Business Buzzwords and How to Avoid Them

The workplace has long been an incubator for management catchphrases that produce more eyerolls than inspiration.

What cubicle dweller hasn't experienced a manager issuing maxims like "We don't pay you to think" or "Let's peel the onion"?

Team members have enough on their plates without having to "take a helicopter view" and "think outside the box" on a workplace issue. They just need direct advice on how to do their jobs better—not hackneyed clichés.

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10 Stale Management Phrases That Need to be Junked in ’21
SHRM | Jan 2021

About Business Buzzwords

50 Most Annoying Business Phrases of 2023 Revealed
Inc. | May 2023

Some buzzwords are more egregious than others.
Avoid these 10 ‘cringeworthy’ phrases that are annoying your co-workers
CNBC | Nov 2022

If there's anything corporate America has a knack for, it's inventing new, positive words that polish up old, negative ones. Silicon Valley has recast the chaotic-sounding "break things" and "disruption" as good things. An anxious cash grab is now a "monetization strategy," and if you mess up and need to start over, just call it a "pivot" and press on.
Corporate Buzzwords Are How Workers Pretend to Be Adults
The Atlantic (5 free articles per month) | Feb 2020

We've highlighted 17 common phrases people use in the corporate world, like "move the needle" and "tee it up" — and offered definitions for each.
Do you know what these 17 common workplace buzzwords and phrases really mean?
Business Insider | Aug 2019

Business buzzwords, for good or ill, are a part of corporate life. While some buzzwords are useful at certain times, for example when marketing or selling, others are fillers or just lazy language.
The Ultimate List of Business Buzzwords and Their True Definitions
Bluleadz | Sep 2019

Avoiding Business Buzzwords

Some New Year’s resolutions are more attainable than others. Even at a time when so much is beyond our control, we remain in control of our own speech patterns. And so, as leaders and employees continue to rethink what the modern workplace should look like, including how we gather, perhaps it’s an opportune moment to banish certain phrases from the “meeting-speak” lexicon.
Please Stop Using These Phrases in Meetings
Harvard Business Review | Jan 2022

Overusing business jargon and buzzwords …. undermines your credibility as a leader, makes you sound like a mouthpiece spouting off the equivalent of business advice from a billboard, and just plain makes people not like you.
11 Annoying Business Buzzwords You Use Without Thinking and What to Say Instead
Inc. | Sep 2019

In the old days, the word orientation did this job just fine. But today we don't just want new employees to get their bearings and be able to find their way around the building (ideas implied in the literal meanings of orient), but to be on board—to be ready and able to move onward with the company wherever it may be headed.
8 Ways to Avoid Business Jargon
Merriam Webster

Some people use business jargon to sound important or to inhibit someone else and others use it to impress a client as a way to justify high fees. But many of us fall into the business jargon trap without even realizing we are doing it. With so much industry specialization going on, it is understandable for accidental business jargon to surface from time to time.
Ten Tips on How to Avoid Business Jargon
Flying Solo

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