7 Key Traits to Look For When Hiring a Business English Coach

As the world continues to evolve, businesses worldwide need to communicate effectively to close business deals, build relationships, and grow internationally. You want to employ the best professionals to help you and your employees communicate more effectively as a business. It goes without saying that you are probably looking for an enthusiastic and motivating Business English coach who is an expert in linguistics and has a passion for passing on their knowledge. But how do you ensure that they will meet the needs of your business?

Here are 7 key traits to look for when hiring a Business English coach. 

1. Up to Date with Global Trends, Linguistics, and Soft Skills 

Find out how the coach keeps updated with global developments, pedagogical changes, and acquiring new business skills.

A business coach may read The Economist. The Financial Times, The Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal and online newspapers, and many other publications.

Like global business, language training is changing rapidly, informed by extensive academic research. A good language coach is often a member and speaker at the meetings of different Language and Business Associations. They also actively continue their own professional development, constantly reevaluating their skills and retraining to improve their business and coaching knowledge and techniques. 

In addition, employers are seeking individuals with more effective communication skills – “soft skills”. Reputable business schools, global consultants, and experienced business leaders are all singing this same message. 

When you are communicating with a Business English coach, ask them what they do to stay up to date with current events and how they continue developing their linguistic and soft skills.

2. Ensure the Business English Coach is an Effective Communicator 

How do they communicate?

Apart from linguistic expertise, how else is the trainer able to improve the effectiveness of your communication? 

A good coach not only empowers the business professional to speak confidently but also provides concrete practical advice on how to influence and persuade others during meetings and presentations with messages made memorable through the use of engaging language.

Similarly, with written communication such as email and report writing, a good Business English coach helps develop simple, clear, and well-structured communications that are always goal-oriented. Plus, you and your colleagues will learn practical email writing tips to build warm but professional relationships and reduce email “ping-pong”. Effective communication helps save time. And as the adage goes, “Time is money.”  

3. Employs Pedagogical Methods and Tools 

Ask what methods and tools are being used in the course planning, session preparation, learning in between sessions, and the actual coaching contact.

For the best results, a business language coach should conduct a full language assessment of each individual according to 7 criteria, including fluency and pronunciation. Then, the Business English coach carries out a Communication Needs Analysis before the final course is drawn up. From this analysis, the Business English coach can identify learner profiles, learning outcomes, and teaching aims. 

With this new insight, the Business English coach can provide weekly session plans to focus on the client’s goals.

A good language coach uses flipped classroom techniques, blended and micro learning methods, and a variety of online IT educational tools and sites to maximise learning goals and self-directed learning to develop autonomy. 

4. Relevant and Up-to-Date Qualifications

Check your Business English coach’s qualifications.

The coaching industry is not regulated and as a result, so many language trainers are unqualified; instead they market themselves as “experienced” or as “a native speaker”. This can lead to international businesses hiring Business English coaches that teach unproven methodologies, irrelevant content, and even ignoring key language competencies. 

Qualifications also vary, and some are awarded after completing a quick online course. At the other end of the scale, there are some excellent academic qualifications such as a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics. However, these can be theoretical and do not always include practical assessments in live classrooms to critique and improve hands-on teaching abilities.

Experts in the industry endorse TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign language) courses such as CELTA, TESOL and Trinity (in the UK) and ITTT (in the USA) with a large variation in course length, price, acceptance criteria, real teaching experience undertaken, and finally, pass/fail levels. 

CELTA is renowned as the toughest starting qualification in the industry with rigorous standards and its quality is assured by the University of Cambridge's Assessment English. In some countries, it is the only TEFL qualification accepted.  

5. Clear Focus on Pronunciation 

Double-check the focus of the coach on pronunciation.

Research shows that miscommunication is usually due to mispronunciation (or a lack of vocabulary) and not deficiencies in grammar or fluency. Clarity of speech is sadly overlooked in many schools and universities and then again by business language trainers. However, this is an essential component of communication. 

Moreover, the business world is using video conference tools increasingly and meetings are attended globally by many nationalities, often with extreme time pressures and intercultural issues at work. So, understanding each word the first time is critical.

Are you struggling with pronunciation? Learn the pronunciation of difficult words in my pronunciation series, “Word of the Week.”

6. Possesses Corporate Experience 

Enquire about the hands-on corporate experience of your coach.

Does your business English coach have corporate experience? In which sectors? At which level? And for how many years?

With appropriate corporate knowledge and insight, a good coach can understand the complex relationships between business units, subsidiaries, and departments (e.g. between Sales and Marketing; HR and the board of directors; Supply Chain and IT; Finance and Strategy, and so on). 

They are able to empathise with the stress and constraints imposed, plus the mix of reporting lines and blurred accountabilities. From this, a coach can create ‘life-like’ role-plays and scenarios and pose appropriate questions to stimulate strategic and critical thinking. 

7. Native Speaker 

Not essential, but an added bonus.

A native speaker with precise articulation and a neutral accent acts as a good role model for clients when working on their pronunciation. It is also easier for people with Intermediate levels of English to understand. 

An extra advantage is that idiomatic expressions and vocabulary from native speakers are often much richer when teaching Upper Intermediate and Advanced users of English.

If you want to discuss your organisation’s (corporate, NGOs, Associations and Universities) Public speaking or Presentation skills needs, I offer free 30-minute consultations through my site. I’d love to meet you.