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Your manager speaks to you. Nervousness spreads throughout your body because you recognize all the individual words, but don’t know the meaning of the entire phrase. He is looking at you expectantly, waiting for your reply, but all you can manage to say is a confused, “Excuse me?” Has this happened to you? Business slang and idioms in the workplace can leave you perplexed, but this short guide teaches some commonly spoken phrases and provides several appropriate ways to respond.

Please get me up to speed.

This phrase is your cue to explain what has been taking place with the project. Basically, it means, “Please update me on what’s going on.” The speaker wants to know what has been happening as well as its current status to gain a better understanding. If someone says this after entering a meeting a little late, then you should summarize what has been discussed thus far.

Please keep me posted.

No, he doesn’t want you to post him through the mail. The speaker is expressing that he wants to receive regular updates from you about the status of the project, but probably not through the post as this phrase once indicated. Telling him in person or via email will probably suffice. In response, if he is just referring to the ongoing status of a project, you may want to say, “Ok. I’ll keep you updated.” Alternatively, if he is waiting for some specific information, i.e., a response from a client, you may say, “Ok. I’ll let you know when we hear something.”

Take it and run with it.

You’ve just spoken to your boss about a great idea you’ve had, and he tells you to “take it and run with it”. ‘Run where?’ you think. No, your boss doesn’t think your idea was so bad that you need to run far away with it, and never return. Instead, he thinks the idea is good. He wants you to act on it and be creative in implementing it. He is complimenting your idea and giving you the freedom to make it happen. One way to respond is to say, “Thanks! I’m on it!”

Can you get the ball rolling for us?

First consider a rolling ball. It’s rolling a long quite nicely and smoothly. However, someone initially had to be the one to push or roll the ball to get it started. Your boss is asking you to do just that – to get a project started. He’s not asking you to do the entire project by yourself, but instead is indicating that once you take the initial steps, then other people can join in to help you. The best way to respond is, “Sure. I’ll get started right away.”

Don’t drop the ball on this one.

Here’s another reference to “the ball.” If you think of the ball as the project itself, to drop it would mean that you made a mistake or caused the project to fail. With this comment, the speaker is stressing the importance of the project by basically saying, “Don’t do anything wrong. Be very careful.” At this point, you should be reassuring. You can say, “Don’t worry, I’ve got it under control.” or “Don’t worry, you can count on me.”