An Honest Glossary of Business Buzzwords

Whether we like it or not, business buzzwords have become an integral part of corporate life. Sometimes referred to as the weasel words of the corporate lingo, business buzzwords crawl their way into our daily workplace conversations with the sole purpose of causing an eye roll or two.

Merriam-Webster defines a buzzword as

“an important-sounding usually technical word or phrase often of little meaning used chiefly to impress laymen”

So, if you think (over)using business buzzwords makes you sound smart… think twice.

Such words and phrases comprise the phony business jargon that doesn’t really make you sound smart nor worldly. In fact, it does just the opposite. The more business buzzwords a person uses, the less insightful and intelligent they appear to the others.

That being said, I’ve prepared an honest(ly sarcastic) glossary of business buzzwords you should avoid overusing if you don’t want to sound like a corporate douche.

16 Business Buzzwords That Make You Sound Like a Corporate Douche

Take ownership

Combined with “empower”, it’s one of the business buzzwords project managers and business owners love the most. If you’re a part of the corporate world, it’s likely you’ve already been told that you’re being “empowered to take ownership of a project”.

To take ownership basically means to take responsibility for executing a certain task or project. In many cases, it means doing things outside the scope of your job description. In most cases, it means doing things nobody else is willing to do (or nobody else knows how to do).

In practice, it also means that you’re the one responsible for the results of the project (and the one held accountable if something goes wrong).

We need to get more eyeballs on it

Where did the good old “fresh pair of eyes” go? This is one of those business buzzwords that’s just too graphic for me. Add a storm of brains, pour your heart and soul into it, and you’ve got yourself a real corporate zombie feast!

Let’s take it offline

Apparently, there’s this magical place called Offline where you can take all your difficult and time-consuming workplace conversations and resolve them incognito. When a heated discussion threatens to prolong the meeting or is not meant to be heard by everyone present, someone might suggest “taking it offline.”

It’s just a fancy-schmancy way of saying “let’s talk about it later in-person.”

Touch base

This is one from our collection of sports-inspired business buzzwords. To make a run legal, runners in baseball need to touch the base first. In the business world, touching the base means reaching out or making the first contact.

It’s often used by those sleazy salesmen calling over the phone to check if you’d like to buy a product you most probably don’t need.

“Hello, it’s Bill from Flying Saucers Ltd. I’m just calling to touch base regarding our new product you never expressed interest in before. Can I have 20 minutes of your life you’re never going to get back?”

On my radar

“It’s on my radar” is what you say to your client or colleague when you want them to know you are aware of what they’re saying. Still, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to do anything about it.

Customer journey

If you hear the phrase customer journey, don’t get your hopes too high. No one is going to take you on a trip around the world as a reward for brand loyalty. It’s just business lingo used by companies when discussing how to get you (the customer) to pay for a product or service.

Basically, it’s a series of steps a person needs to undergo if they are to become a customer.

Incentivize

It’s just smooth talk for dangling a carrot in front of someone.

By incentivizing your customers, you’re trying to entice them to make a certain action (be it a purchase, subscription, like, share, or something else) by promising a reward in exchange.

Influencer

This one has been around for quite a while now, so we might even say its buzz has started to fade. But still, there are influencers lurking around wherever you log in – from Instagram to LinkedIn, there’s always someone influencing the hell out of their audience.

I’m not going to change the way I think just because you have 2 million Twitter followers, okay?

Many influencers are also self-proclaimed thought leaders – another one in the line of those commonly overused business buzzwords.

Hustle

It seems like everyone in the startup world is hustling nowadays. The fact is, if you were truly hustling, you would be too busy to talk about it, right?

To hustle basically means to work hard until you make it.

[Something]preneur

In the world of ever-emerging startups and personal brands, being an entrepreneur has become too mainstream and… plain boring. Hence the recent flood of various mompreneurs, kidpreneurs, studentpreneurs, ecopreneurs, solopreneurs, photopreneurs, and a whole bunch of other somethingpreneurs.

The formula here seems to be: Random Noun + “preneur” = Business Buzzword

Simply choose a word that best describes you as a startup founder, attach “preneur” to it, and voila! You’re now ready to get your hair done by your personal hairpreneur.

Disruptor

Since a game-changer is apparently not “buzz” enough anymore (and, yes, it’s still one of the buzziest business buzzwords out there), business lexicons are now filled with disruptors.

A disruptor is a larger-scale game-changer. While game-changers change a particular aspect of a business, disruptors transform the entire industries. Uber, Netflix, Tesla, Airbnb, and Amazon are some of the most common examples of disruptor businesses of the digital age.

Low-hanging fruit

Low-hanging fruit tastes just like that sweet taste of an easy win. Though the frequency of its overuse in the business world leaves a somewhat bitter taste.

To focus on low-hanging fruit means to aim at achieving the easiest, most uncomplicated goal out there. Small successes are still that – successes – and they sure as hell beat failures. Nevertheless, this expression is often used to cover up the lack of ambition or non-existence of more significant results.

On the same page

In most cases, your superior’s seemingly helpful proposal to “go through the project requirements again, just to make sure we’re on the same page” is just a polite way of saying “I just want to make sure you completely understand the way I want things done here”.

Tribe

Business lingo defines a tribe as a group of like-minded collaborators. Like every real tribe, businesspeople have their own customs, traditions, and rituals – one of those being the overuse of the word “tribe”.

Paradigm shift

Even though Paradigm Shift sounds like Optimus Prime’s long-lost Transformer relative, I have to disappoint you – it’s just another one of those newly-acquired business buzzwords.

Basically, a paradigm shift is a fundamental change in the way a business operates. It’s one of those business buzzwords that’s often thrown around after company takeovers or changes in management.

Takeaway

When talking about takeaways, my favorite kind is food. In business lingo, you’re often going to get questions like “What is your takeaway from this meeting/seminar/conference/random talk in the hallway?” A takeaway is the main point you learned from some event or experience.

The key takeaway from this article should be that words can lose meaning over time if overused. Don’t get me wrong – business buzzwords are a part of corporate life and, as such, should and must be used as long as there’s some balance.

But without proper balance, such business expressions become nothing other than buzzwords, placeholders, and cliches that just make you sound like a corporate douche.