A new study reveals the most overused, annoying buzzwords and it is pretty much spot on, in my book (hmm…those phrases didn’t make the list; last year’s list, perhaps?).
Of course, the research process for this could have been much easier than contacting hundreds of companies. All they had to do was have someone pick up the phone and listen to a few management consultants for a couple of minutes. Okay, that list would have been far too long.
Here are the buzzwords voted most annoying (you can find the full article here):
“At the end of the day”
“Solution”
“Thinking outside the box”
“Synergy”
“Paradigm”
“Metrics”
“Take it offline”
“Redeployed people”
“On the runway”
“Win-win”
“Value-added”
“Get on the same page”
“Customer centric”
“Generation X”
“Accountability management”
“Core competency”
“Alignment” “Incremental”
Have any to add?
4 comments:
You can be assured that if a company calls itself a "thought leader," it isn't (same goes for claims re: integrity, innovation, and customized solutions). Buzzwords are the refuge of the incompetent and unread. As Mark Twain said: "It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt."
Along with these, should be included ANY sports metaphor. I just want to leap over the table and choke people who use these in a business setting
E.g.,
"get your head in the game"
"get your game face on"
"skin in the game"
"its 4th and inches"
etc, etc, etc,
Some annoying phrases I'd like to ADD to the list would be:
"Not just THRIVING but SURVIVING"
"Peace of mind"
"Movers and Shakers"
"It's not a problem, it's an opportunity"
Also, play a game called "Buzzword Bingo" here - this is hilarious!
How about "people person", "let's table that for now", "make your mark", "right-sizing", "strategies" and "tactics". I have others, but I can feel my BP rising.
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