Wooh! Welcome back to Weekly Words, everybody. My name is Alisha, and this week we're going
to talk about sports metaphors in business. This is gonna get real dude-like, real fast.
First phrase, rather, is “jump the gun.” “Jump the gun” means you do something
too quickly or you don't think enough about something before you do it. In a business
setting, maybe a subordinate makes a decision before the bosses had a chance to decide on
something. You might say, “Stevens, you jumped the gun again. We can't forgive you
for this one. You're fired!”
Okay, the next one is “drop the ball.” “Drop the ball” means you don't do something
that you're supposed to do. Somebody was supposed to do something, and they didn't do it. They
“dropped the ball.” Like in basketball, right? If you have a ball, you’re supposed
to pass the ball to a teammate. If you drop the ball, you let everybody down. “My co-worker
really dropped the ball when he forgot to send that email. We were all
disappointed.” Stevens, uh, okay.
Next, “slam dunk.” A “slam dunk” is something that you are sure is going to happen.
Maybe you have a good relationship with a client, for example. You can say, “Yeah,
the deal next week, it will be a slam dunk.” You know that something good is going to happen.
Next, “covering all bases.” This phrase means that you plan for as many things as
you possibly can. You have some kind of plan in mind for any number of things that could
go wrong or any number of things that could happen. Uhm in a sentence, umm… A boss might
say to their subordinate, “So what's your plan for the event next week? Make sure you
have all bases covered. I don't want anything to go wrong.”
“Next is “playing hardball.” “Playing hardball” is used when you're really, really
aggressively competing with somebody. So in a sentence, uh, maybe after a business meeting,
you might say, “Oh, wow, our competitors were really playing hardball in there. It
was really tough.”
Okay, end! That's the end. Those are all some sports metaphors that get used in business
settings, so give them a try in your next business meeting, but be careful to use the
correct one. Thanks for joining us for Weekly Words this week. I will see you again next
time for more fun information. Bye!