Page 146 - The New Articulate Executive_ Look, Act and Sound Like a Leader

WRITE LIKE YOU SPEAK 137

For a candidate with “interpersonal” problems, he sug-
gests: “I am pleased to say this person is a former colleague of
mine.”

For the lazy worker: “In my opinion, you will be very for-
tunate to get this person to work for you.”
For the criminal: “He’s a man of many convictions,” and “I’m
sorry we let him get away.”

For the untrustworthy job seeker: “Her true ability is
deceiving.”

And for the inept worker: “I most enthusiastically recom-

mend this person with no qualifications whatsoever.”
Those little beauties are all on purpose, of course, and illustrate the
curious ambiguity of the language. But some poor souls put their
feet in their mouths and don’t even know it. In the Wall Street Jour-
nal, personnel expert Robert Half noted these clunkers that landed
on his desk in star-crossed résumés:

I am a rabid typist.
Thank you for your consideration. Hope to hear from you
shorty.

Here are my qualifications for you to overlook . . .

8. Skip the puffed-up, self-serving “peacock” language, couched
in superlatives, that strains credulity. I’m talking about the kind of

preening talk (“the greatest,” “the finest,” “the most exemplary”)

that often finds its way into the canned spiel of elected offi cials.
Peacock language is: “. . . and I say to you, my fellow Americans,
that the time has come for a new day for America, a day of renewed
hope and the conviction to meet the challenges of the future.” The
same old speech—we’ve all heard it a thousand times.
The same message, couched in more believable language, is:
“The worst is now probably behind us. The future won’t be easy—