With These 3 Tips, You Will Appear Intelligent in Everyday Working Life
Coming across as likable is nice, but usually not compatible with an intelligent effect. This is mainly due to the fact that sympathetic people make mistakes and tend to use the standard language. However, in order to climb the top of the corporate ladder, your focus should be on rhetoric in order to come across as smart and competent. In addition to the fairly easy-to-learn vocabulary mentioned above, there are a number of other things to look out for if you want to appear smarter to colleagues and superiors. In the following we reveal the three most important tips for a professional appearance in the office:
Tip 1: Clothing and Posture
We’re probably not telling you anything new when we say that your clothes, appearance, and demeanor have a significant impact on how you are perceived by colleagues, superiors, or employees. For this reason, it is particularly important that you dress casually, but still with high quality, in order to look smarter. Smart people do not need to attract attention with flashy colors or extravagant cuts and still attach great importance to always being dressed appropriately and modern.
Body language is also an important factor for your appearance in the office. A straight back and an overall relaxed posture are evidence of good self-confidence. After all, an intelligent, successful person knows that he is in the focus of many people and always wants to appear competent and confident.
Tip 2: Expertise instead of small talk
As has already been clearly stated, the way you express yourself determines how you are perceived. In addition to the acquisition of foreign words, a good language style, grammatical correctness and specialist knowledge in your field are essential. The best way to do this is to read specialist literature, magazines, and books related to your industry. It can also be helpful if you regularly exchange ideas with others in your field and thus expand your vocabulary and your specialist knowledge.
Small talk is an absolute no-go for intelligent people, because it wastes time and energy. If you talk eloquently about the current weather situation, you appear socially compatible, but not intelligent. Rather, especially in a professional context, you should attach great importance to only having conversations about really important things.
Tip 3: Take Pause during talking and speech
Especially if you want to appear intelligent and self-confident at the same time, you should make sure to pause for thought in lectures and meetings. Avoid using superfluous filler words such as “um” or “mmh”, because they make you seem insecure and unfocused. If you need to think twice, just pause your thoughts after a sentence. In this way, what you have spoken can really affect the listener and you have gained time to add another important argument in the next breath.
Language is a crucial factor on the path to professional success. An eloquent manner of expression and the use of foreign words make you appear intelligent and competent. Easily expand your vocabulary and practice your rhetorical skills. In fact, anyone who is ambitious enough can, with a little practice, switch from standard language too sophisticated language in order to come across as intellectual without leaving a detached, conceited, or know-it-all impression.