Is It All About The Buzz?

Hey everyone,

Back from some major spinal surgery with some food for thought: Is “leadership” your buzzword?

So we know we hear buzzwords all the time in business: add-value, leadership, empowerment, ROI etc. According to the Webster’s Dictionary, Buzzwords are: “a word or phrase, often an item of jargon, that is fashionable at a particular time or in a particular context.”

So basically, buzzwords can make you sound pretty but if you aren’t acting on what they actually mean, they mean a whole lot of nothing.
As an example, your boss goes to you and explains how they want everyone empowered. All the things they need to do is be empowered. And they BETTER be empowered. So why do you go to your people and try to force empowerment (whatever that means because it wasn’t explained exactly HOW the empowerment works)? You go because you know if you don’t, you’ll get your butt handed to you.

Notice here I say boss, not leader. Leadership becomes a buzzword when you are using it to instill fear and not change, barking orders but not willing to help. It becomes a buzzword and it in effect means absolutely nothing. And I, for one, don’t want my words to mean nothing.

This also means maybe you need to push back some. Maybe you need to go back to that boss whose pushing *empowerment* but it’s not all that empowering. Maybe you just have to get the heck out of dodge.

Actions speak louder than words, right? It doesn’t matter if your manager is called the Grand Emperor. If their actions don’t back up what their title is supposed to mean, then you aren’t going to want to follow.

So how do you make leadership a word of meaning rather than a buzzword? How do you show those who are under, over, or sideways from you, that you aren’t just using this title for self-importance? What does leadership even mean to you? What do you want it to mean?

Image thanks to: http://www.edtechweeklyshow.com