Right now, you might be thinking how you hate meetings and what a waste of time they are! But, you gotta do what you gotta do. Are you that person who never speaks during meetings? Or are you someone who is desperate to appear smarter at meetings? We’ve got your back. 
How to look smarter at meetings?
Like everyone else, if you too want to appear smart at office meetings, you have to start implementing some of the following tricks. But, please don’t overdo it, it will make it obvious that you are strategizing and faking all the smart talks (Or people will know that you’ve read my post because they too are reading it right now). Here are some suggestions by The Cooper Review that will guide you to appear smart at office meetings:
Enter the meeting room with purpose
When entering the meeting room, have some purpose and aim in your stride. Walk with confidence and show yourself as an important person who is overworked. If you don’t get that feeling naturally, try and pretend that you just got a call from Mr. President. Are you feeling important now? Great!
Use math words
Do you ever wonder why engineers sound so smart (and annoying) all the time? Because they use those smart-sounding math words whenever they present their viewpoint. You too can use these math words to sound super-smart. Here are some math words and the context in which they can be used:
- Binary: either yes or no
- High Order Bit: most important thing
- 3rd quadrant: nothing positive about something
- Null: nothing
- Delta: the difference
- Void: empty or nothing
Suit up
No, I am not Barney Stinson from How I Met You Mother. But, to make an impression, you have to suit up may it be to pick up women or to your office meetings. You should look like a top-level executive. Power dressing is the key when you want to act smarter at meetings. So, whip out your sharp suit, some of the expensive accessories like a pair of sunglasses and a fake Rolex. Carry a smartphone to add an extra edge to the look. After all the efforts, you can hope that the meeting would be legen.. wait for it.. dary! (Yeah, I wanted to spill that out so bad)
Ask questions
You need to ask questions to show that you are very much involved with the meeting and are intelligent enough to look at other aspects of it. You can include words like “sustainability”, “scale”, “feasibility”, and other similar words to sound smart.
Attend an important call
During the meeting, as soon as your phone vibrates, pretend that it is a really important call that you have to take and walk out of the meeting room. It might be your mom, telling you how you screwed up in the family event that you attended before a day or it might be your wife/girlfriend asking you if you are really sure that you love her, it doesn’t really matter. This phone call will make you look overworked and as someone who is important enough to receive such important calls. Also, it will give you some time away from that boring meeting. You May Also Like: Declining A Meeting Invitation Politely