BE 420: Don't Miss the Mark on Business Relationships
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This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 420. Don't miss the mark on business relationships.

Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English. Get the English skills you need to achieve your dreams in global business. For a presentation, a meeting, or your office party, this is Real Business English with your favorite American hosts, Lindsay and Michelle, coming to you from New York City and Colorado, USA.

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Hello, Lindsay. How are you? Doing great, Michelle. How's everything going in your world today? Everything's good. The sun is shining. Weather is finally getting good, so I'm happy. Although yesterday I went outside and after wishing for warm weather, I went outside yesterday and I said, this is too hot. Yeah. Like, no.

Like, no, no. Yeah. Yeah. That's okay. That's okay. Um, but I have a question for you, Lindsay. Have you ever been way off base about something? Yeah. I mean, speaking of weather and being way off base, the weather people. Yeah. I went to, yeah, I was, I didn't, so I had been inside all day and I didn't realize it was like 70 degrees out. So I, I'm getting ready for orange theory and I put on my, my jacket, like my winter coat.

I don't know. Totally just busy and distracted. Like, oh, it must be cold out. Throw my winter coat and I start walking two blocks. I'm like, oh, I'm really hot. I do not need a coat. Yeah.

Did you go back? No, I just had to keep going and take off the coat. It was a big mess. So I was way off base assuming that it was still cold because it was actually a very warm spring day. Right. And that makes me think of like the, you know, meteorologists. There's a lot of times when they're kind of off base. Yeah.

Yes. Remember when you were a kid and they were predicting a big snowstorm and it ended up being like a dusting? A dud. Yeah. A dud or a dusting. Yeah. So disappointing. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So today we're going to talk about this expression off base because we have a great listener question about it. So this is going to be a good one. Lindsay, could you read the question for us?

Yes, this is from YouTube. Don't forget, guys, we do have for All Ears English, we have a YouTube channel. So go over to YouTube and type in All Ears English and you'll find all the episodes from that podcast on YouTube. So this is from Omid Zakari 7393.

And he says, hi, Lindsay and Aubrey and Michelle. First of all, thanks so much for your amazing podcast. I'm a big fan of your podcast and they're so useful and practical. Well, that's good. Thanks for listening. Yeah. Thank you. I have a question for you. I was wondering if you could tell me the meaning of off base. In which situations can we use this idiom? Thank you in advance. Omid from Iran.

Nice. With lots of hearts and smiley faces. So thank you so much. This is a great question. We appreciate it. And we appreciate you listening. So guys, before we get into this question, remember to hit the follow button wherever you're listening to the Business English podcast. Let the episodes come right to you. So go and hit the follow button. Yes. And let's get back into off basics.

Off-base. So in its most basic form, Michelle, what does it mean, off-base? It kind of means wrong. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. So it's that maybe somebody made a wrong assumption, their perception of something is wrong, what they think is wrong. So let's do some examples. Yeah. Here we go. I know you're trying to help, but your handling of the situation was way off-base.

Yeah. So yeah. And a lot of times we do say way off base, right? Way off base. When something is more extreme. Yeah. I like that you said assumptions. So sometimes we do make assumptions. We analyze or interpret a situation in a way that's totally wrong. And then we take action based on those incorrect assumptions. Right. Yes. Yeah. So here's another example.

I don't think I'm off base when I say our company morale has gone downhill. Yes. Good. All right. And so we can say... What else, Michelle? What do we need to know here? Yeah. So you can say something's off base or something is not off base. Right? So do you say...

Actually, good question. Not really, do we? Not really. I would hear it more as, oh, I'm not off base or I don't think I'm off base. But I don't really hear, oh, I'm on base. Yeah. I guess this comes back to baseball, doesn't it? Yeah. Everything comes back to baseball in the end. It feels like. Yeah, it's true. There is no on base though. No, we really don't say it. And I agree with you, Michelle. You

You could say, oh, you're not far off. You say you're not far off base or you're not really off base, meaning you are pretty much correct. We don't say you're on base because that would mean you're playing a baseball game. Yeah.

Right. Right. Exactly. So, I mean, what do you think about this to say off base? Is that something that comes up in your conversation? It does. I think it's good. I think it's useful. It could be a little harsh when you do say that someone or something is off base, but I think it adds clarity. It's direct. I think it's pretty direct.

Right, right, right. Exactly. Yeah. I mean, it's saying that something is not quite close. Something is wrong. Like in baseball, you're not on base. You need to be on base. Otherwise, you're going to get out. And it's important to have trusted colleagues that can tell us this.

If we are just in our own little echo chambers of consuming some kind of whatever media we're consuming or just stewing in our own thoughts, we could actually interpret a situation completely incorrectly. You know, so it's important to have people chime in and let us know, hey, am I on base here? Oh, I just said, am I on base here? Maybe we do use it, Michelle. It may be in a questionnaire.

Am I on base here? Do you say that or is just, am I saying this? Am I just making this up? I don't think I say it, but that doesn't mean that you couldn't. Okay. So maybe we will have to take out our advice of to say, to not say on base. I don't know. I would say you don't generally say I'm on base, but maybe you, you could ask it. Maybe you would say, Oh, am I on base or am I, you know, but to me it still sounds a little bit awkward. Yeah. I say I,

I would say the safest, yeah, there could be exceptions, but I would say generally go with saying to be not off base or yeah. Love it. Love it. And is it usually when someone does something accidentally, Michelle? I mean, what does that have to do with it? I mean, it could be, it could be an accident, right? Somebody does something on accident or it could be on purpose or just somebody who makes an estimate that's off base or, you know, maybe they even have a reaction where you say, oh, that was bad.

really off base, right? It was, it was not appropriate. So it's just kind of, yes. So you're not in the ballpark, right? You're not in the place. You're not, you're not estimating things in the right level or you're not interpreting a situation in the right way. You're kind of not calibrated with what's actually happening is what we're saying. Yes. Yes.

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Okay, Michelle, what are some other ways we might say this? All right. I love this one. Misguided. It's kind of snide, but it's good. So once I think it's kind of a nice way to like, it's kind of a euphemism. I remember hearing this on the news for the N1s.

And I was like, that's a really nice way to say someone's not that smart about something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that's true. That's true. That's true. Maybe you're talking about politics, for example, right? Misguided. I think you're a bit misguided here. Our company has never changed our policy on this. Yes. Yeah. Misinformed, maybe. It is kind of a euphemism of saying you're doing something silly. Yeah, right.

or way off right so i'm sorry but i think you're way off here we should hand out the pamphlets before they enter the room oh that's very strong for that kind of scenario though right right for me i feel like i feel like way off would be kind of dramatic in in kind of an argument almost that's true that's a good point lindsay it's not just like oh oh the the

the pen should be over here, not over there. You're way off. Like that's a lot. But you know, you, when you get on these committees and things, you, you know, or boards, people get very heated on when the pamphlets will be handed out. No, that, that is true. I mean, that makes me think I even like, uh, you know, like HOA. Oh yeah. Right. Like, and getting caught up in the details and getting an argument. I've never been involved in any kind of HOA, but I've heard they get very dramatic. Yeah.

So I hope I never am involved with that. I try and stay away. I try and stay away. But sometimes I've like, yeah, in my in my condo, I would hear about, you know, different HOA drama. But I always kind of just try. It's not good. It's better to pay attention, I think, because it's important. Right. But yeah, a lot.

Yeah, for sure. So I think just to reinterpret that. So here we're making a decision about when we're going to hand out the pamphlets. It would be very strong. But if you're already in a heated argument, you might unleash this, right? You might say, I'm sorry, but you're way off here. The pamphlets need to be handed out after they leave the room or something like that. Right, right. Everything's heated already, probably. So...

- Or the next one is to miss the mark or to be off the mark. - For example, I think we missed the mark on this presentation. Let's consider how we can improve for next time. Yeah, and I like this one. This one is a little more benign kind of. We just slightly miscalculated something. Maybe we priced our product incorrectly. We missed the mark on the pricing here. We overpriced this.

Right. This one is a little bit, it's a little smooth, like more of a smooth, nice sound, right? Rather than way off. You're way off, right? Miss the mark is a little bit nicer sound. Yeah. Those are like polar opposites in a way in terms of how aggressive we're being. Yes. Yeah. But I mean, sometimes, I mean, you have to think about it. Sometimes it's necessary to be very direct in business, but direct and is it, and, and

it's not the same thing as being nice or not nice, right? You know? Yes. So it's hard because these some of these are very direct, but you can pad them depending on the circumstances. Yes, I love that. Do you have a favorite of these, Michelle, one that you tend to use more often? Well, I think misguided is my favorite. Yeah, I don't. Yeah, I don't use it.

really. But, but I, I, it always kind of makes me chuckle because the first time I really, uh, I paid attention to that word was in a, like a political situation. Politics. And it, and it, it just kind of makes me laugh. Um, just because I remember thinking that person does not mean to say misguided. That is a euphemism. That's a euphemism. Well, these days, right with, with media or,

like I said, our echo chambers, we're consuming different news, you know, Fox News and New York Times, very different stories of what's going on. And this is happening all over the world, right? Yeah. So from one side, from the other might really truly see the person as misguided, you're misinformed, right? So it's just kind of fun to learn euphemisms so we can deploy them when we feel like it's right.

And then of course, always trying to build that connection, but sometimes we want to drop something like this. Right. Exactly. All right. Should we do a role play? Yes. So here, Michelle, we are reviewing a meeting that didn't go so well. Okay. All right. All right. So I think part of the issue was our lack of practice. We should put more time into it next time. I totally agree. You're not off base at all. We missed the mark.

Yeah, I mean, maybe no technology next time.

I think that's a bit misguided. It wasn't the tech issues. That's true, but I'm not way off in thinking that. It did cause problems. True. Okay, interesting. So here I did use misguided, but is it always a euphemism for, you know, you're being stupid? Not really, because I don't think I would say that to my colleague that I'm planning a meeting with. Right, right. It is...

I don't know. It's funny because it sounds like a very nice, proper word, but I do think there is some undertone to it of just, oh, you don't know what you're talking about. Yeah. You know what I mean? I don't know. I mean, I think we wouldn't tend to say it directly to someone. We might say, oh, those people are voting in a very misguided way. They are misguided. Or the meeting was organized in a misguided way.

But if I want to, let's see. Yeah. I mean, I might say this directly to a colleague if I have a lot of trust built, but it's a little dangerous. That's a bit misguided. That's a very good point. I mean, I think a more benign way would just be, I'm not sure I agree. Right. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. So guys, be careful with misguided. Maybe you save that for when you're talking about something. I mean, yeah, that is.

It's funny. You wouldn't think it by the sound of the word, but it can be the most painful one to hear. That's really interesting. Maybe we should do another episode, Michelle, on All Ears English podcast about these kind of euphemisms a bit that mean something more. They have a lot behind them. There's like a lot there.

that we don't take the word at face value, right? That would be a cool episode. Yep. So guys hit follow on All Ears English, open your search bar, search for All Ears English podcast and hit the follow button. All right. Yes. So what else, Michelle? What did we go through all of them or do we miss one here? Oh,

no we didn't go through the role play uh yeah other than yeah yeah so you're not off base uh we said i totally agree you're not off base at all we missed the mark meaning and we like that one i like that one i think that was is good because it implies we need to make some iterative changes right iterative changes we can iterate

Okay. And then you said, I think that's a bit misguided, which we already talked about. But then I said, that's true, but I'm not way off in thinking that. So again, you could say way off, but I'm saying I'm not way off. I'm saying, you know, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm onto something.

I love it. Good. All right. Good stuff. So you're going to find yourself having these meetings a lot, recapping how a presentation went, how a meeting went. Maybe you planned a conference with someone and these are good phrases to use to improve for next time. Right.

Perfect. Yes. Check out episode 409. That was why you should not tell someone to stay in their lane. I think you did that with Aubrey. Very good topic. Yeah, really good one. Michelle, what is our takeaway for today?

Yeah, I mean, these are so helpful for many different areas of business or outside of business. But, you know, we want to be thoughtful and consider how we sound when we use these. So they can be very useful, but consider if you're going to

you know, maybe be hurtful or if it's necessary or if there's something else that you could say. But most of these I would say are fairly benign. Yeah, exactly. Remember our philosophy here is it's all about building connection and relationships at work. That will get you the furthest. It's not perfect grammar, right? It's not perfect vocabulary. It's building relationships. So these are key building blocks of building those relationships.

All right. Excellent. Michelle, you have a good day and I'll see you back here very soon. All right. Bye. Bye, Lindsay. Bye. Bye.

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