Leveraging this Space to be Cutting Edge

What would a business blog be these days without a few badly - I mean badly - overused words and phrases? Well, thanks to our friends at Accountemps who just conducted a survey, we've got them all!

The staffing services firm asked 150 senior executives, "What is the most annoying or overused phrase or buzzword in the workplace today?" Here are some of the "winners":

Leverage as in "We intend to leverage our investment in IT infrastructure across multiple business units to drive profits."
Reach out as in "Remember to reach out to customers impacted by the change."
Game changer as in "Transitioning from products to solutions was a game changer for our company."
Value-add as in "We have to evaluate the value-add of this activity before we spend more on it."
Cutting edge as in "Our cutting-edge technology gives us a competitive advantage."

Accountemps conducted a similar survey in 2004. Based on the two surveys, they cited the following "hall of fame" buzzwords:
At the end of the day
Synergy
Solution
Think outside the box
On the same page
Customer-centric

If you value clarity and precision in business communication as much as I do, I hope you found this post interesting. And if not, well, sorry for the disconnect but it is what it is.