50 Things You Must Stop Saying At Work

There are so many phrases you probably hear within your walls at work numerous times a shutterstock_114696421day. Some of them are catchy yet some are extremely overused. It is not that the words and phrases are bad or used incorrectly, but when they are overused people sound pompous. “People want to hear normal language, even in a business setting. Clarity is key. Of course, management jargon can be useful in some cases because it helps us to make a point clearly and succinctly, but more often than not, the words and phrases become so cliched that they lose all meaning,” explained Bernard Marr.

Marr shares 50 words and phrases that you may be using at work and shares some alternatives for them:

  1. Reach Out – Just say call, speak, email etc. Unless you’re physically going to touch someone.
  2. Take off line – Talk about this later.
  3. Shift the goal post – This is just a sports metaphor for saying your goal was out of reach.
  4. Utilize – use!
  5. Elephant in the room – Unless it’s an actual elephant, this is pretty cliché.
  6. World-class – Has little to no actual meaning.
  7. Let’s run this up the flagpole – Get feedback.
  8. Socialize documents – Are you taking them to a cocktail party?
  9. Seamless – Unless you’re a clothing manufacturer, no.
  10. Get our ducks in the row – Organize.
  11. Monetize – Frankly, everything in business is “monetized,” so why do we need to talk about it?
  12. Workable Solution – As opposed to the non-workable ones.
  13. Engage – Be more specific here: show up, pay attention, comment, like, etc.
  14. Value-add – Everything you do should have value. Period.
  15. Transformational Change – What other kind of change is there?
  16. Circle back around – follow up
  17. Leverage – Usually has to do with making more money with less work.
  18. To be fair – Usually means you’re not going to be.
  19. Let’s re-group – Start over.
  20. OMG, LOL. – Never appropriate for business.
  21. It is what it is – So why are we talking about it?
  22. All Hands on Deck – Not unless you work on a ship.
  23. Apples-to-apples – Direct comparison.
  24. Actionable – Usually redundant. Do we want anything that isn’t actionable?
  25. Bad Guy – Usually from a boss who actually is the bad guy.
  26. Game changer – Almost never actually is.
  27. Low hanging fruit – It’s much easier to say ‘easy.’
  28. Accelerate – Hurry up.
  29. Crystallize – Make something clear.
  30. Bandwidth – Attention, time, etc.
  31. Beat the Street – If you’ve got a nickname for Wall Street, we don’t really want to talk to you.
  32. Thought-leadership – An example of, “if you are one, you don’t have to talk about it.”
  33. Bring to the Table – Show up and contribute.
  34. All-in Effort – As opposed to the half-arsed effort?
  35. Synergy – Something CEO types LOVE to say.
  36. Bull by the Horns – Only relevant to cowboys.
  37. Button-up – Finish.
  38. Sustainable – So often used as to be practically meaningless.
  39. Capabilities – What we do.
  40. Customer-centric – When you actually are, you don’t have to talk about it much.
  41. Downsize – Let’s just call a duck a duck, shall we?
  42. Elevator Pitch – Have you ever had the opportunity to pitch something in an elevator? I’m just curious.
  43. Face Time – This is an Apple product, not a management strategy.
  44. Incentivize – If you have to incentivize something, it’s probably incredibly boring and awful.
  45. Ninja – Unless you carry a sword, you’re not one.
  46. Par for the Course – Just makes me think of people in funny golf hats.
  47. Paradigm Shift – Change
  48. Strategic Partner – Hopefully all your partners are strategic. You’re not just choosing partners willy-nilly, are you?
  49. Proactive – Take action.
  50. Outside the Box – Should be outside your vocabulary.

Which phrase do you use the most?

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/article/20141020052253-64875646-50-things-you-must-stop-saying-at-work?trk=tod-posts-post1-ptlt