Follow the Leader

When you read marketing materials, you find that many companies claim to be "leading providers" of something or other. This phrase spans all industries. Here's a quick sampling gathered from the Internet:

• "MetLife is a leading provider of insurance and other financial services to millions of individual and institutional customers."
• "Targus Group - Leading Provider of Laptop Cases, Bags and Accessories"
• "DaVita, Inc., a Fortune 500 company, is a leading provider of kidney care in the United States."

Most often companies claim to be a leading provider, not the leading provider. After all, a company purporting to be the leading provider of a market would need to support the assertion with factual data, such as the highest sales numbers.

Even true leaders seem to trot out this lazy claim without a second thought. There are 24 million Google results for "leading provider." With all those leaders, who's following?

More importantly, do consumers ever respond do this stuffy wording? Does anyone consciously or unconsciously gravitate to the products or services of self-appointed leading providers? It's not likely.

In the first example, if MetLife were looking for a quick solution for getting around the phrase, it could replace "is a leading provider of" with the word "provides" all by itself:

• "MetLife provides insurance and other financial services to millions of individual and institutional customers."

By making the change, the company would:

• Replace a weak linking verb ("is") with a strong active verb ("provides")
• Improve concision by eliminating four words
• Avoid tired phrasing that doesn't resonate
• Communicate more directly

Now that sounds more like a leader.

Results-Oriented Problem Solvers

At the end of 2010, the business social networking site LinkedIn released the top "overused buzzwords" found in users' profiles that year. For the U.S., they are:

1. Extensive experience
2. Innovative
3. Motivated
4. Results-oriented
5. Dynamic
6. Proven track record
7. Team player
8. Fast-paced
9. Problem solver
10. Entrepreneurial

Is there a problem with using these buzzwords? If everyone professes to be "innovative" and "motivated," the terms lose their impact. People combing through profiles will gloss over excessively used phrases while seeking traits that stand out from the pack.

The worth of these words can be rescued often if they're followed by evidence that shows they're not empty placeholders. "Problem solvers" could point to problems they have solved, and the "results-oriented" could discuss results achieved.

So on behalf of all the motivated and results-oriented team players out there with extensive entrepreneurial experience and proven track records, let's be innovative problem solvers in this dynamic and fast-paced world.

(Just seeing if I could fit them all into one sentence.)

Banishing the Buzz

Unsuck It, a new buzzword dictionary making some buzz on the Internet, claims to "unsuck" pretentious business jargon into normal English. The online lexicon contains some apt entries of inflated buzzwords that indeed need to have hot air sucked out.

For example, a team player is translated as "helpful employee," a go-forward plan is just a "plan," and the word synergy is unsucked to mean simply "working together." Computer jockeys who self-importantly claim to be ninjas, rockstars, or wizards are demoted to "adequate programmers." The list contains some new-fangled terms that I hadn't known existed, including timebox, upskill, and adverteasing. Other terms that I had heard before, but perhaps wish I hadn't, are mindshare, ping me, and ideation.

At the same time, Unsuck It doesn't always hit its target. Skin a cat, drop the ball, and drink the Kool-Aid are unsucked on the site, but they are perfectly ordinary English idioms. And I wouldn't consider brainstorm or ubiquitous to be buzzwords. They’re just words.

Still, the greater cause of Unsuck It, to discourage the use of inflated jargon, should be supported. Ironically, if the website becomes popular, unsuck may end up becoming a buzzword that itself needs unsucking.

Contribute Your Comments

What business jargon drives you crazy? What buzzwords should be banished?