If you look up engaged in the dictionary, you’ll find nearly 20 definitions for a word many people just associate with getting married. Today we have engaged employees, engaged customers and for those in the healthcare industry, engaged patients and engaged providers. While engagement in the business sense is legitimate,... (Read More)
“I’m anxious for the new year to start,” said a CEO in a year-end message to employees. But he didn’t mean he was worried or uneasy, which is precisely what anxious means. Rather, he was talking enthusiastically and optimistically about the prospects for growth in the year ahead.
He meant... (Read More)
I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving and for those who celebrate, I’m wishing you a happy Hanukkah.
Should I have capitalized the word happy in both instances?
No, happy (lowercase h) is correct because it’s part of a sentence. Had I made Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Hanukkah standalone... (Read More)
I recently walked through a school district where I came across a street sign asking me to kindly turn off my phone.
Kindly turn off my phone? Does that mean I should refrain from beating it with a stick?
People may think kindly is extra polite—but it’s not. It makes... (Read More)
I saw an ad for a new at-home gym that promises me “personalized guidance with every workout.”
The word guidance gave me pause. It sounds weird. Guidance is what the CDC issues about navigating the pandemic. It’s what companies tell their shareholders about upcoming earnings. It’s the advice college counselors... (Read More)
We’ve reached an incredible milestone. We’ve made incredible progress. I’m incredibly proud of the team.
That word crops up everywhere, which I find amusing because incredible means something is too improbable to be believed. (Haven’t you ever said, “I don’t find that credible”?)
Yes, incredible has a secondary meaning, which... (Read More)
As you can imagine, when I send out my posts, I get a lot of out-of-office replies. More often than not, the messages say the recipient is currently out of the office until a future date, which doesn’t make much sense.
Would you say, “I’m out of the office at the... (Read More)
If I can’t picture it, I can’t understand it.
Albert Einstein, the physicist who developed the theory of relativity, said that. The Nobel prizewinner had a point. It’s easier to grasp something if you can visualize it, which is why it’s important to write in language you can see.... (Read More)
Driving double-digit growth, driving innovation, driving good health outcomes—these are commonplace ways the business community uses the verb drive.
If you look up drive in the dictionary, you’ll find eight definitions with usage examples as diverse as driving cattle across a prairie (to prod), driving a hard bargain (to carry... (Read More)
Did humans evolve from apes?
That’s a legitimate question and a legitimate use of the word evolve, which means to develop gradually.
Too often in business, however, companies use evolve to describe some sort of change, instead of just saying they’ve improved or updated whatever it is they’re changing.
