Corporate training · online · your working hours

Your team’s English is fine. Saying the difficult thing isn’t.

Most technical teams don’t need more grammar. They need to disagree with a client, push back on a deadline, or deliver bad news — in English, without causing damage. That’s a specific skill, and it’s teachable.

I teach English, the soft skills that sit on top of it, and I coach individuals one to one — so a programme can be about the language, about how your people communicate, or both.

Arrange a call →See the programmes

12+ years teaching English professionallyBA Languages & Linguistics, NottinghamTESOL Cert IV, AICOL Australia350,000 learners on YouTube

The easy yes$600

A 90-minute taster workshop for up to 20 people. Your team judges it for themselves before you commit to anything larger.

The actual problem

It rarely sounds like a language problem.

It sounds like friction. These are the things managers describe to me before we start.

“He’s brilliant, but clients think he’s blunt.”

Directness that reads as rudeness in English

“She goes quiet in meetings with the client.”

Capable people losing their voice in a second language

“Nobody wants to be the one to say the deadline will slip.”

Bad news delivered late, or not at all

“Our emails keep causing misunderstandings.”

Tone that lands differently than intended

Programmes

Courses already built, already taught.

These are not outlines. Every one has been written in full and taught to real teams, and I’m happy to walk you through the actual materials before you decide anything. Each runs as a 90-minute taster, a half-day intensive, or a six-week programme, all online.

For managers

How Mood Travels Through a Team

Mood spreads through a team whether you intend it or not, and language is how it travels. For leads and managers who set the tone every day without realising they are doing it.

Team leads · managers · HR

Most requested

Saying the Hard Thing — for technical teams

Disagreeing with a senior colleague, pushing back on scope, saying “this won’t work” without damage. The exact gap I see in strong technical teams.

Engineers · architects · technical leads

B2 → C1

Saying the Hard Thing — for client-facing teams

The softeners, hedges and repair phrases native speakers use to say hard things gently. The general version, for any team working across cultures.

Client-facing teams · account management

Recruitment

Talk the Talk — The Recruiter’s English

Interviewing, selling a role, and handling candidate conversations in English — where a clumsy phrase costs you the hire.

Recruiters · talent teams

2026

Business English & AI

Using AI to write and communicate better at work — and spotting when it makes you sound like nobody at all. The easiest first course for a mixed-ability team.

Any team · all levels

Soft skills

The Difficult Conversation

Giving feedback that gets acted on, raising a problem before it becomes one, and disagreeing without it turning personal. Delivered in clear English, so it works for a team that doesn’t share a first language.

Managers · leads · anyone who reviews others’ work

One to one

Executive coaching

Individual sessions for a senior person who has to present, negotiate or lead in English. Confidential, built entirely around their situation, and often the fastest thing to change how a whole team communicates.

Founders · senior staff · anyone client-facing

Exam preparation

IELTS for teams relocating

Band-focused preparation for staff who need a score for a visa or a move. I’ve taken students to their target band many hundreds of times.

Relocating staff · visa requirements

Formats and prices

Published, so you can budget without asking.

Prices are per group, not per person. Everything is delivered online, in your team’s working hours.

Taster workshop$60090 minutes · up to 20 people

The easy yes. Your team judges it for themselves before you commit to anything larger.

Half-day intensive$1,2003 hours · up to 15 people

One topic, properly covered, with practice time built in.

Six-week programme$4,2006 × 90 minutes · up to 12 people

Long enough for habits to change. This is where teams actually improve.

Ongoing retainer$1,800/mo4 × 90 minutes monthly · up to 12

Continuous practice for teams who use English every day.

See it, don’t take my word for it

Ninety seconds of the actual teaching.

Most corporate training is bought on a promise. This is a real extract from Saying the Hard Thing — click through and judge it yourself.

The situation

Your engineer is right. The client is furious anyway.

The deadline genuinely cannot be met. Here is what a capable, fluent non-native speaker usually writes:

“This is not possible. The deadline is unrealistic and we cannot do it.”

Every word is correct English. Nothing is rude. And it will still damage the relationship — because in English, being direct about bad news reads as being indifferent to it.

What natives actually do

Three moves, in a fixed order.

Acknowledge the want. “I know how much rides on the March date…”
Hedge the bad news. “…I’m not confident we can hit it safely…”
Offer the next move. “…could we talk through what we drop, or when we ship?”

Notice nobody softened the facts. The deadline still can’t be met. What changed is that the listener now feels like a partner rather than an obstacle.

The same message, rebuilt

Same news. Entirely different outcome.

“I know how much rides on the March date, so I want to flag this early rather than late. I’m not confident we can hit it without cutting corners I don’t think you’d want. Could we talk through what we drop, or when we ship?”

This is the whole skill. It isn’t vocabulary and it isn’t grammar — it’s a repeatable pattern your team can be taught in an afternoon, and it protects deals that fluent English alone does not.

This is what I’d teach your team →

Get in touch

Tell me about your team.

No calendar to wrestle with. Tell me what’s getting in the way and I’ll reply personally, usually within a day.