Let’s Ditch Banal Business Buzzwords in 2023

Every day, we’re hit by a blizzard of business buzzwords, and we drown in a sea of sameness when it comes to industry language. Around the conference table, on Zoom, in emails, when networking, and across the billions of articles and videos we consume, we’re bombarded by the use — or overuse — of cliched terms.

Management buzzwords are often exhausted to the point of parody. And these trite phrases can be misinterpreted, leading to ambiguity and confusion. So cliche becomes the enemy in the battle for effective workplace communication.

Often, managers wrongly assume that everyone knows what they know. And when speaking to people lower down the career rung, they launch into jargon-ridden lingo that can obfuscate to the point of undermining, disempowering or even demeaning team members.

Wouldn’t it be more empathetic and productive for managers to simply tell it like it is, and avoid the metaphoric word soup?

Of course, buzzwords in our business will always have their place. No industry is immune to technical management-speak, which exists as a kind of shorthand that only makes sense to others in the sector.

But drop this jargon into conversation with the average person, and it’s likely to be met with vacant stares.

After all, buzzwords, especially in management, largely evolved as a way to impress. To make you appear smarter and with a better grasp of issues, insights and technical know-how than others in the room. But if buzzwords just become fuzzwords it leads to ambivalence. So switching to simple language can be a better way to influence your peers, clients, and customers.

As we enter a fresh new year, let’s ditch the most banal of buzzwords. Here is our pick:

In the pandemic era, certain terms rose to the top of our shared lexicon, like ‘new normal’. But the world is constantly evolving, that’s life. And ‘new normal’ doesn’t mean much if we accept the natural course of things, and the term just sounds outmoded in 2023.

Or how about ‘authentic’? It seemed like the entire world was searching for its authentic self in 2022, and brands followed suit. So-much-so, this catch-all phrase has been diluted to the point of no return.

‘Agile’ is another contender. In business terms, so many companies can demonstrate agility now, it’s devoid of any real meaning.

‘Purpose’ has been seriously overused, as every business tries to retrofit ‘purposefulness’ into its culture. Of course, new business ideas should always begin with purpose, but it should be used sparingly, when it really counts.

‘Impactful’ is a word uttered so much, it lost any of the impact it once had. And what about ‘solution’ because everything became a solution in recent years, so the solution itself got lost in the lingo swamp.

So next time you want to ‘circle back’ about a ‘blue sky idea’, or ‘iconic’ campaign, take a breath and think about replacing worn-out hackneyed terms with the kind of warm and honest English that conveys how genuine and empathetic you are instead. Your clients will thank you for it.