Before You Say "Synergy" Again...

“𝗪𝗲’𝗹𝗹 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘀𝘆𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗴𝘆 𝗯𝘆 𝗼𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘇𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗰𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘁𝗼 𝗮𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗵𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀.”

Can’t you just picture the heads in the room nodding along?

It sounds… important, right? Impressive, even?

And can’t you also picture those same heads huddling together 𝘢𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 the meeting, whispering:

“Wait—what exactly are we supposed to do?”

We love our leadership buzzwords. And honestly, that’s not always a bad thing. Used well, they can help us capture big ideas in short phrases. But when our goal is to impress instead of clarify, the message gets muddy—and so do the results.

Let’s break down a few common leadership buzzwords from that opening sentence:

𝗦𝘆𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗴𝘆 – When people, teams, or organizations work together in harmony to be more effective.

👉 𝘚𝘰 𝘢𝘴𝘬: Do you mean cooperation? Merging efforts? Increasing value or reducing duplication?

𝗔𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 – Everyone’s on the same page about where we are and where we’re going.

👉 𝘚𝘰 𝘢𝘴𝘬: Who needs to coordinate? What’s the shared vision?

𝗢𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘇𝗲 – Getting the most out of our resources: time, money, people, tools.

👉 So ask: Are we repeating steps? Paying for overlapping tools? Can we streamline?

𝗘𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 – Giving people the authority to act without waiting for permission.

👉 𝘚𝘰 𝘢𝘴𝘬: What decisions can your team make without you? Do they know the goal—and their guardrails?

The truth is: just because 𝘺𝘰𝘶 know what you mean doesn’t mean your team does.

If you want action, name the action.

If you want to celebrate results, share what actually happened.

If you want alignment, start with shared understanding.

We lose credibility—and connection—when we focus on sounding smart instead of making sure people actually 𝘨𝘦𝘵 what we’re saying.

Buzzwords aren’t bad. They just need a little unpacking to make sure everyone is, ahem, aligned with us.

So tell us—𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵’𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱 𝘣𝘶𝘻𝘻𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥 𝘺𝘰𝘶’𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘯𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘪𝘯?