Corporate cliches to get you promoted

Use with caution ... Too much corporate double-speak could stymie your career. Photo: istock

If you’re looking to get ahead, there’s now a list of 89 business cliches that could help you climb the corporate ladder.

However, Forbes, which published the list, cautions that at best these phrases will give you a boost into middle management where you’re then likely to find your career flatlines from an overdose of business double-speak.

“Of course, if you really become a samurai master of using all 89 of these cliches, you probably have no hope of moving up to upper management, because your mind and vocabulary will be filled with complete and utter nonsense,” Forbes warns.

Here’s a taste:

• “It’s a paradigm shift = I don’t know what’s going on in our business. But we’re not making as much money as we used to.
• “ROI = Look at me, I’m very financially-minded, even if I never took any finance classes in school
• “Let’s square the circle = I’m someone who can unify two team members’ views and sound important
• “Incent it = That’s not a verb but I just made it into one because I’m a man/woman of action
• “It’s gone viral = Someone sent a tweet about this.”

For the remaining 84 cliches, go to Forbes.

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