Words Matter
by Norman C. Berns
It's time to get a handle on your bios & resumes, pitches & business plans. Before you write another word, it's smart to check the corporate world’s most despised buzzwords. These words must die if you hope to have your project live.
This list was compiled by CareerBuilder from a questionnaire to 5,000 workers. Some of those people may be getting ready to open your email even as we speak…Perhaps a quick edit is in order.
- Outside the box (31%)
- Low-hanging fruit (24%)
- Synergy (23%) (People still say this?)
- Loop me in (22%)
- Best of breed (19%)
- Incentivize (19%)
- Mission-critical (19 %)
- Bring to the table (18%)
- Value-add (17%)
- Elevator pitch (16%)
- Actionable items (15%)
- Proactive (15%)
- Circle back (13%)
- Bandwith (13%)
- High level (10%)
- Learnings (9%)
- Next steps (6%)
It’s always smart to strip out any kind of jargon before sending anything with your name on it. Plain, jargon-free English makes your materials easier to read (and understand). Or, to put it another way....
Don't think thinking proactively outside the box will incentivize the actionable, high level, mission-critical value-add you hope to bring to the table or add to your elevator speech….
Oops.
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