your achievements in a desktop folder, i.e., “Track Record.” Every time your ideas are applied, your work is recognized, or something that you do creates value for clients, colleagues, or affiliates, write these things down. Print out a congratulatory or praiseworthy e-mail and save it in your folder. If it’s a major win for the company, make sure you find the time and appropriate venue to let a partner or senior member know about it. Not sure how to go about this? Start by asking your mentor or advisor. We’ll cover that topic in a future post, so stay tuned!

Competing in the job market or attending business school? Look out for future posts- nudge us a little here or on Twitter, and maybe we’ll move faster. Final take away: We hope these ideas will help you muster up the courage to view your achievements as the individual building blocks of your most marketable asset—yourself. If you don’t speak up for yourself, who will?

Send us your comments—the more we know, the more we can customize this blog for you.

When listening to people speaking in a meeting, you might think they’re using an entirely different dialect of English than what you hear in ordinary conversation. You might hear talk about sports when the topic of the meeting is financial reporting. Engineering managers might mention boxes, missions, parts of a stove, flagpoles, laundry, and the ground. Don’t panic! You’re hearing meeting jargon. Meeting jargon is idiomatic: it’s hard to figure out the meaning by doing a literal translation of each word. And then, if you finally learn the meaning of these popular phrases, you might be concerned about using them properly.

You can relax a little. Although you do need to understand this jargon, the good news is that you don’t have to use it. Being clear in what you say is more important than jargon. In fact there are many people in business who don’t like meeting jargon and will appreciate that you don’t use it.

Types of meeting jargon

What kinds of meeting jargon are there? Let’s look at a few types then some common examples of each one.

Noise phrases add little or no meaning to a sentence. When you hear them, you can ignore them without losing meaning.

Sports phrases are quite popular and come mostly from the games of baseball and American football. Most of these phrases are intended to strongly express emotion or strongly highlight a success or failure. You’ll need to understand these. The best way to do that is to learn about baseball and American football. You don’t need to learn the detailed rules of each game. A basic knowledge is sufficient. Wikipedia is a good place to start. There is a wide variety of other phrases which have lots of different origins. Some are taken from the military, some from traveling, and some from activities in everyday life.

Remember that like idioms, meeting jargon cannot be interpreted literally. Suppose your boss says, “Get this project done or you’ll be hung out to dry!” The phrase hung out to dry is used to talk about laundry that has been hung out(side) on a line to dry. You will not be tied to a rope if the project is late, but you might not get the pay raise or nice big office you wanted. The phrase means that there will be negative consequences, probably serious, for doing or not doing something.

Noise phrases

A common example of a noise phrase is if you will. For example, “My way to fix the project, if you will, is to move it overseas.” The short phrase if you will is perhaps intended to ask for agreement, but the speaker doesn’t expect you to answer the implied question, “Will you agree?” You can see it adds nothing to the sentence.

Another example of a noise phrase is as it were. “The entire team, as it were, just isn’t working out.” This short phrase sometimes implies things might not be as they seem, but if you were to remove the phrase, the meaning would be the nearly identical to the meaning with the phrase included.

Still another noise phrase is bear with me, which is intended to ask the listener to give the speaker more time to explain himself. But do you as a listener have any alternative? Of course not.

Since these short phrases are unnecessary, you’re probably wondering why people use them. Sometimes it’s to try to sound important, knowledgeable, or impressive, but these phrases really don’t accomplish any of these intentions.

Sports phrases

Soccer – known in the rest of the world as “football,” of course – is a big part of the culture in many countries of the world, but in the USA, baseball and (American) football are big. Maybe you’ve heard baseball called “the Great American Pastime.” It makes sense, then, that phrases from these two sports in particular have made their way into business as meeting jargon. Here are some examples.

step up to the plate – Used to ask someone to commit to hard work on a project. “I need you to step up to the plate so we can get this done on time.” This is a very popular phrase.

hit a homerun, scored a touchdown, hit it out of the park, a grand slam – Used to describe a big success. “Toyota hit a homerun with the Prius.”

struck out – Describes a failure. “Acme Car Company really struck out with their MegaSUV.”

all the bases are covered, covered all the bases – Indicates that all possible outcomes have been considered and planned for. “She’s done a great job and covered all the bases on our new project.”

make a pitch – Describes an attempt to convince someone to buy or do something. “Joe, I need you to make a pitch to the boss to get funding for our project.”

threw me a curve ball – Describes something that happened unexpectedly. “The sales team asked us to reduce the size by 50 percent. They really threw us a curve ball.”

came out of left field – Describes a crazy or unexpected idea. “Marketing has an idea that must have come of out left field. They want us to make it for only $100!”

go the whole nine yards – Describes an attempt to use all resources available and work very hard. “Citicorp is such a big customer that we have to go the whole nine yards for them.”

Other phrases

hit the ground running – Used to show that a person is ready to start a project or task immediately and has the knowledge needed to do that. “Susan, our new team leader, is just what we need. She’s ready to hit the ground running on our new project.”

put it on the front burner (or back burner) – Indicates raising or lowering the priority of a project or task. “Because of the Microsoft deal, we’re going to put the maintenance release on the back burner.”

think outside the box – Describes unconventional thinking. “We don’t have a lot of time, so I’ll need you to think outside the box to solve the customer’s problems.”

run it up the flagpole and see who salutes – Describes giving important people an idea of a new project or product to see if they like it. “Let’s build a prototype of the new software then run it up the flagpole and see who salutes.”

mission critical – Describes an essential product or service. “The medical records system is mission critical for the hospital. We must be ready to support them 24/7.”

To summarize, just remember these two points: learn what meeting jargon means, but don’t worry about using it. Be aware that using meeting jargon in the wrong way or inconsistently, putting it in odd places in a conversation, causing even a slight grammatical error, could result in the opposite effect of what you intended. You could be perceived as unoriginal or amateur and it could distract from the message you are trying to deliver. It’s best to avoid it.

For further reading, consider these books
Understanding American Business Jargon: A Dictionary by W. Davis Folsom
Biz Speak 1: Slang, Idioms and Jargon Used in Business English by David Burke
Biz Speak 2: Slang, Idioms and Jargon Used in Business English by David Burke

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