Industry-Speak: Are You Guilty?

June 18th, 2008 by Cristina Favreau

Thanks to Don H. Morris who passed this link on to members of the NewCoachConnection Yahoo Group this morning.

Those of you who know me, know I love words (I’ve recently been labeled as word anal by a close friend) and, I’m ashamed to admit, I love using lingo and jargon (I’m working on it, really, I am!).

If you’re like me, you’ll enjoy this BBC News article: 50 office-speak phrases you love to hate.

In my past life, I worked in a Corporate America setting. So I can relate to pointy-haired bosses (and anyone in upper management) freely throwing these expressions around, how often they are used in corporations and how totally meaningless they are.

Think about industry-speak in your own business and area of expertise.

Here are a few I could come up with for coaching:

  • designed alliance: describing the coach-client relationship.
  • stuck (I use this one a lot): you know where you want to be, but just can’t seem to move forward.
  • gap: a little like stuck, signifies the space between where you are now and where you want to be
  • solution- or result-oriented, goal-driven: how coaching is different from therapy, consulting and mentoring.
  • safe environment: the relationship with your coach is confidential.
  • rediscover yourself: getting back in touch with parts of your personality you’ve either ignored, forgot or never knew were there (in fact, this entire sentence is coach-speak!).
  • you hold the answers, the answers are inside you, etc.: a coach won’t tell you what to do, they’ll ask questions to help you come up with solutions.
  • ecology check: achieving your goals won’t harm or cause problems for others.
  • live your success: this can mean different things for different coaches. Basically, if you think you can do/achieve something, act like it even though you haven’t done/achieved it yet.

There are many more, but you get the idea. I’m sure you’ve heard some pretty good ones too, so please share!

What phrases and expressions do you use (or hear) regularly that amount to industry-speak (as opposed to street-speak)? What are you really trying to say?

Category Coaching, Defining Your Services, Humor | Comments

  • Christina,

    Just wanted to thank you for sharing this with my Facebook group. Looking forward to connecting with you further. :)

    Victoria Player, the "Online Marketing Coach"
  • Cristina,

    I agree entirely. Too many people are so wrapped up in the language of their industry that they forget that there's an entire world out there.

    In addition to jargon, one of my pet linguistic peeves is the word utilize. I've never run across a situation where utilize can not be replaced by the word use.

    Utilize is like nails on a chalkboard to me.

    Andrea
  • My hubby is in the military. They have their own entire language. It isn't words though, just a series of letters strung together.
    For example:
    You can take your PMV on your HHT IAW QR&O and CFAO.

    It took me almost 10 years to figure that one out. At least with office speak (annoying though it may be) most everyone understands it.
  • I seem to hear "let's touch base about that offline" at least twice during every meeting (glad it was included in the BBC article). It has never really bothered me, but I can't help but to chuckle when I hear it. I need to look in the mirror though, I have been catching myself saying "I'm trying to wrap my head around it." Is there an office-speak anonymous?
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