Boss Speak A.K.A. BS

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What It’s About: Buzz management phrases can seep into our daily language and become integrity thieves. Yes, we mean well, and yet sometimes fuzzy sentences roll off our tongues and sound empty. Every one of the examples below, I’ve heard from C-suite execs in the last 30 days. I sometimes apply my BOSS SPEAK (BS) translator to be sure I understand what they really mean. I look at what they do, more than what they say, to help with the translation.

So What?: Check out the following BS translations:

The Boss Says: “I am into focusing on performance management and want to hold my people accountable.”

The BS Translation: “I have no real idea how to motivate people. When I use performance and accountability in the same phrase, it is politically very smart. My superiors think I’m a hard ass and put shareholder returns above all else.”

The Boss Says: “Investing in people sounds mushy and soft. How can you prove it does anything for the bottom line?”

The BS Translation: “I have not yet reached leadership maturity to realize that any organization and process is run by people, including me. I really think people are basically necessary cogs in the wheel, and the most costly part of the income statement. It’s business, not personal.”

The Boss Says: “This place has to be run exclusively on meritocracy. I believe in diversity, inclusion and social justice, but only if we hire the best first.”

The BS Translation: “I really don’t believe in any of this D/I stuff. If we hire people like me, who hang out in the same places I do, then we can trust them. Otherwise, who knows the kind of people we will let in here? I achieved my position because of hard work and smarts. I want more of those folks.”

The Boss Says: “I want us to be a learning organization. People are our most important asset after all.”

The BS Translation: “I have no idea what a learning organization is or means. We have no tolerance for mistakes. We also need to cut training budgets. Our best people have great DNA and do not need help from the organization to learn. BTW ‘our people’ refers to the front line, and I always talk about people in the possessive, because they are resources at my disposal. It sounds cool and empathetic when I refer to ‘our people.’ I have a fondness for the little people.”

BS Speak: “I really do want our leaders to be authentic, transparent and vulnerable.”

The BS Translation: “Others around me can be those things first. I have no intention of doing any of these. It’s a dog eat dog world, and people stupid enough to be authentic, transparent and vulnerable will be crushed. That’s how I got here, and intend to stay here.”

Now What?: It’s easy to drift into BS management speak, often with good intentions. Comments on the surface can sound so good. These phrases can rapidly inject themselves into our management language, and we adopt them without really understanding the underlying assumptions, how we personally really think about them, and what we are sincerely trying to communicate. When people realize we have little integrity regarding our comments, it adds to cynicism amongst employees at every level. When we speak blah, their eyes can literally or metaphorically roll to the back of their heads.

What we do is more important than blithely adopting BS speak. Plain, more direct language, helps people better understand what we really mean and most importantly our intent. As always, our lips and feet need to be in sync. Most of us can become more practiced at this. More real, and less BS.

Think Big, Start Small, Act Now,

- Lorne

One Millennial View: I remember receiving Corporate Buzzwords flashcards as a stocking stuffer one Christmas, many years ago. I enjoyed learning them, to at the very least be familiar with their meanings and expand my office lingo. However, I also became aware that many of them are immediate eye rollers for some, and really, simplicity and action do the major communicating. Lose the BS flash cards, and talk through intention and action.

- Garrett

Edited and published by Garrett Rubis

Boss Speak A.K.A. BS

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