Each week, Dr Kirstin Ferguson tackles questions on the workplace, career and leadership in her advice column “ Got a Minute? ” This week: circling back on corporate speak, rants from an ultra-conservative boss and a confusing back pay. Having trouble finding the bandwidth to circle back with the boss who speaks in corporate riddles? You’re not alone. Credit: Dionne Gain I recently started a new role in a consulting firm after 20 years in a different corporate field.
My new manager has an unfortunate tendency to over-use corporate speak, which confuses me and our clients. Do I mirror his language to ingratiate myself with him, or do maintain my pledge to speak in plain English at work, and risk him thinking I am a simpleton? Loading Speak plainly. Say what you mean, be understood clearly by those you work with, and never, I repeat, never, use corporate speak like you are playing a game of buzzword bingo.
Far from you sounding like a simpleton, I assure you the smartest people in the room speak so that others understand what they are saying. I am going to go out on a limb and suggest your manager may be feeling insecure about how little he actually knows and the corporate speak is a way for him to try and appear smarter than he is. Little does he realise it just makes him sound like a muppet, and more than that, makes him ineffective.
If clients and employees have no idea what he is talking about he isn’t doing well as a manager anyway. So, to repeat, stick to plain En.
