CareerBuilder has a list of words, that in all honesty, wouldn’t hurt my feeling if I didn’t hear them for quite a while. Unfortunately a lot of them have made their way into my vernacular, however if I’m careful I can avoid saying them outside of work. Very reminiscent of the at-work, on-call favorite, Bullshit Bingo.
My “Top 5” abused buzzword list is:
- At the end of the day – Can also use “bottom line” here, a trite way of wrapping up your thoughts. More common in writing are “In conclusion”, “Finally” and, in plain spoken English, “What I’m saying is”.
- Win-win – Political way of saying “I’ll make you look good if it’ll come out of your budget.”
- Get on the same page – Nice way of saying “You aren’t agreeing with me.”
- Synergy – Similar to #3, “Creating synergies” means using someone else’s budget or aligning goals.
- Low hanging fruit – Quite simply, it means not having to do a lot of work for a quick return.
They are missing the buzzword “All Star” – leverage. A verb, “leverage” simply means to use existing assets, such as budget, sponsorships; could even be an inanimate object like a bus, person or award.
You forgot “mindshare” and “thought leadership.”
You’re right, I did. I could have created a win-win synergy with the original list if I would’ve leveraged my mindshare appropriately at the end of the day. Damnit.