Corporate suits try to impress people with the quality of their words instead of the quality of their ideas and ability to convey them.
Early in his career, Ertan noted that executive management teams that talk over people’s heads tend to underperform their peers. Taking the complex and making it simple is difficult, which is why many of us love to overcomplicate things in an attempt to show off our intelligence, or at least our vocabulary.
It’s always easier to explain a complex topic in ten pages using convoluted reasoning than it is to explain that same topic in one page using simple words. For this reason, the best proof of someone’s intelligence is their ability to simplify the complex.
Below we have compiled 50 of the most frequently used corporate lingo to see where you land on the “corporate suit” scale.
How Do You Know If You Sound Like A Clueless CEO?
How many of these phrases do you use on a regular basis?
1. “Pencil in”
2. “Manage expectations”
3. “Circle the wagons”
4. “Skin in the game”
5. “Run the numbers”
6. “Breakout session”
7. “Run it up the flagpole”
8. “Move the needle”
9. “High touch”
10. “Action it”
11. “Inbox it”
12. “Double down”
13. “Economic upside”
14. “Seed”
15. “Window of opportunity”
16. “Think outside the box”
17. “Internalize”
18. “Level the playing field”
19. “Disrupt”
20. “Blue-sky thinking”
21. “Bleeding edge”
22. “Core competency”
23. “Strategic staircase”
24. “Ground truth”
25. “Helicopter view”
26. “Deep dive”
27. “Backstop”
28. “Reiterate”
29. “Game changer”
30. “Paradigm shift”
31. “Tee it up”
32. “Park a project”
33. “Data driven”
34. “Loop in”
35. “Idea shower”
36. “Hyper focused”
37. “Litmus test”
38. “Fail forward”
39. “Pain point”
40. “Right sizing”
41. “Base case”
42. “Actionable”
43. “Ecosystem”
44. “Buy-in”
45. “Scalable”
46. “Synergize”
47. ”Evisculate”
48. “Hyperlocal”
49. “Granular”
50. “Streamline”
How Do You Know If You Sound Like A Clueless CEO?
Team Ertan
Ertan Enginalev is a Turkish-American investor and activist known for his unique position in the investment profession built on benevolent hostility. As the founder and CEO of WSD Capital Management, Ertan focuses on driving competitiveness and strengthening governance in today’s rapidly changing world by building a culture of high standards.
