How to discuss TARGETS and KPIs in professional English - Business English vocabulary lesson (Ep.56)

Discussing KPI targets, in English, at work, is challenging if you’re a non-native English speaker. Today we discuss how to sound more native and natural speaking English when talking about targets and KPIs. We have vocabulary for when you achieve your targets and for when you miss them. We discuss formal and informal vocabulary, phrasal verbs and idioms. 

If you speak English at work and want to sound more native and natural when talking to colleagues, customers, or clients, then I hope that the vocabulary, grammar, and communication tips in today's episode will be useful for you. 

🔗 Book a one-to-one coaching session with me at breakoutbusinessenglish.com
🎁 Use code PODCAST30 for 30% off your first coaching session

Do you want to see what I do? Click here:
https://youtu.be/O03XFo81HyY?si=VO78VfMm0GpxgMR3

Also, if you're studying for the IELTS, TOEFL, or Cambridge English tests and exams then you might find some of the vocabulary in this episode really useful.

This podcast is all about helping you to communicate better, in English, at work. I work with international English speakers from around the world who use English, at work, as a second or third language and I hope that I can bring some of the ideas, vocabulary, and grammar, from those sessions, to you in this podcast.

Don’t forget that my full time job is helping international professionals who use English at work to improve their communication skills. So, if you need English to do your job but don’t speak it natively then maybe we can work together to help you to achieve your language goals. 

👉 Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and request future topics!
📅 New episodes released every Wednesday
📺 Watch English speaking analysis on the Breakout Business English YouTube channel

#businessenglish #englishtips #englishclass #ielts

Transcript

Speaker 1 | 00:01
Welcome back to the breakout business English podcast. My name is Chris. I'm a business English and communication coach. And I have personally worked with over 1,000 international professionals just like you to improve the way that they communicate in English at work. Thank you as always so much for listening and for your time. I really appreciate it. And our topic today is Targets and KPIs. Back when I was 16, I got my first real job. I stopped delivering newspapers in the mornings, which was something I had been doing since I was 14 years old. And I started to spend my weekends selling electronics for a big national chain of stores in the UK. I ended up working for this company all the way through university. Taking a quick break to go and work in a bank, and then coming back as a business-to-business sales manager. The strongest memory I have of this time is how many KPIs we had. If you work in sales, then you know how KPI driven those jobs are. I know that I definitely have a couple of salespeople who I work with, who I help to improve their English communication. 
So if you're listening to this, then hey, maybe you know what I'm talking about. So here is my first quiz question for you today. What does KPI stand for? What do those letters mean? I think a lot of people see these letters every day, maybe discuss them every day, but might not actually know what they mean. One common synonym, of course, is target. We often talk about having targets at work. However, KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator. Key Performance Indicator. I always find that everyone knows the key performance bit and then the I people guess at. I've heard key performance index a couple of times, but this is a key performance indicator. It's a really important number. E. Which indicates or demonstrates, maybe shows, how you're doing your job. The performance. It's an important number, a key number which shows your performance. In my mid-twenties, I actually went through a bit of a career change. I went from selling computers to fixing them, and of setting them up. I got myself a new qualification and started working in the IT department of a college. I remember being really confused when I eventually asked my manager what my KPIs were. And she told me that I didn't really have any. I just needed to make sure that all of my tasks were completed. I think that might have been one of the most enjoyable conversations of my professional life. If you want to leave a comment on the YouTube video for this podcast today, then maybe you can tell me what your relationship with KPIs is and how it has changed through your career. Let's start today by listening to some natural and native sounding examples of people talking about not achieving their KPIs. Not achieving their KPIs. Here we go. We're going to be about $40,000 short this quarter. We're going to be about $40,000 short this quarter. The team has come in just under target for the month. The team has come in just under target for the month. We're lagging behind where we need to be at this point in the period. We're lagging behind where we need to be at this point in the period. Our first piece of vocabulary today is the verb "to lag". That's L-A-G, "to lag". In the third example, we heard we're lagging behind where we need to be at this point. We're lagging behind. 
So, imagine you're on a video call. And you say something. 
And then a moment later... Your colleague on the other end of the call. Here's it. If that happens quickly, as it likely should, then there's not much lag. In fact, you probably wouldn't even talk about the lag. However, If this takes a long time, then there might be a lot of lag. Lag is the time between one thing happening and another thing happening. Usually the expected result of that first thing. And we usually use it when that time is bigger and causes a problem. If you've ever transferred some money between one bank account and another, then maybe it was instant. However, maybe there was a lot of lag when you sent the money and you had to wait for it to arrive. In our example, We heard this word used as a phrasal verb with the preposition behind, as in lagging behind. This means that we haven't made as much progress as we want. Maybe we wanted to achieve 20% of our target by today. But we've only achieved 15%. We're lagging behind by 5%. If you're lagging behind, then this doesn't mean that you've failed to achieve your target. However, if you don't speed up, move faster, and improve before your deadline then you likely will fail to achieve your target. We often use the phrase to come in to talk about where something finished. In the second example, we heard "The team has come in just under target for the month." They've come in just under target. 
So, this would mean that the team has finished under or below target. 
I lost my voice there. Someone needs to come in last. There we go. And if your English is lagging behind where you want it to be, then maybe we can work together. My full-time job is helping international professionals who use English at work to improve their communication skills. 
So, if you need English to do your job, but you don't speak it natively. Then I would love to meet you. If you'd like to book some time to meet with me through one-to-one video calls, just you and me, then you can go to breakoutbusinessenglish.com That's the title of the podcast, breakoutbusinessenglish.com and find out more. Starting on our very first call. We can focus on the specific opportunities that you personally have to improve your English and communication skills. And the mistakes that you make most often or cause the biggest problems with your communication. And right now, you can use the code PODCAST30, that's PODCAST30, at checkout to get a 30% discount off your first booking of 30, 45, or 60 minutes. 
Sometimes my calendar gets a little busy, so if you have trouble finding a time that works for you, then you can always send me a message through the contact page on the website and ask if I have any time to fit you in. As I mentioned earlier, I've worked with well over 1,000 non-native English speaking professionals from new graduates up to CEOs and government leaders to help them to achieve their goals. And I look forward to meeting you. Let's briefly talk about Goodhart's Law. Goodhart's Law. Charles Goodhart was a British economist. That's a person who is an expert in the economy. And he was writing an article. About the British economy all the way back in 1975. And this article said that when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. I'll give you that one more time. When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. Measure. D' What did he mean? 
Well, Cease. D-E-A-S-E. Cease. This is simply a very formal word for 'stop'. You might hear it in very old movies, maybe even in Shakespeare. And it is a word used very often in the legal profession these days. It's used by lawyers for many different purposes. I guess lawyers have lots of different reasons to ask people to stop doing things. But it really just means the same as the verb to stop. Ciao. What Charles Goodhart was saying. Is that if you can measure something, then it's just nice information to have. It's useful to measure things, to know the level that things are at. It can help you to make decisions and to understand your situation. However, As soon as you make it a target, as soon as you make it a goal or maybe a KPI. Then it stops being a useful way to measure things. This is because people will behave differently with it. They will try to achieve it and change things about how they work. For instance. Let's take the sales industry again. If you want to know how many people like one brand of television instead of another brand of television, for instance, then you can just look at how many people bought each brand. Makes sense so far, right? However, If you then tell your sales staff that they are targeted to sell 10 of the first brand's televisions every day. Then, this stops being a good measure of people's opinions of these brands. Simply because the salespeople will be trying to encourage people to buy a particular brand of television. It's an interesting problem for leaders to have when trying to plan their businesses around the information that they have from past performance. 
So, with that said, let's talk now about hitting your KPIs. Here are some examples of how a native speaker might talk about achieving their targets. We're on target to hit all of our KPIs this quarter. We're on target to hit all of our KPIs this quarter. We're ahead of where we should be, so with any luck, we'll smash our target this month. We're ahead of where we should be. 
So with any luck, we'll smash our target this month. We surpassed our Q2 targets by 20%. We surpassed our Q2 targets by 20%. In our first example, we heard "on target". On target, as in we're on target to hit all our KPIs this quarter. We are on target to hit all our KPIs this quarter. To be on target is a common phrase. And it means that If everything continues, as it currently is, then you should achieve your target. You should hit your goal. Just like lots of other vocabulary about targets in business, this is another one that you can hear used to talk about physical objects moving towards things. 
Someone watching a snooker player or a pool player trying to get a ball into a pocket might watch it slowly rolling along the table and say that it's on target. It's on target. Ciao. If you need to sell 12,000 of something by the end of the year, and you're hoping to sell 1000 of them every month, then if you've sold 10,000 by the end of October, then you are on target. I should mention that it seems like you could therefore talk about being off target. However, using this phrase to talk about missing your KPIs and targets is not as common One phrase that is more commonly used in both ways, both positive and negative, is 'on track'. 
So you can be on track to hit your target or on track to beat or maybe exceed your targets. Exceed is a little more formal there. And if things aren't going well, then you can be on track to miss your target. On track to miss your target. 
So, That's a nice, easy phrase that you don't need to change at all and can be used in both directions, in both ways then. In our second example, We heard about another good situation to be in. And that was to be ahead of target. Be ahead of target. In the second example, we heard we're ahead of where we should be. We're ahead of where we should be. As you can probably guess from context, this means that the number that you were hoping to achieve by this stage has already been achieved. To take our example scenario again. Of selling 12,000 units by the end of the year If one of your sales staff makes a big sale and sells 5,000 units by February, then you could definitely say that you were ahead of target. In the same example, we heard the word SMASH. As in, we'll smash our target this month. We'll smash our target this month. That's S-M-A-S-H. Smash. Smash is a really interesting word to hear used discussing statistics and numbers because it usually means destroy something. To destroy something. If you smash a plate in the kitchen, well, you probably dropped it on the floor and it smashed. Eat. Was destroyed and broken into many pieces. We often talk about smashing windows. If you're unlucky enough to have something fly at your window or one of the windows in your house and it is damaged, it is broken, we often say that it is smashed. 
So, when talking about numbers, This is an informal way to talk about exceeding or going over your targets. If you achieve 100% of a target, then you've hit it. Congratulations, you've performed exactly as well as your boss wanted you to. However, if you achieve 160% of your target. Then we could definitely say, that you have smashed your target. You've smashed your target. I feel like this one might be a little more. British English? I know that I've definitely heard Australians and New Zealanders using this one too. Not sure about the United States, but I can definitely tell you that if my managers in the UK were impressed with my performance, then they might tell me that I'd smashed my targets. I should probably set myself some kind of targets for listenership for this podcast. I don't really have a target for that. But maybe I could set myself a target and aim to smash it. Let's go for a more formal one now. And this is going to be the verb: to surpass. That's S-U-R-P-A-S-S, surpass. As in, we surpassed Our Q2 targets. We surpassed our Q2 targets. Which we heard in the third example. Q2 of course, just briefly, standing for Quarter 2, commonly abbreviated to Q2. To pass, as you might be able to guess, given the theme of the second part of this episode of the podcast, means... For things to go better than expected. For your staff to perform. Better than expected. Literally to pass the number that you were hoping to achieve. We often hear people use the word 'surpass' together with 'expectations'. 
So, to surpass expectations. If you hire someone, for instance, and based on their interview, you think that they're going to be really good at their job, But then it turns out that they are much better than you had expected. Then you can say that they surpassed your expectations. They surpassed your expectations. Don't forget that if you want to surpass maybe your colleagues' expectations of your English skills, then maybe you can book some time to work with me. If you'd like to discuss any of the ideas, vocabulary or grammar, etc. In today's episode, then you can book a session to work with me on your English communication skills by going to www.breakoutbusinessenglish.com. That's the title of the podcast, breakoutbusinessenglish.com or clicking the link in the show notes. And use the code PODCAST30, that's PODCAST30, at checkout to get a 30% discount off your first booking. I've worked with over 1,000 non-native English-speaking professionals, from new graduates up to CEOs and government leaders, likely even from some governments that you've heard of. To help them to achieve their goals, and I look forward to meeting you. Between episodes of the podcast, you can get videos every couple of days on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. YouTube is actually where I'm most active these days. Just search for Breakout Business English, or again, you can click on one of the links in the show notes there. If you're interested in seeing the kind of thing that we might do in a one-to-one coaching call, then the YouTube channel is a great place to go to get a flavor of that, to get an idea of what that might be like. You can watch me analyzing the English of people like actor Bruce Lee, or maybe Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian leader, or Giorgio Maloney, the Italian leader. I've analyzed the English skills of all of these people over on the YouTube channel. 
So feel free to go and take a look at that. If there's a topic that you'd like to hear me talk about on the podcast, then I would be excited to hear your ideas. Leave me a message or a comment on one of those YouTube videos, and I look forward to hearing from you. If you're listening on Apple Podcasts, then I invite you to leave a review. Every review really helps me out and helps to push the podcast to new listeners and to grow the show. 
So if you found this podcast useful, and you think there are some valuable things in here, then feel free to write a couple of kind words, or just leave a review with as many stars out of five as you think this podcast is worth, and I thank you in advance. That is another great place to request a topic for a future podcast. That is it for today. Thank you so much for listening as always and for your time. I know how valuable it is and I really appreciate and respect your choice to spend some of your time with this podcast. I hope you have a great week and I'll talk to you again next time on the Breakout Business English Podcast.