I've come across a few blogs and discussions this week where people have been discussing how they should refer to themselves and their business. Critical issues such as 'do we talk about training or learning' or 'are you a mentor coach or a coach mentor' seemed to have assumed a life of their own. It's true that the language we use makes a difference to how people react to us, the idea behind 'learning and development' rather than 'training' being to help the recipients of the service feel more in control, but I do wonder sometimes if we sometimes agonise too much about how we describe ourselves.
Clients generally come to us with a very clear idea of what they want done and very rarely use complex language to describe it. They are much more likely to ask for 'help' rather than 'coaching' and for a 'training course' rather than a learning experience. Of course, some special language or jargon is essential in getting the precise nature of a requirement across - and we quite often have to resort to looking up some of the more technical requests we get - but in general I think it's worth sticking to plain and simple language whenever you can. If you're not sure if your profile or website has veered too far from simplicity why not ask a friend to review it or take a look at the Plain English website for guidance. I particularly liked their before and after examples of management gobbledegook.
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