I recently ran a prompt on Chatgpt, asking it to identify ten blind spots in my business based on what it knows about me. It’s an interesting exercise, one I recommend, and I’m working through the suggestions to see what I can take from each to further develop my work.

The second tip suggested that I might be ‘over reliant on relationship language for sceptical audiences’. It provided the following detail:

Insight: Your core message centres around trust, mentoring, and connection.

Blind Spot: Highly transactional or ROI-driven audiences may tune out if they perceive the language as too ‘soft’ or philosophical.

Prompt: Are you proactively framing your models in commercial, strategic, or risk mitigation language for tougher rooms?

Working with many clients in what might be termed ‘highly transactional’ roles, this was interesting to me. So I asked Chatgpt to suggest alternative language that might resonate with such audiences.

Here are the suggestions I received:

I’ll be honest—I’m caught between horror and hysterics! While one or two of these terms could be usable for me, the vast majority are straight out of the workplace jargon playbook, and I doubt I could use them and keep a straight face.

Maybe it’s just me, perhaps this language would resonate with some of the people I work with. I am just not feeling it. And if I can’t take it seriously, how could I use that language authentically?

Many people I work with may be in demanding and transactional roles; some will be more analytical, while others will use a lot of jargon. But they are all human beings who know how to have a conversation (or multi-faceted exchange of perspective!). The terms listed here, like ‘trust’, ‘connection’, ‘mentoring’ and even ‘vulnerability’, not only seem to resonate strongly with the teams with whom I’m engaging, but they are also important to them.

We do need to understand who our clients and audiences are and speak in terms that will resonate with them, or ‘optimise stakeholder engagement dynamics’. But not at the expense of our authenticity. Trying to change your language to terms that just don’t work for you will come through when you’re trying to connect, or ‘create a strategic alignment’ with others.

What do you think? Where is the balance between being authentic and elevating your language to appeal to more demanding groups?