Handling Unfamiliar Acronyms Without Feeling Embarrassed

The episode looks at jargon and acronyms in the workplace, using examples like ARR (annual rate of return) and CPA (cost per acquisition or certified public accountant), and talks about ways to learn or clarify business lingo. It emphasizes that asking questions doesn’t make you look stupid and highlights the Chief of Staff’s role in creating a shared language across teams, especially during mergers or integrations. Tips include using tools like Google or ChatGPT, paying attention to context, and not overcomplicating things with unnecessary jargon.

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If we haven’t met before - Hi👋 I’m Emily, Chief of Staff turned Executive Leadership Coach. After a thrilling ride up the corporate ladder, I’m focusing on what I love - working with people to realize their professional and personal goals. Through my videos here on this channel, books, podcast guest spots, and newsletter, I share new ideas and practical and tactical tools to help you be more productive and build the career and life you want.

Time Stamps:
00:25 The Acronym Anxiety

01:34 Step Back and Normalize Jargon

04:05 Learn by Context and Quick Lookups

06:45 Ask Anyway You're Not Dumb

09:45 Why Clarifying Helps Everyone

12:12 Chief of Staff Shared Language

17:38 Communicate Clearly Avoid Buzzwords

21:47 Key Takeaways and Wrap Up

Transcript

The Acronym Anxiety

Step Back and Normalize Jargon

Learn by Context and Quick Lookups

Ask Anyway You're Not Dumb

Why Clarifying Helps Everyone

Chief of Staff Shared Language

Communicate Clearly Avoid Buzzwords

Key Takeaways and Wrap Up

0:06

Welcome back to Leveraging Leadership, where we unpack the art of business leadership. I'm your host, Emily Sander, chief of staff to an executive leadership coach. This show is all about finding your points of greatest influence and leveraging them to better serve those around you. I just got done talking with the chief of staff and we were having a conversation around, all the jargon and lingo and acronyms that can be tossed around and how foreign that can seem and how off-putting and isolating like, oh my gosh, am I the only one in the room who doesn't know what these three letters mean? I guess I am,'cause everyone else seems to be tracking with this thing. Okay, what do I do? I can't raise my hand. Can't raise my hand and stop the whole conversation, be the stupid one, be the silly one who asks a question about what does that mean? And so we're having this conversation on this topic. It was so good, and I've heard this so many times from chiefs of staff. Certainly new chiefs of staff certainly knew anything when you come into a new company, new team, et cetera. Uh, but also for existing chiefs of staff and folks who are just exposed to a new area of the business or perhaps there's a merger and acquisition where you're. Assimilating or kind of integrating different teams and companies, things like this. So I think it's a really cool topic of what do you do when you've got jargon and this, these like three letter, five letter acronyms and people are spouting off stuff and you don't know, like up from down, right from left, like what the heck is going on? And you need to know what's going on. What do you do? Okay. First step I would say is take a quick step back big picture and recognize this is a thing. This is a thing that happens. So in. Fields of study and fields and areas of work, there's lingo. So in the medical field, doctors will have lingo they use. Uh, same with the legal field or the, um, academia. so all these different areas have lingo that goes along with it just naturally. So recognizing, oh, this industry has its lingo and this specific company within this industry has their lingo. And this specific team within the company, within the industry has their lingo. Okay? And they're using jargon specific to them. Okay, got it. This is a thing. Cool. Next step. What do I wanna do with the thing? I recognize it as a thing. What do I wanna do? Okay, question I would ask is, how much time and energy do I wanna spend learning the jargon? And that answer can range. It can be like, I don't wanna spend any time doing that. I'm only gonna interact with this team like once and I'm not even, I'm just of here to. Like listen once and say, I was here and that's it. Okay. Like that's technically a scenario. Okay. It could be on the other end of the spectrum. It could be like Emily, oh my gosh. I have to learn the jargon. I have to learn every single of one of these acronyms as soon as I possibly can. That's probably more rare than people think it is, but it could be a thing, like I could imagine a hypothetical scenario where, Hey, this one group of people, I need to get in with them. Because getting in with them and getting their buy-in will unlock so many other things that I'm trying to do and will unlock so many other teams and conversations and will just make life so much easier. They're kind of the hub and kind of gotta do the stuff you gotta do with this one group to unlock everything else. Okay, and the number one thing. That is important to this group of people is can you keep up with me? Can you, do you know what I'm saying? Can you track with me? What do you have to say? Can you use my language? Do you speak my language? Are you right here with me? Some people in some groups are like that, if that is the most important thing out of everything else they're doing. Again, this is a very like thin slice, low percentage scenario, but like hypothetically, it's possible if you run into that situation and go, huh, okay, this is what it is. I am deciding to spend a lot of time and a lot of energy to learn the jargon and to demonstrate that I know the jargon and can have a conversation with this group of people, then that's a choice. And then you go in and you do all you can to learn the jargon, but ask that question, how much time and energy do I wanna spend? Learn this jargon. Most of the time it's somewhere in the middle. Most of the time it's, Hey, there's a language here. And I gotta learn the language, but it doesn't have to be overnight, and I can't ask questions when needed. And I am a smart person. So by context, when people use this in different contexts, I'm gonna pick up. What they're putting down. You've probably done this, you've done it at least once. If you are speaking any sort of language right now, mine is English, so I didn't BI wasn't born knowing English. I had to learn it. That's a language, uh, in different companies. I've had to learn the lingo every time. You've probably done it before, and so you ha you get to do it again. Um, but knowing like where you are in the process, and it's not gonna happen overnight, but I am gonna pay attention. I'm not gonna put all my time and energy, but I'm gonna put some, especially if you're new, or especially if you're new to this team or area of the business, I'm gonna put a little extra attention to that, like, Hmm, okay. I'm just gonna pay attention more when they say that. Hmm? What do they mean? Okay. Huh? It might be using the Google machine, like, Hey, Google, or AI or Chat, GBT can be super, super friends, uh, friendly and, and advantageous, especially if you're kind of observing the meeting where you're not an active participant. Or you could easily just kinda look down and like, what is, what does that mean? I had one, I had someone, Ask what does a RR mean? And we were throwing around, like we were talking about financials and, you know, revenue run rates and all these things, and a r which is annual rate of return. And then afterwards she came up and she was like, I'm so sorry. I asked that. And I was like, why are you sorry? if you, you had no idea what that was. And we were going crazy with all these three letter acronyms. And, um, that was a perfectly valid question for someone who was, she was in a new, role and she had never heard the term before. And I was like. Good job for asking.'cause now, you know, um, so you can use the Google machine, uh, easy to do when you're kind of observing a meeting. If you're pretty sly and like you have a laptop with you in most meetings anyway, or you're on Zoom, it's also easy to do where it's like, okay, you know, chat GBT or Google what is ar r And you'll know it pretty quickly and you'll rate of return. it could be like, uh, what else? Churn rate. So a churn rate, churn mitigation, um, that could be a phrase. It could be CPA. So CPA. So certain acronyms are interesting. So CPA in digital marketing world is cost per acquisition. CPA in finance world can be certified public accountant. And so you could have acronyms that mean two totally different things. So I would say, You can probably pick up most of what you need just by observing and paying attention. The second layer would be using the resources you have, IE internet, and then the third old fashioned way, good old trusty, old fashioned way. ask people, what does that mean? And here's the big takeaway. If you take nothing else away from this episode, please, please, please take away this. Asking a question does not make you stupid. Asking a question in a room full of experts where you might be the only one who doesn't know, does not make you dumb. It's not you looking silly. You're like, oh my gosh. Like you're less than, you're lesser than'cause you're asking a question. Please. Were you born knowing all those words? No. You had to learn. Okay? So please hear that and understand that and let it sink down in you so you believe it. the flip side, just to hammer that point home, the flip side is if you've been on a team for years and years and years and you're flying, you're, you know, shooting these acronyms all around, they're flying all around and someone goes like, oh, I'm so sorry. Like, what does that mean? Is your first thought, like, how stupid of a person are you? No. And if it is, I would go like, that's a separate conversation. Go have a conversation, get some help for that. and if you're dealing with a person. Who looks at you and treats you like that. When you ask a question like how, like you must be like less than human by asking that question, that is way more to do with them than you. I would pay that no mind whatsoever. That has so much more to do with them than you. This is a thing in some fields, like in some of the fields I mentioned, like you know, certain medical personnel and certain academic people in higher education, they have kind of like a thing where you have to be hazed and whatever, but, but on the whole. If you are raising your hand and asking a question because you're new and you simply wanna understand that doesn't, that is not a stupid thing. It's actually a smart thing.'cause that's how you fricking learn. So it's a sign of being a smart person. So I would just totally, and completely divorce and separate and diffuse and sever. I'm asking a question, I must be stupid or I must look stupid. That's not the case at all. Okay. Um. All right, so we've said this is a thing. Lingo in certain fields are a thing. How much time and energy do I wanna spend? Yes, I wanna spend some time and energy, not an inordinate amount. I don't wanna go overboard or overly stress myself over that. I certainly don't wanna feel dumb for asking a question. And then I also wanna realize that sometimes when people use jargon and acronyms and big words like big kind of buzzwords and emails, it could be they're just. They've just been trained in this industry, or they've just been at this company for so long, that's what we call it, and that's just second nature to them. Totally fine. Sometimes it's because they want to prove, they know how to spell that word and they want to prove they can use that phrase in a sentence today, and they want to make these big, bloated, fancy$12 words when it's like, can you make a column to the right of that? Would do just fine. So just understand there's different reasons for people doing things and like sometimes you can make a pretty good guess and sometimes you don't. Sometimes it's like, Hey, I'm gonna, I'm, you know, I'm assuming that about him. I, I don't know that he could, that's might be how he talks. That might be how he thinks he, that might be how he dreams. so that's just the words that come out and that's fine. That's him. Cool. Okay, here's another reason why questions aren't dumb, and you should ask lots of questions, even if it's like, I'm sorry, can you say what that means? Or not even say, I'm sorry, forget apologizing F that. Just say, what does that mean to you or your team? Like ask the question. Basically. Ask the question. And one of the reasons this is important is because sometimes. Having someone say out loud what they mean is helpful. Sometimes just having someone be like, huh, I've used that for so long. How, how would I define that? How would I describe that or explain that to someone is a really good exercise. It's, it's good for them to be able to like just, huh. Well, okay. Here's, here's, here's what I'm meaning by. Here's kind of what I'm meaning by that. Here's what I'm trying to get at. By that, it could be helpful for them to hear themselves, say it out loud. It could be enormously helpful to the group. Oh, like she's talking about that when she says it. I thought, I always thought she was talking about this. I, I thought she meant that thing over there, but she's, she's talking about this. Okay. Like, it could be very helpful for the team and it could also be helpful for you. Either you're learning something brand new or you're getting confirmatory. Explanations of like, I, I kind of thought it was something to do with that. And yes, she's saying like, yep, she's saying it's something to do with that. Got it. Cool. That's very helpful. Exercise. I would use that as chief of staff if I quote unquote, knew the answer. So if I was like, I know what they're talking about, or I, I have a pretty good guess about what they're talking about Sometimes in conversations for a variety of reasons, I would use that tactic. Sometimes it would be to slow the conversation down. Sometimes it would be like, I don't even, like, I don't even know if they're Consciously understanding what they're saying to other people when they use that term. So I would ask them to describe it or explain it. Uh, sometimes it would be for the benefit of, I knew I had a new group of people. So this one meeting there was, um, we had, uh, four new managers sit in on this meeting just to observe and to listen and for their benefit. I was like, there's no way they're gonna know this one thing she's saying. So I asked the person presenting just a pleasant, polite question and she Was picking up like what I was doing. And so she explained it and then I could see like the four people like scribbling down notes and like nodding their heads and be like, okay, now I can track with this conversation better. So there's a variety of reasons why you could use that tactic, but know that it's there. Um, so you can ask that not only for yourself, but also for the person speaking and for the larger group is the point there. One of your jobs as chief of staff is to create a shared language across the organization. If people are saying churn rate and everyone knows what that means and everyone is going off the same definition, that's helpful. That makes a more efficient and effective team. If someone is saying, um. Time to revenue. So I was on a deployment team. I led the deployment team, and time to revenue was like one of our biggest metrics, like they signed the contract, we get the handoff from sales. How quickly can we get this customer deployed on our platform? Time to revenue. The definition is self-explanatory in, in a, in a way, but also how we defined, like, when does the clock start, when does the clock end? There were lots of discussions around those types of things. So, if my bonus and my team's success is based on time to revenue, I wanna be very clear about when. It, it starts when the handoff comes to us and when we hand off. So we would get the handoff from sales and then we would deploy the account and we would hand it off to account management if it was enterprise or customer service team, if it was a smaller account. So I wanted to be crystal clear on those handoff points and those definitions of start and stop time for time to revenue. So things like that. As chief of staff, you can help, um, across teams. Define these different terms. So everyone is singing off the same sheet of music, and when everyone says time to revenue, everyone knows what we mean by that and all those good things. I think that this can also come in handy when you're, let's say you've, you've, you've acquired a new company, like let's say it's a small company. You're gonna absorb them in and you've gotta teach, uh, or translate rather the, the lingo. So, hey, you know, when you're talking about customer accounts in sales, operations, and marketing and lead gen and all this stuff over here. We call that this, like this maps over to these fields in Salesforce and we talk about it like this type of thing. Helping them understand and getting them up to speed, super helpful. If you can get that team up to speed and integrated faster, then that's a win for everyone. They feel better'cause they know what they're talking about. The part of the new team now, the Other side of the fence is like, okay, at least they kind of are speaking our same language already. They're, singing off the same sheet of music. Cool, cool. All these things are good. So look for opportunities to translate things. You could even do this. Um, an examples coming to mind where we had to do, uh, basically there were basically, there was two systems and there was two big data sets. And in one. System. The fields were called certain things like the field name, and then in a system two, it mapped to different field names. And so we have, we had to have like a little key and a unique identifier that basically unlocked the key and translation between the two systems. So if we wanted to pull data from system one into system two, and then have it. Produce a data set, you had to have the translation. So I always remember like, oh yeah, there's that unique identifier and it unlocked the key. And so then we could pull the data. Otherwise we get garbled data. And I kind of use that analogy in my head when I'm thinking about. Teams, departments, and people within those teams and departments like this team is going off these field titles and this team is going off that neither one is right or wrong, it's just what they're using. And if you have to have a conversation about something or people are sending emails back and forth or Slack messages or phone calls and they're saying these words and these field names over here, some of them might map over. Some of them you could probably make a pretty educated get. Are they talking about that? I think they're talking about that. Yeah. Let's go with that. And some of'em are like, we got nothing. We, we got nothing here. Like you're, you're saying random noises out of your mouth. I don't know what that means. So you wanna make sure that as chief of staff, if you see this happening that you go and oh, oh, oh, okay, let's, let's make sure we're talking the same language here. And it might. Be on you if you're spearheading this initiative to integrate these two teams, let's say, to learn the two sets of jargon or help the teams or have a point person on the teams say, Hey, there's a mismatch here, and you guys are gonna have to come up with the key to unlock this stuff. So even identifying, hey, this is happening, and bringing that to the team's attention. Could be your job as chief of staff and it's like, Hey, I have competent people on, you know, team one and team two, and as soon as I bring this to their attention, they're gonna take it and run with it and be totally fine with it. And it's gonna be great. It could be like, uh, these two teams are at loggerheads already and if I throw this in the mix, it's gonna be like grenades going everywhere. So I've gotta go in and I gotta actually like learn the. Team one jargon, learn the team two jargon, and then make sure we're talking the same language. And it might be, hey, we can continue to use different language. Let's just know what the key is. It could be, Hey, at this point guys, everyone stop. We're gonna come up with a new language, and I'm gonna call it this, and when I say this, everyone should know it means X, Y, and Z. So you could pull one of those. but again, look for ways to create a shared language or a key or a translation between teams, and that just makes the. Teams, department, organization just flow better. Just the communication is better. There's less miscommunication, there's less rework, there's less friction between the teams. All these different benefits come into play, so I would keep that in mind as well. And the last thing I'd say here is on the flip side, if you are going, okay, well how much jargon and language should I use? Like, I'm up to speed now, I've been here for a while. Um, how do I wanna communicate the other way? My general rule would be, use things that people recognize, understand, and are familiar with, but don't use. Jargon just to use jargon. Don't, don't use it to be bloated. Like have these bloated sentences where it's like, this is a, you know, 17 line sentence, run on sentence when it could be like seven words and you're good. So clear, straightforward, easy to understand is probably what you're going for at a baseline, at a minimum. And then again, situation dependent. If you've got folks who it means a lot to them to use the fancy$12 words, then you can decide to take the extra time and energy in your email to make sure those suckers are in there. And that's fine. And that's totally, totally fine. But I wouldn't say it just to say it because I, most of the time is my assumption. Sometimes it is more confusing to people and they're like, huh? Like, uh, I don't know what that means. Can she just say, add a column to the right? So if you are an expert in something. And you're truly an expert in something. It's not, can you use the big words? It's can you make the concept as simple and clear as possible? And one step further, can you make this concept, this area of expertise, simple, straightforward, easy to understand to as many audiences as possible? Because if you can explain this sucker to this audience and that audience, and these new hires and this expert panel, and the media interview and the board and the engineering team, and the finance team, and the compliance team and the product, like if you can be clear and you can. Say this thing in a way that all these groups understand. You know, your stuff. Oh, you know your stuff. You're an expert at, at that point, you can communicate that and convey that sentiment, that that information to a variety of audiences. You don't have to use big words. People are usually thrilled and find it refreshing when you don't use big words. So just please know that as well. It's like, oh, it's refreshing. It's a relief. It's like, oh, I can let my hair down. I can just kind of relax into this. This is a normal person talking to me. I don't have to have my kind of professional face on and sit up straight and make sure I'm saying the big words too.'cause like she can say these things in a very casual way, a very effective way, very clear. And everyone. Understands what she's saying, and everyone can freely ask questions back and use their own words and they're gonna be understood too. So all to say, on the flip side of this is creating the environment you want for a discussion. And if you want an exchange, like a back and forth conversation or exchange of ideas, then you wanna set up an environment conducive to do that. And even if you are just giving a one-sided message, like, Hey, I'm gonna stand here and pontificate for 15 minutes and you have to listen'cause I have the microphone and you will listen to every goddamn word I have to say. Name that movie. Name that movie in the comments. Great movie. Then you still wanna be clear if you're like, okay, they just had to be quiet and listen to me for 15 minutes and I use these highfalutin words and the blah, blah, blah, blah, and the board governance and the though it may be and blah, blah, blah. that's great. And if 50% of the audience understood like 75% of what you said, okay, probably be better if a hundred percent of the audience understood 97% of what you said. They might not understand everything. Maybe 97, 97, not everyone's gonna understand,'cause they're people and not everyone's gonna say, understand everything, but you get my picture right? Like, if you can use language where it's like, yep, got it, got it, got it. Good. Versus like, huh? Like, Ooh, I don't like, I'm, I'm, I'm less clear. I'm less clear. Now I'm more confused. I have more questions and I'm more worried and have angst about this opposite, opposite of what you wanna be doing. So anyway, the takeaways here would be one, no jargon and lingo are just a thing you're going to run into them expected. It happens in in the world. Two, ask yourself how much time and energy you wanna spend. This is situation dependent, sometimes not a care in the world. Sometimes I do need to spend. A concerted effort to do this big, big takeaway here. Asking a question does not make you dumb. Say it with me. Asking a question does not make you dumb. It makes you a smart person'cause then you know stuff. And I would also say as chief of staff for other roles as well, but especially as chief of staff, creating a shared language can be very important. Looking for opportunities to coordinate on. A language and get that key between teams can be extremely helpful and help expedite the team's efficiency and effectiveness. Alright, so hopefully you have something in there to take away and apply this week, this month, this quarter. And with that, I will catch you next week on leveraging leadership. This episode is brought to you by Next Level Coaching. If you or anyone you know would like to learn more about executive leadership coaching, please visit www.next level Coach.