Are You Sounding Like Old-Line Corporate?
You're Coming Across as "Old"
Unemployed? Underemployed? Passed over for a promotion? A business that’s not growing? Losing power and influence? It could be primarily how you talk.
For example, what moves the dial in a job interview is to say you’re “hungry.” That’s exactly what those hiring want to hear.
Out-of-date is to talk about “being eager to learn.” Employers want exactly the right skills/experience right now so that you can get results fast. Yes, be direct: “This is what I can do for you.” Another shift is that the language of business has ditched the foggy indirect and become almost blunt. Be nuanced in a job interview? Your come across as old-line corporate.
See, during this era when we don’t trust the media or the experts or government, what we humans say to one another has evolved into the “insider information” we put value on.
That’s why professional anonymous network Reddit, which recently had an IPO, is surging in growth and influence. On that platform people talk to people in a knowledgeable caring way. Also increasingly credible is social media. You got to be there and using the in lingo with the right stylistics to have a voice.
Get it: In these turbulent times business talk keeps changing and changing. Those whose opinion counts are damning Nissan with the term “struggling.” Just a few years ago that term signaled transparency. You noted that your enterprise was struggling and you were recognized for straight talk. Talk that way currently and folks will distance themselves. You should have sent out the message of your turnaround.
In this week’s interview with trade publication Law.com law firm Paul Weiss comes out blasting with how on-top-of-things it is retrofitting for how the sector could mutate by 2028. No way does it want its strategies to be in the Nissan box as being labeled “a bit late.” Its meme is: We are so present in the moment.
Totally self-confident President-elect Donald Trump talks the language of being just-in-time in dealing with/anticipating situations. Trump has embedded in his rhetorical DNA not sounding old.
Financial powerhouse Apollo has a CEO who is 62 years old. Not young. But Marc Rowan talks the talk of aggressive goals. Those include doubling assets in about five years. Our image of him is age neutral. That’s just Marc.
Other terms which doom you to sounding yesterday:
Hard-working (The game is results driven.)
I think (That’s back with college.)
The theory is (The Knowledge Work is unmarketable. That’s why the big management consulting firms are, you bet, struggling.)
“They” ( You have to accept total responsibility for what is.)
Mental health. (No one cares. Would you hire a depressed lawyer for your divorce?)
Career. (We’re all on assignment.)
The good news is that you can slide into the territory of influence in how you talk. Listen to how the successful talk in private. It’s more direct, very Trumpian, and very unforgiving of excuses. Business has become binary: Either you’re winning or are doing the immediate course correction to turn around rapidly what is going down or you’re out of the game.
Jane Genova had taught communications at the Universities of Michigan, Pittsburgh and Connecticut, along with publishing widely on work issues. Her book “The First Critical Years of Your Professional Life” is still in print.