Do you have recommendations for the business buzzword graveyard? Tim Phillips, a blogger for Fast Company and the author of Talk Normal: Stop the Business Speak, Jargon and Waffle, says he has run statistical analyses of the published language and has found that it's not just your imagination; many idiotic, annoying, or just useless buzzwords and phrases have in fact multiplied significantly in the past decade. Some words are fun or informative, he says, but here are some that should be retired:

Issue: When did we stop having problems and decide to have "issues" instead? Phillips says "the ratio of problems to issues in our magazines and newspapers show that there are about three times as many issues per problem as there were 10 years ago."

Passion: Job candidates these days feel the need to be passionate about whatever it is they are interviewing for, says Phillips. "The recruiter's question: 'Are you passionate about...?' is now just a test to see how well candidates can fake it."

Unique:  "There have been 826 press releases claiming that something is "unique" in the last seven days," says Phillips. "Everything, we must conclude, is now special in its own exquisite way."

Iconic: "Iconic-ness" seems to be a 21st-century phenomenon: Since 2000, we're about eight times as likely to find something "iconic," writes Phillips.

Role: "Our parents had jobs or, if they were lucky, careers. We entertain ourselves by claiming we have roles, as if our work is a personal soap opera," says Phillips. His statistical analyses have shown that during the long boom, the ratio of roles to jobs went from 10:1 to about 4:1. Since 2007, this ratio has returned to pre-2001 levels.

Transparency: This word is six times as popular in the business press as it was in 2002; about one in 40 press releases claim it, says Phillips. It's taking over "honesty" and "integrity."

Empowerment: Not a bad word, he says, but badly overused.  

More ... 

If you really want to drive home the point, watch this wonderful short video--Business Cliche Bingo:

Business leaders often worry too much about the quality of their decisions and too little about creating widespread acceptance for them. They tend to assume that if the quality of a decision or strategy is rock solid and undeniably rational, people should have no problem buying into it. Nothing is more powerful than science, math and logic, right? If the idea is scientifically sound and makes perfect sense, and there's data to back it up, no one should have a problem accepting it, right? Wrong, says Matthew May, blogging for openforum.com.

"We forget that no two people think exactly the same way, and what seems obvious to one person may be a complete head-scratcher to another." He cites the book Too Many Bosses, Too Few Leaders, by Rajeev Peshawaria. "Rajeev has a simple but very powerful way to explain why we need to try harder to create acceptance," May writes. For an idea or strategy to be fully effective, it requires both quality and acceptance. He illustrates the concept with a simple equation: Q x A = E, in which Q is quality, A is acceptance, and E is effectiveness.

What happens in business is that we tend to work tirelessly on Q and neglect A, or at least not put as much effort into it as Q. And in business, that can make the difference between success and failure. "Great ideas that don't stick remain just that -- great ideas." Rajeev notes that most left-brained managers tend to continuously improve quality, and pay little attention to acceptance."

Equations aside, Rajeev notes that the key point is simple. "As a leader, you should ensure you have succeeded in creating widespread acceptance for an idea before moving forward."

Having a perfectionist on your team can be an asset, writes Jeff Szymanski, blogging for the Harvard Business Review. They are driven to succeed, work hard to avoid mistakes, and are always striving to improve. Yet it can be a challenge to manage someone who needs everything to be perfect.

Perfectionists generally have a strong work ethic. They will persist at tasks until they reach the desired outcome. The downside is that they sometimes get caught up in strategies with poor payoffs. In other words, they are working hard but spinning their wheels.

Giving feedback to perfectionists can be tricky, writes Szymanski. Here are some ways to approach it:

Be clear about your goals and expectations. When left to their own devices, perfectionists may fall into the trap of setting unrealistic expectations for themselves. Letting them know ahead of time what is most important to you can minimize this. Sometimes the emphasis is on the look and feel of a product; sometimes it is on big, attention-grabbing ideas; and sometimes it is about accuracy and precision. Share these expectations explicitly and directly.

Encourage a perfectionist to share a work-in-progress with you. Perfectionists are notorious for wanting to show only end products, fearing that a work-in-progress might be seen as the best they can do. Working on iterations of a project together creates a sense of collaboration and reduces the likelihood that a perfectionist will get bogged down in unnecessary details.

Perfectionists can be obsessed with not wanting to make mistakes. A perfectionist can lose sight of the difference between a minor mistake (finding every spelling error in a 20-page, in-house report) versus a major error (misspelling the name of a client in a one-page marketing ad). This can be addressed by using the strategies mentioned above. However, some mistakes always occur when beginning a new project or initiative. First run-throughs inevitably are going to have aspects that go well and some things that can be improved. In these cases, perfectionists sometimes engage in excessive self-criticism. As a manager, underscoring the value of focusing on weaknesses as an opportunity to improve performance can be critical in keeping them on track. Also, help to soften or deflect a perfectionist's excessive self-criticism by highlighting what you like about the work he or she is sharing with you and engage in some brainstorming about ways to address what is still missing.

With some creative strategies, the challenges of managing a perfectionist will be vastly outweighed by the excellent work he or she wants to do, and can do.

"After working with the most inventive people in the world for two decades, we've discovered the value of a certain item in the leadership toolbox: the pink slip." So write G. Michael Maddock and Raphael Louis Vitón in Bloomberg's businessweek.com.

They describe three types of employees who "passive-aggressively block innovation from happening and suck the energy out of any organization," and they encourage managers to give them the pink slip. What are those three types?

1. The Victims  Victims are people who see problems as occasions for persecution rather than challenges to overcome. We all play the role of victim occasionally, but for some, it has turned into a way of life. "These people feel persecuted by humans, processes, and inanimate objects with equal ease - they almost seem to enjoy it." They are often angry, usually annoyed, and almost always complaining. Victims aren't looking for opportunities; they are looking for problems. Victims can't innovate. (But note to the HR department, write Maddock and Viton: "Victims are likely to feel the company has maliciously terminated them regardless of cause. So have your documentation in order before you let victims go, because chances are you will hear from their attorneys.")

2. The Nonbelievers
Maddock and Viton point to the Henry Ford quote: "If you think you can or think you cannot, you are correct." The difference between the winning team that makes industry-changing innovation happen and the losing one that comes up short is a lack of willpower. Said differently, the winners really believed they could do it, while the losers doubted it was possible. Great leaders find and promote believers within their organizations. And they terminate the nonbelievers.

3. The Know-It-Alls
Maddock and Viton note that innovative cultures are learning cultures. The leaders who have built these cultures, either through intuition or experience, know that in order to discover, they must eagerly seek out things they don't understand and jump right into the deep end of the pool. They must fail fearlessly and quickly and then learn and share their lessons with the team. When they behave this way, they empower others around them to follow suit - and presto, a culture of discovery is born and nurtured.

"Unfortunately, the smartest, most-seasoned employee can become expert in using his or her knowledge to explain why things are impossible rather than possible." Such employees should be challenged, retrained, and compensated for failing forward. But if the habits are too deeply ingrained to change, the employee must be terminated. Otherwise, this individual will unwittingly keep your team from seeing opportunity right under your noses.

Many promising executives derail at some point during their careers, often because they aren't very good at office politics. Not playing the political game is seen by some managers as a badge of honor, as proof of their integrity. They are determined to succeed based on job performance alone.

Those people couldn't be more wrong, says Jeffrey Pfeffer, writing for The Wall St. Journal. Research has shown that a person's political skills are essential to building a successful career. When talented executives combine knowledge of what their company needs with an ability to get things done, everyone benefits. Conversely, when a promising career falters because of poor political skills, companies have to spend time and money finding a replacement.

Pfeffer says that being politically savvy is not about pushing others down or being untruthful to advance your own cause. Instead, it means building networks -- relationships -- with people inside and outside your company who can provide useful information and assistance. It means not picking fights over non-critical issues. It means informing others in the company about your contributions and accomplishments, and asking for advice and help, particularly from those senior to you. "Self-serving? Sure. But there's nothing wrong with that. If you are going to make a difference, you need to have power."

Flash Points: There are generally two times in every rising executive's career that bring the biggest tests of their ability to manage organizational politics. The first comes after about five to seven years, when the person begins to take on roles that depend less on their individual performance and more on what they can accomplish through the people around them. The second is usually after 15 to 20 years, or when the person steps into a senior role with even more visibility, according to executive coach Bonnie Wentworth. At this point, there is much less room for mistakes, and technical skills are largely irrelevant for career success.

Watch the behavior of people who are at these points in their careers, suggests Wentworth. Are they showing or generating lots of conflict, stress and tension? Do they insist on getting their way all the time, or are they sensitive to smoothing the feathers of important others? Do they inspire support and confidence through how they talk and act? Leaders hold on to their positions by maintaining support from their employees, customers and bosses.

Picking Battles: Some otherwise-brilliant people don't realize there are trade-offs that must be made to work successfully with others. One executive remembers being asked by his boss, "Do you want to be right, or do you want to be effective?" Savvy people live to fight another day by avoiding situations where their ideas are going to go down in flames.

It's not too early to start thinking about creating your intern program for next summer. The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) suggests best practices for building an effective program. Jessica Stillman, blogging for cbsnews.com, has picked out the freshest ideas from NACE:

Showcase intern work through presentations/expos. Students work very hard at completing their work and are generally proud of their accomplishments. Setting up a venue for them to do presentations (formal presentations or in a fair-type setting such as an expo) not only allows them to demonstrate their achievements, but also showcases the internship program to all employees.

Bring in speakers from your company's executive ranks. One of the greatest advantages to students in having internships is the access they have to accomplished professionals in their field. Consequently, speakers from the executive ranks are very popular with students; it's a great career development and role modeling experience for interns. Having a CEO speak is especially impressive. For the manager, having your executives speak to interns is another way to "sell" your organization to the interns, and to get your executives invested in (and supporting) your program.

Invite career center staff and faculty to visit interns on site. Although some programs -- especially those that are very structured on the university side -- make visits by career center staff and faculty a regular practice, most do not. In general, career center staff and faculty members have relatively few opportunities to visit employer work sites to see firsthand the types of experiences that their students are getting. By inviting them to your site, you will build a better working relationship with these groups, which can lead to more student referrals, enhanced campus visibility, and increased flexibility on their parts when your business needs dictate it.

Hold new-hire panels. New-hire panels are one of the best ways to showcase an organization to interns as a great place to work. These are panels of five or six people who were hired as new grads within the last three years. They act as panelists in a meeting of interns, giving a brief summary of their background and then answering questions from the intern audience.