Marcia's Leadership Q and As: Stay the Course—Let Go of Buzzwords & Fads

Q.There are so many buzzwords emerging: ghosting, quiet-quitting, get feedback, new normal. How do we deal with these?

A. Buzzwords come and go. The questions are, how long do they stay and what is their impact? Decades ago, there was a buzz acronym: TQM which stood for Total Quality Management and was attributed to Dr. W. Edwards Deming. In his 4-day seminars, he would thunder, “I never heard of TQM.” (I attended more than 20 of his workshops; I understood his frustration.) TQM came and went—and only existed when organizations tried to pay lip service to deliver quality products and services. But what they needed was leaders focused on transforming continually to improve, innovate, and deliver quality.

Current buzzwords will come and go. But consider when the words or trends pop up: what do they mean? What is being communicated? What are the root causes? Why do people ghost (leave without any notice) or quietly quit (stay on the job, but do the minimum they can get by without contributing their passion or energy?) The job is to understand what is happening and why it is happening.

To respond to trends and “buzzwords,” go to the root causes. It’s your job to create a system that develops your culture and serves your customers. How are you recruiting? When you interview, do you ask questions to understand an applicant’s motives, interests, abilities, and passions? Do you onboard and train so new hires (at any level) understand the role and expectations of the job and the organization? Do you create a workplace where they can contribute? Do you appreciate them? It doesn’t need to be with money; a “Thank you!” “Great job today!” “Loved your idea!” or a thank you note can go a long way!