ideas
50 office-speak phrases you love to hate
Management speak - don't you just hate it? Emphatically yes! The response says it all. A UK survey about those slick and supposedly high impact phrases we hear bandied around the office on a daily basis highlights our irritation. Whilst Australians are notorious users of slang and abbreviations, we tend not respond to clichés or pretentious jargon. In true tall poppy tradition, we cringe when we hear colleagues or leaders attempting to elevate themselves through overuse of phrases best left to the cast of The Office! It’s not that we don’t respect an expert, we just respect it more when it is communicated clearly and with impact.
Picture the team shuffling into the boardroom for the Monday morning “pre planning session”. Is there any other kind of planning? In true form, the manager starts the meeting with a rousing introduction, “Over the coming weeks” I will be “cascading down information” so that “we can get all our ducks in line”. For some of us these flashy phrases are all too familiar; we grimace every time we are asked to “keep our eye on the prize” and “not let the grass grow too long on this one”. This language has little impact and more often than not destroys credibility faster than you can say “360 degree focus”.
The intention may be to add colour and life to the often dull and uninspired way we communicate but let’s face facts, being told we need to become “product evangelists” or “platform atheists” in order to sell more is not the way to go. Sure, we love a passionate speaker who makes the effort to bring the subject to life… but how do we do this?
Here are some tips to engage and inspire your audience:
° Adapt the content and structure to the preference of the listener
° Communicate ‘the so what?’ for your audience
° Don’t overload; leave them wanting more
° Use questions to stimulate interest
° Minimise ‘fillers’, ‘qualifiers’ and ‘diluters’
° Keep sentences short and crisp
° Pause to separate concepts and points
° Anticipate concerns; ‘you may be thinking…’
° Signpost your statements to get them interested, ‘first…’
° Keep hands visible
° Forward, strong posture
° Above all else be genuine!
Click here to read the full article and see how many phrases you’ve encountered!