Leaders Letter 187 - The Corporate Buzzword Bingo Card 2024
Use In Away Days, Management Meetings & To Sound Part Of The Leadership In-crowd
Dear leaders, what are the buzzwords you hate being said every day in meetings, used around the office, on Slack or Teams and stuffed into your emails?
I bet I have them for you in the 2024 update to my annual buzzword bingo card.
It’s a playful and the most popular post every year. Over the last two years, both 2022 and 2023 have been the most searched on social for and shared posts on the Focus Blog.
The 2024 Corporate Buzzword Bingo Card
What Words Are In and What Words Are Out
IN
Authentic - most likely the phrase you will have heard from Marketing, then across LinkedIn and now has become a mainstay across the board and senior leadership and becoming commonplace across the business
Convictions - A word many use to justify decisions and insert into speeches and all company emails. Expect convictions to be used thousands of times by the CEO/founder and across the business (likely in connection to the vision and mission being refreshed and to try and inspire when the first performance dip of 2024)
Return to the office - mandate — mandate was the most hated work last year and it won’t go away this year. Expect ‘mandate’ to be used in other situations and
OUT
Economic Headwinds - despite everyone going to experience headwinds, I expect the phase to be replaced and removed from most boardrooms
RTO - RTO went out as the mandates came in and as discussed in last week’s newsletter the battle for hybrid and mandate is heating up
Microeconomics - micro is out, macro stays, expect microeconomics is to be said less and referenced less and bigger themes replace it
An important note between the humour, and buzzwords often alienates those who don’t understand them or aren’t taken through the significance of these buzzwords, as a leader you should help your team members understand the importance and consider providing them a chance to use where they are applicable.
This week’s focus action is to share across your leadership team and have a bit of fun with these and maybe have a laugh at who uses the most, even circle back to them when you are under the bonnet.
» Hit reply and let me know which are your favourites or which are your pet hates.
Have a great week and I’ll see you next week.
Thanks,
Danny Denhard