(FORTUNE Small Business) – The first time I heard a colleague say "the view from 30,000 feet," I couldn't resist sneaking a look around the conference room. Stone faces. Apparently this malarkey was routine. The speaker proceeded to suggest that the assembled executives "'copter down and get granular." Yup, it was routine, but the combination of war-hero imagery and geekspeak was so absurd that it took a few minutes to realize he was suggesting we take a closer look at details.

Call me oversensitive, but the view from my 5 feet 3 inches is that such corporatespeak should be wiped from the face of the earth. Instead of illuminating ideas, runaway jargon and faddish phrases often obscure meaning or permanently discredit the speaker. I never again looked at the man with the 30,000-foot view without thinking he was a fool. More important, linguistic theatrics can be symptoms of problems you should be aware of. Like what, you ask? Whaddaya say we 'copter down and get granular?

INSECURITY. Confident communicators use the plainest terms possible because they want everyone to absorb their message. Can you imagine Winston Churchill saying, "Let's make sure the project has transparency and dimensionality"? Employees who spew on about "synergistic attributes," and "new-economy dialectics" are trying too hard to impress. To fend off such phrasing, figure out if the speaker is compensating for weak ideas, poor presentation skills, or a lack of credentials. If that's the case, address his specific area of weakness. But if you're dealing with simple pretentiousness, just tell the pretender to lay off.

DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR. Executives who want to flaunt their intimate access to you or their utter superiority to new employees and corporate guests are fond of acronyms and codified language. The message: I'm part of the inner circle--and you're not. "Let's ask for an RFP from IT on the OTC market in the ROW," barks a vice president. "Don't forget to sked a base-touch at half-time," adds a self-important department head. Translation: Let's ask for a request for proposal from the technology department on the over-the-counter market in the rest-of-the-world. Don't forget to schedule a review halfway through the financial quarter.

"Language can be exclusionary," says Gloria Henn, a Williston Park, N.Y., consultant. "To belong, you have to learn the language, but nobody is willing to tell you what the language is." Solution: Model acroynm-free speech for your employees, except for the truly essential shorthand. And the next time Mr. Alphabet Lingo starts slinging capital letters around, call him on it. "Alfie, does everyone here know what a snafu in the WO means?"

HEAD IN THE SAND. The more unpleasant the activity being discussed, the fatter the euphemism describing it. Firing people is no longer firing, or laying off, or even downsizing. Now it's "rightsizing."

What's the harm in a little verbal soft-coating? It's one thing to mask distressing facts for children. But grownups like to be treated as adults. And guess what? They appreciate real words with real meaning, even if it's bad news. If you say, "We're asking everyone to make a modest, short-term financial accommodation" rather than "Everyone's salary will be reduced by 10% for the next six months," employees will learn never to take your words at face value. Worse, if your managers can't bring themselves to speak frankly about layoffs or lousy sales, you have to wonder how effectively they'll deal with such problems.

Oops! Did I say problems? I meant challenges. You can't really see problems when you're viewing them from 30,000 feet.