🔥 Warm-Up (5 minutes)
- Think of a leader you admire. What makes their communication style effective when they have to deliver difficult news or motivate a team?
- In your experience, what separates a strong executive memo or town-hall address from a forgettable one?
📖 Key Vocabulary
| English | Type | Example Sentence |
|---|---|---|
| mandate | n. | The newly appointed director was given a clear mandate to overhaul the supply chain within eighteen months. |
| delegate | v. | Effective executives delegate routine decisions so they can focus on long-term strategy. |
| spearhead | v. | She was chosen to spearhead the company's expansion into Southeast Asian markets. |
| succession | n. | The board finally approved a formal succession plan after the CEO's abrupt resignation. |
| galvanize | v. | His town-hall address managed to galvanize employees who had grown skeptical of the merger. |
| contingency | n. | Prudent leaders draft a contingency plan for every major product launch. |
| accountable | adj. | Under the new policy, department heads are held directly accountable for missed targets. |
| consensus | n. | It took three lengthy meetings before the executive team reached a consensus on the restructuring. |
| entrenched | adj. | Breaking down entrenched resistance to change requires more than a single memo. |
| candor | n. | Employees praised the CEO's candor when she addressed the layoffs directly rather than through vague corporate language. |
🧠 Grammar / Strategy Focus
When a sentence opens with a negative or restrictive adverbial such as 'Not only,' 'Rarely,' 'Under no circumstances,' 'No sooner...than,' or 'Only after/once,' the subject and auxiliary verb invert, just as in a question. This construction appears frequently in formal business writing and executive speeches because it lends emphasis and a more authoritative register than standard word order. For example: 'Not only did the CEO cut costs, but she also expanded the R&D budget.' When no auxiliary is already present, 'do/does/did' must be inserted to permit the inversion, as in 'Rarely does a single memo change company culture overnight.'
✏️ Part 5 Practice
Incomplete Sentences
📝 Part 6 Practice
Text Completion (Subject: Interim Leadership Transition – Operations Division)
Following Mr. Alvarez's decision to step down as Head of Operations effective September 30, the executive committee has (1) a rigorous review of internal candidates to ensure a seamless transition.
It is essential that the incoming director (2) fully briefed on the restructuring initiative before assuming full authority, given the scale of the changes already underway.
Not only will the new director inherit responsibility for the regional supply chain, (3) she will also be expected to spearhead the digitization roadmap approved by the board last quarter.
Employees with questions regarding reporting lines (4) direct them to Human Resources rather than to individual managers, so that the transition proceeds without unnecessary disruption.
📰 Part 7 Practice
Reading Comprehension
At Monday's town hall, Meridian Technologies' chief executive, Laura Okafor, addressed the widespread speculation that has circulated among staff since the abrupt departure of the company's longtime chief financial officer. Rather than dismiss the rumors outright, Okafor acknowledged that the leadership vacuum had left several strategic initiatives in limbo, and she conceded that the board had, until recently, lacked a clear succession framework for filling such gaps. She was candid in admitting that the company's rapid expansion over the past three years had outpaced its efforts to cultivate a bench of internal candidates capable of stepping into senior roles at short notice.
Okafor went on to outline a newly ratified governance policy under which every vice president will be required to nominate and mentor at least one potential successor, insofar as departmental resources allow. Employees who have demonstrated cross-functional expertise, she noted, will be given priority consideration for an accelerated leadership-development track, provided that they commit to a minimum eighteen-month rotation across at least two divisions. Only once this framework has been fully implemented, Okafor stressed, will the company be in a position to weather future executive departures without the operational disruption that characterized the past quarter.
🎧 Listening Practice
Conversation (Part 3 style)
Teacher: read the script aloud twice (or record it) at natural speed, then ask students the questions below.
Man: Have you had a chance to look at the reorganization memo Priya sent out? I have to admit, I wasn't expecting her to hand off the vendor negotiations to Daniel so soon.
Woman: Honestly, neither was I, but given how swamped she's been with the succession review, it makes sense she'd want someone else spearheading that account.
Man: I suppose so. Still, I can't help wondering whether Daniel's really up to speed on the contract terms — he's only been with the division a few months.
Woman: That's a fair concern, but from what I gather, she's had him shadowing the legal team on every call since March, so it's not as though he's walking in blind.
Man: Fair enough. I just hope she's briefed him on how sensitive the client has been about the delivery timelines.
Woman: She has — in fact, that was the first thing she flagged when she looped me in on the handover.