Jesus Never Fails

St. PAUL PUBLIC SCHOOL – CBSE

SENIOR SECONDARY
SPEAKING PRACTICE
Situation: A seminar on Management is held at the Hilton hotel. Tom and
Ana are among the
many attendants. They try to strike a conversation during break-time.

Tom: Hi, I am Tom.

Ana: I am Ana.

Tom: This is a pretty good seminar so far, huh?

Ana: Yes, I like it. Prentice Hall always delivers good seminars. All of its
speakers are very

well-known and also very knowledgeable in the subject matter. Did you attend
the seminar on

Leadership in Long Beach last January?

Tom: No, I missed that one. Who was the speaker?

Ana: John Miller. He is the author of The Seven Habits of a Good Leader. It
was a great

seminar. John gave us tons of information on how to deal with employees. You
should sign up

for that seminar next year.

Tom: I will. I am very interested in the subject of Leadership. I was promoted to

the position of

Supervisor a few months ago, and I have to manage a staff of ten people. It can
be quite a

difficult situation sometimes. It is the reason why I am here today.

Ana: Same here. I only have seven people reporting to me; yet, sometimes I feel
like pulling my

hair out. I need to find a way to create harmony and cooperation within my
department.
Tom: I also need to learn how to better manage my workload. I always run out
of time. It seems

like the days are getting shorter and shorter.

Ana: You need to sign up for the Learn How To Delegate seminar. It is coming
next month.

Tom: Let’s see whether I will have any free time next month. I know sometime
next month I

will have to go to Texas on a business trip.

Ana: By the way, what is your company doing?

Tom: Oh, we produce office equipment such as calculators and fax machines.
How about yours?

Ana: We are in the service business. We specialize in repairing computers.

Tom: How was business lately?

Ana: It is pretty slow right now. Just like any other company, we are quite
affected by this

slowing economy.

Tom: Business is slow with my company too. However, people are saying that
it should pick up

any time now.

Ana: Let’s hope so. We need to keep our employees busy.

Tom: I have some very talented employees, and I would like to keep their minds
sharp. They

tend to be bored when things slow down, and that is not good.

Ana: Yes, nothing is more frustrating than sitting idle with nothing to do. The
days seem so

long.

Tom: I hate those types of days. Luckily, it is not that bad in our company.
Besides, we are in
the process of updating our computer system, and we can use this slow period to
finish the

process.

Ana: Good for you. Oh, 10:30 AM already. I guess our break-time is over.

Tom: The topic of the next session, How To Make Positive Impression On
Others And Gain

Visibility And Influence In The Workplace, seems to be really interesting. We

better not miss any

part of it. Let’s get back to our seats so that we can learn how to bring out the
best in ourselves as

well as our employees.