
Being confident at work can be the difference between steady promotions and a great career and being sidelined from all the important projects and not receiving any prominent promotion.
One of the easiest ways to showcase confidence at work is by how you carry yourself and your body language and one of the most important aspects of your body language is the actual language you use at work.
In a corporate or official environment, it is not just enough to speak in English because you can be fluent in English but then again, you will find your company preferring someone who speaks certain phrases.
That is why there are actually some English phrases that are more assertive and credible and professional when it comes to a professional environment and that is exactly what we are going to talk about in this blog.
Today, we are going to talk about some of the most powerful English phrases you can use in a professional setting at work that will make you sound more confident and will help you lead a meeting or respond to tough questions or even give feedback in a much more confident and professional manner.
We have handpicked these powerful phrases that you can quite easily start using from this very day onward in all your professional interactions and communications at work and sound a lot more confident.
So let’s begin.
English Phrases That Make You Sound More Confident at Work
“I recommend…” instead of “Maybe we could…”
The very first suggestion would be to never say “Maybe we could…” when you are offering any idea, because when you say “Maybe we could…” you sound hesitant and not confident. You ideally always want your response to always have confidence, even if you do not have confidence in reality.
That is why, instead of saying “Maybe we could…”, it is always a great idea to say “I recommend…” because this assures that you are providing a very strong and polite response about something and it also shows that you have thought the thing through.
“Let’s focus on the solution” instead of “This is a problem.”
Being confident is also about how you handle a situation because people who are not really confident will be the first to point out problems and issues, whereas the actual leaders will lead the situation.
That is why if you do not want to sound confident and if you want to be the subordinate, then you might say “This is a problem”. But if you are planning on leading the situation, then you should wait for people to point out the problem or point it out yourself and then add something like “Let’s focus on the solution”.
This will differentiate you from the rest of the crowd.
“From my perspective…” instead of “I might be wrong, but…”
One of the very basic things to understand about power perspective in the workplace is to never admit that you are wrong. Honesty is the best policy but it will not get you far in the workplace where every word counts.
That is why you should not say “I might be wrong, but…” because saying that will mean you are admitting to the mistake and it will actually be very bad for your confidence.
Instead, you should keep the problem open and present it from your perspective and say “From my perspective…”. After which, you can say in detail that this is your perspective instead of just admitting you are wrong.
“I’ll find out and get back to you” instead of “I don’t know.”
Nobody is supposed to know everything and you might also encounter a situation when you might not know something and there is nothing wrong with that.
What’s wrong is admitting that you do not know something because the moment you say “I don’t know.”, the competitive workplace will not be very just with you.
Instead, you should always keep the conversation open and say, “I’ll find out and get back to you”. This will show initiative.
“I understand your concern” instead of “You’re wrong.”
Kindness and politeness go a long way in a professional setting because the lovable employee always gets the promotion and that is why you must always pay attention to what you are saying to people.
It is not always about your confidence but also the confidence of others and that is why when someone is wrong and you say it out to them like “You’re wrong”, they will not like it.
Instead, what you should do is tell that person, “I understand your concern”. This will show that you understand that they have a different perspective and that you understand their point of view.
“Let’s clarify the next steps” instead of “What do we do now?”
The workplace can be quite unpredictable and there might always be situations when the entire team might not know what to do next.
In that situation, if you say “What do we do now?” then that will not really be leader-like and it will definitely not be something a confident person says.
These unpredictable, chaotic situations are an opportunity in disguise and it is during these moments that you need to step up as a leader and say, “Let’s clarify the next steps”.
“Thank you for waiting” instead of “Sorry for the delay.”
We have all had to encounter moments when we had something to do and that task got delayed due to some circumstances.
What do you do in that situation? If something like this happens to you, then you should never apologise straightaway because that is not something a confident person does.
Instead, you should completely change the argument to your favour and say “Thank you for waiting”. This phrase is a game-changer in the workplace.
“Let’s touch base on this” instead of “Can we talk…?”
If you have to talk to your colleague about a certain issue and you are not really feeling confident, then you should not simply say “Can we talk…?”. It is because saying “Can we talk…?” does not show confidence.
Instead, you can use a very classic professional phrase, such as “Let’s touch base on this” as it will just showcase how polished you are professionally.
These are some of the most popular and powerful English phrases that will make you sound much more confident at work.
Do let us know if you would like a second part to this interesting blog and if you are someone who wants to master the most fluent workplace professional spoken English and you are looking for just the right course as a working professional, we are here for you.
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