9 effective tips to help you 'pretend' smart in meetings

About the author: The article is translated from Sarah Cooper 's share - former Google employee, writer, and playwright, and author of a series of compelling articles on page Medium.

Like everyone, it is my first priority to give my opinions, opinions and ideas smartly, or to express my own voice in meetings. Although before every important meeting, I often prepared very carefully the information I wanted to present, even imagining how I would address everyone, however, it was not always the case. easily. Of course, not only me, many people have been or will be experiencing similar situations.

Here are a few tips that I often use to show my confidence, regain focus and performance in meetings, especially long meetings - easy to cause boredom and sleepiness! A small note is that these 9 tips will also help you become smart in the eyes of people, however, use "the right dose" because if you "pretend" too many times they will probably react that effect.

1. Draw a Venn diagram

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The Venn diagram method uses intersecting circles to describe the quantities and each relationship between them, allowing us to have a more intuitive view of the relationship between the elements, from which, easy to play. show hidden factors.

In meetings, if you feel the air is stifling and stressful, you can stand up, use a pen to draw a Venn chart on the whiteboard and return to your seat. This is an interesting way to show intelligence, help draw attention to people and clear the quiet atmosphere of the meeting. It doesn't matter if your diagram is correct or not, just have an idea and show it to all the other members to discuss. They will start wondering what you are drawing and from which graphs are there any new ideas?

2. Turn the percentage into fractions

If someone says: "About 25% of users click on this button", immediately say it: "That's 1/4" and note it. Everyone will nod their heads in agreement, and be very impressed and jealous of your sharp mathematical ability.

3. Encourage people to "Take a step back"

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In a meeting, if a problem does not have a final conclusion and when people temporarily accept with a certain choice, you will often have other ideas. If so, then boldly say, "Come on everyone, can we review this step?" . Surely the other members will turn their heads to you, surprised and would love to listen to what you will say. Now, continue: "What are the problems we really try to solve?" and you will see a significant change.

4. Nodding repeatedly while pretending to take notes

Always carry a notebook with you instead of "notes" with your smartphone, tablet or iPad like everyone else. At the same time, both notes and nods continuously. If someone asks when you are taking notes, quickly answer that these are your own personal notes and everyone must keep a record of the meetings instead of listening.

5. Repeat what people say slowly

To use this tip, you must know and remember the members' names in the meeting room. Normally, people will be quiet during the meeting time and when they have to play the ocean, they will speak quite briefly.

After they have finished speaking, repeat by: "Let me repeat that ." and repeat exactly what they just said but very slowly. Surely attention will be on you and they are also impressed by the way you name others when giving opinions.

6. Give the question "With this scale?"

Maybe no one really understands what you mean but this is a good question if you want to attract the attention of others. However, be careful with this tip because if you don't know how to handle it smartly, it makes people think you don't focus on the content of the meeting.

7. Walk around the meeting room

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When someone stands up and walks around the room, how will you feel? It takes a lot of effort but once you do that, you will immediately show your intelligence. Cross your arms, walk around, go to a corner and lean against the wall. Take a deep breath and think carefully. I bet everyone in the meeting room wants to know what you're thinking in your head.

8. Ask the presenter to return to a slide

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"Sorry, can you go back to a slide?"

This is a sentence that no presenter wants to hear. But this will immediately cause people to rush towards you. If you review the slide and don't have anything to ask? You can say something like: "I'm not sure what these numbers mean" and turn your gaze towards the presenter as if to show that you want a better explanation of that.

9. Smiling

If in a stressful meeting, when there are so many conflicting opinions and everyone tries to protect their point of view, but you are still smiling, it is clear that you have become very different. If anyone asks what you think and you really haven't heard anything before, just say: "Honestly, I don't think anything". Maybe they will be upset about your indifference but they will also feel you are interesting and have a sense of humor.