لغت ها

BEC : Leadership - Vocabulary

Hi, this is AJ. Welcome to the vocabulary lesson. Let’s get started.

The first word is ‘tactical’, tactical. So tactical and strategic, these two words are often used together. Tactical means kind of at the frontline level. It means at the more immediate level, the smaller level. It’s a word that really is used a lot more in military and kind of war situations.

So at the tactical level of fighting, for example, that would be an actual battle. Let’s say in Word War II there’s the Battle of the Bulge. That was a tactical battle, those tactics.

The Germans would move their tanks one way and the Americans would move their tanks a different way. All of that was happening at the tactical level, kind of the smaller, more immediate level and happening more now.

The other word, ‘strategic’, that means at the bigger level, more long term, larger scale.

So, again, in talking about war, let’s say World War II, at the strategic level that’s more like the decision, let’s say by the Germans, should we invade Russia or not. Yes, we’re going to invade Russia, the USSR at that time. That was a strategic decision, right? It’s a very big, kind of large scale, more long-term decision.

So strategic means higher level, larger scale, more long term and tactical, smaller scale, more immediate, more close to the present. They’re both important. One is not better than the other one. It’s just different levels of looking at a conflict or a goal.

You have the phrase ‘down the ranks’, down the ranks. So, again, ‘the ranks’ just means the levels, in this case the levels of a company. So at the top rank of the company there would be the CEO, the president. You go down the ranks and at the bottom of the company would be the lowest paid frontline workers. So if you’re going down the ranks it means you’re looking from the top rank down to the lower ones.

‘Vision’ - Here, vision really means imagination or a clear idea about future goals. A clear strategic view, that’s vision. So if you say this leader has vision, it means the leader has a very strong, powerful idea about the company and its future.

‘Culture’ - Now, a company culture is the same as the culture of a country. So if we talk about the culture of a country we’re talking about the beliefs of the country, the habits of the people, the usual way of doing things, the ways of communication. All of that together, kind of the way of life, that’s the culture of the country.

Well, it’s the same for a company. In a company you have a culture. There’s a certain way of living in that company, a certain way that people communicate, a way that people dress, a way that people do things, a way that decisions are made. All of that together is the culture of the company.

Next, we have the word ‘innate’, for example, an innate ability. Innate means internal. It means kind of natural or instinctual. It means you were born with this ability. You have it inside you. You didn’t need to learn it from the outside world. You didn’t need to study it, you already had it. So some people will talk about, for example, an athlete. He has an innate ability. It means he has some special talent that he was born with already. He didn’t learn it. So that’s innate.

Next, ‘noble’ or ‘noble purpose’ - Noble means good, pure, things like that. So a noble purpose is a good purpose, a pure purpose.

Okay, if you say they wrapped themselves around the mission, ‘wrapped themselves around’, wrapped themselves around just means totally committed to. So they totally committed themselves to the mission. They strongly connect to the mission. They wrapped themselves around the mission. They all mean the same thing.

The lowest manager on the ‘rung’. A rung is a piece of a ladder. You can imagine a ladder, you climb up the ladder. Well, each little handle that goes across the ladder that you put your hands or feet on that’s called a rung, a rung. So in many companies and in business in general, people talk about the corporate ladder. It’s this same idea of ranks.

So if you imagine that the company is a ladder, at the top, the top rung, the very top of the ladder, that would be, again, the president or the founder or the CEO and then you go down the rungs. You’re going down the ranks. So the lowest rung, that would, again, be the lowest ranks. That would be the lowest employees. So the lowest manager on the rung, that’s the lowest manager in the company. It’s the lowest level of management.

‘It makes a world of difference’. This is a very common phrase in general English. It makes a world of difference means it makes a big difference. It’s important. It just means it, whatever ‘it’ is, makes a big difference, is important; makes a world of difference. So, the phrase is makes a world of difference.

The next word is ‘evangelical’, evangelical. The noun is evangelism. Evangelical is an adjective so it means kind of being similar to a passionate religious person. It means you’re kind of preaching.

So you can imagine a very passionate religious person, when they talk about their religion they’re super passionate, right? They’re oh, this is the true way! They’re constantly trying to tell everybody about it, trying to get people to join their cause, join their religion. Well, that kind of behavior we call it evangelical, someone who is a very passionate believer in something. Especially if they try to recruit other people to their mission, to their values, to their cause, that’s an evangelical person.

Businesspeople have started using this word as well. So an evangelical person in the company, that means someone who is really passionate about the mission of the company or the values of the company. They’re constantly talking about the company in a passionate way and they try to sell other people on these. They try to recruit people.

Maybe they try to recruit customers to buy from the company or they try to recruit other great people to join the company as employees. So that kind of passionate behavior is called evangelical behavior.

Finally, the word ‘charisma’ - Charisma is a nice word. Charisma is a little bit like the word charm when we’re talking about people. We use this to describe people. Charisma is the noun and the adjective is charismatic. So if someone has charisma it means they have this kind of charm.

It means they have an attraction. People like them. Something about their personality attracts people. People meet them and immediately people want to listen to them, people want to follow them, people think positively about them. Some people have that charisma. Something about their personality, the way they move, the way they look, the way they talk, instantly attracts people. That’s called charisma and, again, the adjective the charismatic.

And that is our vocabulary for this lesson set. I’ll see you again next time.

The End.