Your Speech Is the Core of Your Personal Brand As A Leader. Don’t Compromise It.

You have to think for yourself. It always amazes me how many high-IQ people mindlessly imitate.

-  Warren Buffett

Imitation – whether consciously or unconsciously – is nowhere more unattractive than in positions of high leadership.

It screams “unresearched” and “intellectually lazy” at best, and “fake”, “dishonest” and “plagiariser” at worst.

When C-suite-level leadership relies on the thought leadership and intellectual originality of others, you’re eroding the potential of (and in some instances, damaging) your brand – both organisationally and personally.

In this particular commentary, I’ll focus on the specific issue of the ill-advised absorption of trendy language and currently fashionable terminology used either at lower levels of an executive’s industry or perhaps across the broader corporate sector.

Interviewing all levels of management over the years (for my books, for bids, for new-business strategy formulation, for Annual Report production, for speechwriting and presentation assignments and more), I have found that many leaders have been seduced into using trendy terms and fashion-speak . . . to the extent that – pressed for a conventional, standard English alternative – many struggle to remember one. 

This is one of the few ways in which I do NOT mirror a senior executive’s speech mannerisms and style, when I’m ghost-writing a piece for his or her signature or delivery.

And yes, that’s despite that, in many instances, this now-jargon includes words and phrases that once had genuine meaning.

The problem is, that genuine meaning has been twisted almost entirely out of its original shape and/or has been heavily sensationalised in its latter-day usage. Such language, terms and expressions might well have become part of today’s corporate lexicon, but without question this has been both to the detriment of verbal and written expression, and also to the credibility of those that pepper their communications with it. Most especially if those doing so are of senior executive stature.

Cut the ‘World Class’, ‘Best of Breed’ Bullshit 

So what sort of “lingo” are we talking about here?

In an industry-specific sense, that depends largely on the industry in question.

But by way of an example, where industry trend-speak has flavoured the lexicon across a broader corporate landscape, we have such now-common usage but largely meaningless, rubbery jewels as “cutting edge”, “best of breed”, “best in class” and “innovative” (the standard resorts for the average web, brochure, marketing and PR copywriter), all the way through to the questionable “leverage”, “push the envelope”, “close the loop”, “state of play” and “go-live”.

The list goes on . . . and expands by the quarter (with the above already “old hat”). Or maybe even the month.

This type of language is the domain of the try-hards (if that’s not a fashion-speak item, in itself). 

If you’re a senior executive, don’t do that to your brand or your own image. Rise above the temptation to appear “hip”. You’re a leader, after all. The first place to demonstrate that leadership is in your own communication. Lead with your speech, first and foremost.

Words to go here about The Bid Writer's Style & Grammar Guide.