Whether you're in a management position,
you've recently been tasked to lead a project or you're working to develop your
career,
fine-tuned leadership skills are essential to success.
These are the skills you use to organize people,
to reach a shared goal, or when you need to motivate others to complete a task.
Knowing the vocabulary and understanding the definitions of various
leadership skills in English can help when you're aiming to interview
for a job in English,
write a resume or identify opportunities for personal and
professional growth. So in this lesson today,
I'd love to invite you to join me in exploring 10 English power
words on leadership.
If you don't already know I'm Annemarie was Speak Confident English,
everything I do here is designed to help you get the confidence for your life
and work in English. Before we get too deep into this lesson,
I want to pause for a moment and talk about what exactly do I need by
power words. If you're a student in my Confident Job Interviews course,
then you're definitely familiar with this. But if it's new to you,
a power word is a word that creates an emotional response.
A power word can create an emotion such as a sense of pride or
accomplishment, a feeling of relief or even excitement.
And when I say that a power word also creates a response.
What I mean is that it might inspire someone else to take a specific action.
On top of all of that power words,
help us to be precise with our meaning.
One of the reasons I love helping my students develop their vocabulary,
particularly with advanced level words and power words is
again,
it allows you to make choices about the words you're going to use and
be precise as you express yourself.
Does that mean you should use power words all the time? No,
that's the beautiful thing about English. We love variety.
We love to combine the simple and the complex,
the basic and advanced.
So by adding these words to your vocabulary today,
you're giving yourself options.
You can choose which words are most appropriate for the situation you're in,
which words will allow you to be the most precise.
As we explore these 10 English power words,
I will share concrete examples with you along the way so that you always know
exactly how to use them when you choose to do so. All right,
I hope you've got your pen or pencil and your notebook ready to go because we're
going to get started right away with power word number one.
In the process of talking about what we are able to do,
we sometimes forget to take ownership of all the hard work
involved in attaining a result.
Achieve is a powerful word that communicates your ability
to attain your goals.
Not just the ability to do something. For example,
you could say my team and I were able to meet our
goals,
or you could say my team and I achieved our goals and met expectations.
It is a small change, but when it's appropriate,
it adds that additional layer of emotion.
And it's more powerful again,
because you're highlighting your ability to go above and beyond basic
abilities. And now power word, number two, delegate.
When talking about your role as a leader,
you may also need to talk about your style of management in doing so.
It's important to choose words that demonstrate your strengths in managing
teams and projects,
rather than use words such as assigned gave and
told you can replace those with delegated.
When you delegate a task, not only does it imply your authority,
but it also communicates your ability to identify and encourage
talents in your team members.
Here's an example of how you might use it in a sentence as the public relations
manager.
I often delegated digital outreach to our newest team members as a way to
help them learn about our clients, power word, number three,
deliver when you're working in a fast paced competitive environment,
employers and coworkers want to know if you're able to meet
expectations and provide results in doing so.
You could say I attained the desired results and met expectations,
or we could make a slight change to that.
With I delivered the desired results and met expectations.
The verb deliver showcases your professionalism and your leadership.
Moreover, it implies you're the kind of person who is capable of
consistently bringing results to the table. And now power word,
number four, facilitate as a leader,
you're often required to find routes for smooth transitions or to make a
process easier. When describing these experiences,
you might use words such as aided, helped and assisted.
However, when it's appropriate,
you can opt for the word facilitated facilitate,
not only communicates your involvement in something,
but it also communicates that your assistance allowed
something to progress forward. For example,
I facilitated opportunities for employees to maintain better
work-life balance by introducing a four day work week.
The fifth English power word on leadership on our list today is implement.
Implement is a great verb choice to use when you want to show that you were able
to successfully and practically carry out an action.
Rather than say that you introduced,
tried or use different strategies.
You could say I regularly reviewed and implemented
strategies for better client outreach, power word,
number six is improve.
Sometimes we downplay our ability to make things better by using
words such as changed, altered, or updated.
But when you want to showcase your leadership and your experience,
you can replace those words with improved. For example,
if someone asks you about your contribution to the workplace,
you could say I improved the legacy code for the company's client
management database. Number seven on our list. Mentor.
Nothing says leadership,
like the ability to train and mentor a new team member.
Every workplace relies on someone who's great at their job to help
guide others,
to highlight your ability to lead and train others.
You could say something like I mentored new colleagues and guided them
through the training process during their first month on the job with us power
word. Number eight is one of my favorites on this list today.
And the word is resolve. As a leader.
There are times when you have to make strong decisions.
Resolve is a great verb choice for highlighting the determination
and authority that go hand in hand with decision-making.
When you're explaining the solution to a problem,
particularly if the solution or the decision were not easy to implement,
rather than use the language,
came to the conclusion or made the decision, you could say,
I resolved that the team would require strict deadlines to avoid
further delays. All right, how are you doing so far?
I know there's a lot of new words to get familiar with,
and hopefully you've already found a favorite on this list,
but we do have two more to go. So let's get into power word. Number nine,
spearhead.
Spearheaded is an empowering verb to talk about your achievements with
confidence. It's the epitome of leadership,
and it means that you can lead a team or a workplace in an endeavor.
It also means that you took the initiative to take the lead.
Perhaps there was a project without a clear leader.
So you took the opportunity to take on that role.
The next time you have the opportunity to talk about your leadership role
in improving your company's services or products, you could say,
I spearheaded new projects to expand our outreach.
And finally,
our last power word on the topic of leadership is specialize.
Specialize is a straightforward,
strong verb that can be used to emphasize your expertise,
experience, and education.
It means that you offer something special or specific.
So the next time you have an opportunity to highlight your past experience or
your mastery of a specific skill. You could say,
I specialize in, for example,
I specialize in SEO optimization and data
analytics. And with that,
you have 10 English power words on leadership that you can again use the
next time you're interviewing for a job in English,
writing a resume or identifying areas where you want to grow
personally and professionally to finish.
I have three opportunities for you to practice. Number one,
what was your favorite word on this list today?
Share it with me in your own example, sentence. Number two.
Is there a word on the list today that perfectly describes something
you are able to do? If so, again,
try using it in your own example sentence,
and you can share that with me in the comments below.
And finally question number three of all the words that you've learned
today,
which three do you think are the most important skills for a
leader to have? There's no right or wrong answer to this question.
It's purely your opinion. And I'd love to know what you think again,
share your comments or questions in the comment section below.
If you found this lesson useful to you, I would love to know.
And you can tell me in one very simple way,
give this lesson a thumbs up here on YouTube and subscribe to my Speak Confident
English channel. So you never miss one of my Confident English lessons.
Thank you so much for joining me. And I look forward to seeing you next time.