For candidates only

Lord Patten has proffered tips on leadership and boardroom skills to his favourite executive search and recuitment firm, Russell Reynolds - in video and script form.  Our Chris is a member of the RR Associates Board of Directors. Lord Patten's second favourite firm, Egon Zehnder is helping him find the next Director General of the BBC.

Here are the Lord's thoughts on how business leaders should communicate.

"I think it’s terribly important that they use real language. I think that it’s not just true of business, but it’s particularly true in business; senior managers can fall into using the sort of language which isn’t used anywhere outside the board room or the executive suite. There’s a sort of nerdish, geekish, management-speak which obviscates meaning, and too many chairmen and chief executives talk in that sort of language, the jargon-laden quality of so many managers - you never have a discussion, you have an “iterative process”, and it drives me mad."


Sadly, there are two failures here. Whoever has done the transcript has failed with the dictionary; obviscates isn't a word - Lord Patten actually says "obfuscates".  And, risking the wrath of the Chairman, it's a little loose to suggest "discussion" and "iterative process" are synonyms.