Twenty business clichés that should be banned

When you are marketing your business, your style of writing can make a big difference in the way you come across and how you appeal to your audience.

It’s important to be professional and express yourself in a clear and concise manner. Unfortunately some business writers confuse business professionalism with business clichés and this can be detrimental if you want to be taken seriously. A piece of text that is full of business jargon can appear trite and meaningless and it runs the risk of among other things, confusing your audience and diluting your message.

Many of us are guilty of throwing in the occasional piece of jargon either because we can’t think of any other way to say something or as a way to try to connect with an audience we believe speaks the same language. Unfortunately much of business jargon these days has been so overused it has passed into cliché and is best avoided.

As a marketer I read through a lot of material, which has been produced by businesses, and often the same clichés appear over again. Here are the twenty main offenders I’ve found over the years – use them at your own risk!

1. Mission critical (try ‘critical’)
2. On the same page (try ‘in agreement,’)
3. At the end of the day (just delete it)
4. Leverage (as a verb – too wordy, most often you can just remove it)
5. Empower (try ‘assign responsibility’ or ‘authorise’ – unless you are discussing marginalised minority groups)
6. Drink the Kool-Aid (what do you actually mean by this?)
7. Move the needle (try ‘get results’)
8. Knowledge transfer (try ‘teach’)
9. Key takeaways (try ‘important points’)
10. Incentivise (try ‘motivate’)
11. Synergy (overused – try something else like ‘collaborate’ instead)
12. Cutting edge (often used to describe technology or developments, which are exactly the opposite. Use with caution!)
13. Innovative (see cutting edge)
14. Soup to nuts (try ‘complete’)
15. Raise the bar (try ‘setting higher standards’)
16. Outside the box (try ‘creative’)
17. Paradigm shift (nobody really knows what this means, try ‘change’ instead)
18. Push the envelope (try ‘expand the boundaries’)
19. Low hanging fruit (try ‘easy opportunities’)
20. Holistic (try ‘complete’)

If you are tempted to use a piece of jargon when you’re writing your next piece of business communication, stop and consider what it is that you are really trying to say. Chances are you could more effectively express yourself if you just get straight to the point in plain English. The more that business jargon is overused in conversation and written communication, the less credible it seems. Using too many business clichés can make you look insincere and runs the risk of rendering your message completely meaningless to your audience.