OVERVIEW & OBJECTIVES

This Business English lesson plan on career growth and workplace traits offers engaging activities, PDF worksheets, and digital materials designed for advanced C1 students. In this lesson, students will:

• Discuss professional traits, workplace reputation, and feedback at work.
• Explore vocabulary for personal perceptions, career growth, and job fit.
• Watch a video about how Carla Harris shaped how others perceived her.
• Practice phrases for career growth, feedback, and professional identity.
• Complete a perception test about traits, role fit, and future career moves.

PREVIEW & DISCUSSION

Students begin this lesson on career growth and workplace traits by looking at five job roles: a food safety inspector, a film editor, an event coordinator, an aviation mechanic, and a senior client advisor at a large firm. They discuss what traits might be most valued in these roles, what someone could do to build a strong reputation, and which role might suit them best or worst based on their own personal or professional traits.

In the next part, students discuss statements about personal perceptions at work. They decide whether they agree, disagree, or partially agree with ideas about doing good work, how others perceive us, responsibility for correcting wrong impressions, control over workplace perception, and difficult feedback. The bonus discussion asks students whether it would be harder to receive critical feedback about their personality or attitude at work, or about their actual work performance.

VIEWING ACTIVITY

Students watch a video clip in which Wall Street executive Carla Harris explains how professional perception can shape career growth. She shares a personal story about being told she was not "tough enough" and explains why professionals should choose three adjectives they want to be known for at work. The video also explores how those adjectives should match both the role and the person.

Before they watch, students discuss why someone's professional self-image might be different from the way colleagues or managers see them. After that, they answer short questions about the most important lesson Carla learned, the personal story she tells, and how she responded to the feedback she received.

Students then listen for the words Carla uses when she explains her advice about choosing three adjectives that define you. They complete statements about the traits valued in her earlier role, the traits valued later as a managing director, and the importance of choosing adjectives that are consistent with who you really are.

In the final part of the viewing activity, students write examples Carla mentions for descriptors of a senior leader and the type of behavior that aligns with those traits. They identify ideas such as being a strategic thinker, being a visionary, being respected in the industry, and behaving in ways that make those descriptors credible.

VIEWING FOLLOW-UP

Students discuss follow-up questions about the video and Carla's story. They consider what the director may have meant when he said Carla was not "tough enough", whether her response was smart career management or a form of changing herself, and whether people sometimes play a role at work. They also discuss what being "tough" might mean in their own role or field and how much effort they put into shaping their professional image or reputation.

Students then complete a reflection from Mel, a wildfire-risk analyst who is doing a task for a professional development course about career growth. The activity focuses on phrases for professional identity, feedback, career movement, and role fit, including "be sought after", "showcase", "be cut out for", "serve as a wake-up call", "fall into place", and "carry over".

YOUR PROFESSIONAL PERCEPTION TEST: HOW ARE YOU SEEN AT WORK?

Students complete a professional perception test based on their current job role, studies, or a role they might like to have in the future. They write traits that genuinely describe them in Circle A, traits that are valued in that role or field in Circle B, and traits that fit both categories in the center of the diagram.

After completing the diagram, students work with a classmate or teacher and share the traits they wrote in circles A, B, and C. They then discuss topics about real-life examples that showcase their traits, traits that are sought after in their role or field, whether they feel cut out for their current role, feedback or work experiences that served as a wake-up call, what would need to fall into place for them to move up the career ladder, and which traits or skills would carry over well to a different role.

BENEFITS OF USING THIS WORKPLACE PERCEPTION ESL LESSON

• Helps C1 students discuss career growth through a realistic workplace topic.
• Builds useful language for feedback, reputation, and professional identity.
• Connects listening comprehension with meaningful discussion about work.
• Gives teachers a clear video-based lesson for advanced Business English classes.
• Ends with a personal activation task that fits many job roles and fields.