My least favorite overused word is icon, iconic, iconographic. From Annie Leibowitz to Marilyn Monroe to Queen Elizabeth, and even plants in the garden–agapanthus for one, they’ve all been described as icons. It’s just meaningless it’s so overuse.

The reality is, we are leveraged beyond the tipping point. We must rationalize our focus and optimize our deployable resources in the most expeditous manner, given the ambient exigencies.

Feel free to use that in your next Power Point slide. Pure double-talk and buzzwords.

For all you leveraged people out there – strike back and here’s your weapon -> http://members.aol.com/matt999h/bullshit.htm

Here’s a blast from the past that was once heard daily: B2B

More over used (and annoying) than ’speak to’?

2 words: ‘Going Forward’……..

At least he didn’t use the word “synergy,” or any derivative thereof.

Come on! You guys are all missing the most annoying over-used business term of all time:
“It’s in our company’s DNA”
If I hear that used one more time I’m going to rip the DNA out of that person’s skull.

I’m kinda tired of “guru”. Most people I have seen introduced as gurus are at best experts, more commonly specialists, and at worst (yes, another overused word) stuckees.

I get tired of “deliverables” and “take-aways” but that is probably because I am always asked for them.
On a slightly different note, I am fascinated by smooth talking types that use the phrase, “…that’s a definite possiblity…” It is a clever-enough sounding way of saying, “…I will definitely do that-maybe…” but with oh so much more enthusiasm!

The problem with people who use the word leverage is that they have no mechanical understanding of the forces involved when the “fulcrum changes position”.

In laymans terms that means your ass is so exposed and puckerd that you could cut washers off of it.

IE: Subprime loans.

“Leverage” rhymes with “beverage” and drives us to drink. The trend in our corner offices is to misuse “solve” as a noun. “Good solve” is apparently so much faster to say than “Good solution” that it better leverages one’s time.

– http://www.sawyerspeaks.wordpress.com

Actually, we should consider the elevation of ‘actually’ to superword status in this list. Maybe I’m actually too old, but 25 years ago, when I actually started working full time we actually didn’t say ‘actually’ everytime we actually meant: ‘um’.

I’m with you. I read that Gardner book on leadership and I swear to god every fourth word of the marathon intro was iconoclastic. Needless to say I’ve been burned out on the word ever since.

Leverage is a decent word that is now overused; but at least it is still most often used correctly. “Excellence” and “quality”, however, are wonderful words that have been so misused to describe things that are neither excellent nor imbued with quality that they are now not truly useful for their original purpose.

“Impactful” is not even a real word, and is itself a bastardization of a misuse of a word used by people who want to hide the fact that they don’t know the difference between “effect” and “affect”.

I’m not nearly so irritated by a word that is overused correctly, as opposed to a word that is overused stupidly.

I think a close second would have to be “absolutely”. Just when did everything and everyone get so certain, anyway?

With the passing of the the Late Great George Carlin, we are all doomed to suffer the onset of overworked and useless words and phrases.

R.I.P. George, I’ll miss your comments on such words as leverage etc.

I once found my time being leveraged by my boss who felt compelled to force all of us tobrainstorm up a mission statement, which is generaly a collection of over-used buzzwords.

I got lucky on the third try on the Dilbert web site’s mission statement generator. (PDA and Wireless Web access FTW!) Technology leveraged, problem solved, meeting adjourned.

That thing had more over-used buzzwords in it than fleas on a camel.

We could use less leverage in biz-talk, and as the credit crunch shows, probably less leverage in financial deal-making, too.
A few other nominees:
— Arguably. Used when you want to make a wild claim without supporting evidence.
— Famously. Currently trendy in news-writing.
— Recalibrate. This seems to be appearing everywhere all of a sudden.

This must be a young crowd.

The overused word of the millenium…

FEEDBACK!

Basically, like, you know.

Hey! I just got an award for excellence in the field of quality from my company. Any thoughts on where I should put it to optimize its leverage?

Gotta love words and people’s penchant for using them to shirk the work of being articulate and even, being thoughtful. The word “Passionate” is up next.

I was hoping this article was listing surreal as the overused word, but thinking about it, maybe it will make the ‘overused word of the year’ report…

The reason people overuse buzzwords:
• They want to win acceptance by going with the crowd
• They don’t think critically through to the meaning of what they are actually saying (where are Fowler and Copperud when you need them?)
• They reflect a desperate grab for attention in the era of business at the speed of thought (to quote Gates), which leads almost all commentary to exaggeration and makes commentators pundits and pundits fools
• Think for yourself!

How about the word “hero”. The least word you hear is “integrety” As in reference to one’s honesty.

AWESOME

Thank you, thank you! I have thought much the same thing for a long time.

The whole thing was bizarre. I mean….totally surreal.

exactly

He should have vetted the offer before he took it.

exactly

Talk about a paradigm shift.

exactly

But it may give him the traction and momentum he needs.

exactly

Regardless, his care and feeding style will have significant impact on productivity.

Exactly. Awesome.

overused and abused: vetted, make no mistake, and now the newer ones: crazy, spot on, price point.

Let us slay “on a daily basis,” along with all the other “on a … basis” redundancies. “Daily” alone does the job neatly. Also “regularly,” “weekly,” “nightly,” monthly” …