11 Brilliant Phrases That Make People Look More Competent Than They Actually Are
These phrases sound profound, but don't actually mean much at all.
Prostock-studio | Shutterstock Over the course of a person's career, they're bound to encounter co-workers who aren't as intelligent as they seem. The signs aren't always obvious, since people tend to mask their incompetence with flowery language. They make simple concepts more confusing than they need to be, because they're working hard to overcompensate for what they lack.
If you pay close attention to the brilliant phrases that make people look more competent than they actually are, you'll notice the common threads that run through them. On the surface, these phrases sound impactful and insightful, but when you really try to figure out what they mean, you realize that they're not saying much of anything at all.
Here are 11 brilliant phrases that make people look more competent than they actually are
1. 'Let's step back and look at the big picture'
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One of the brilliant phrases that make people look more competent than they actually are is "Let's take a step back and look at the big picture." People use this phrase to hide the fact that they don't really understand what's being discussed.
They avoid the details, because they don't get the details. This phrase is vague enough that it makes people sound like they're making a valuable contribution, when they're actually not contributing anything at all.
According to workplace expert Lynn Taylor, overusing corporate buzzwords inevitably makes those words lose their meaning. She explained that finding "more original and convincing ways to express yourself" can lead to "greater trust" in the workplace.
"If you practice more straightforward, personalized and emotionally intelligent dialogue, [it can] help create a more humanized, honest and trusted workplace," she concluded.
2. 'We need to align on key objectives before we can move forward'
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This phrase is chock-full of the kind of corporate lingo that makes people seem more competent than they actually are. When someone says they need to "align on key objectives," what they mean is, "I need more time to make a plan."
Using this phrase is a way for incompetent people to delay making any important decisions. They have no idea what the next steps actually are, so they say this to buy themselves time. This phrase creates a sense of urgency that's not necessarily based in reality.
According to leadership expert Lolly Daskal, "a significant portion of what we perceive as urgency is, in reality, false urgency — a whirlwind of activity that often leads to little progress." She pointed out that false urgency "can lead to stress and burnout among team members, stifle creativity, and obstruct meaningful progress," which is why recognizing it and addressing it is so important.
Daskal shared strategies to combat false urgency, including setting realistic deadlines, prioritizing tasks, and maintaining open communication.
3. 'We should focus on optimizing for efficiency while maintaining agility'
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People who insist their company needs to "optimize for efficiency while maintaining agility" look more competent than they actually are. This phrase is a prime example of someone using cliché, corporate jargon to sound official, without offering any real guidance.
Corporate jargon serves two opposing purposes: It can make inter-office communication easier, but it can also cause confusion. As Peter Sokolowski, the editor at Merriam-Webster, revealed, jargon can be described as a company's "inside language." It's an unavoidable part of corporate culture. Often, the language used is coded in a way that's "substituting for authenticity."
From Sokolowski's perspective, when certain words are overused, it makes them "lose a little bit of their meaning, and they suddenly become a kind of signifier for something else, which is language that isn't very direct language, that isn't very emotionally honest."
Words like "efficiency" and "agility" sound good on the surface, but it's highly likely that the employee asking for those things doesn't follow up with tangible examples of how to be efficient or agile.
4. 'We can circle back at a later date'
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Of all the brilliant phrases that make people look more competent than they actually are, "We can circle back at a later date," is a true winner. At its core, "circling back" is an elaborate avoidance tactic. People use this phrase to stall for time, because they don't have an actual answer to the issue in the moment when they really need one.
As University of California-Berkeley management professor Jennifer Chatman pointed out, "Jargon masks real meaning. People use it as a substitute for thinking hard and clearly about their goals and the direction they want to give others."
The real meaning of this phrase is, "I don't have an answer to your question." Yet in their quest to seem more competent than they really are, people will say anything they can to avoid admitting what they don't know.
5. 'I want to empower the team to take ownership of this'
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When people want to look more competent than they actually are, they use the phrase "I want to empower the team to take ownership of this." They usually say this phrase to delegate tasks they don't want to do themselves, while making it seem like they're helping their co-workers by doing so.
According to the American Management Association, "empowerment" is a "management style that gives employees the power to make decisions about the work to be done as well as how the work is to be done." They describe it as a "business buzzword," signaling how widespread its use is.
Incompetent people hide behind phrases like this one. They use this phrase to paint a positive picture, when really, they're putting more work onto other people, without taking responsibility for it.
6. 'We need to work smarter, not harder'
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Corporate leaders everywhere want their employees to work smarter, not harder, but they tend not to elaborate on what that means. They don't offer any techniques for working smarter, because they don't actually have any. At the end of the day, everyone wants to work smarter, but they can't do that without proper guidance.
According to the Neuroleadership Institute, people use corporate jargon because they think it makes them seem more authoritative, but really, it makes them seem less trustworthy. They cited a study from the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin showing that "using vague nouns and verbs instead of specific ones can make people doubt you're telling the truth." This phrase is the pinnacle of vagueness, and that's what makes it so brilliant.
7. 'Success is measured by impact, not just output'
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When people want to look more competent than they really are, they say phrases like "Success is measured by impact, not just output." The true meaning of this phrase isn't particularly clear. It's designed to make employees feel good about their work and distract them from noticing that there aren't any specific success metrics in place.
In their book, "The Peter Principle," co-authors Laurence Peter and Raymond Hull made the argument that "In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence." They posited that "work is accomplished by those employees who have not yet reached their level of incompetence."
They pointed out that most employees don't realize that they've reached a level of incompetence, since they stay "perpetually busy" and hold onto the "expectation of further promotion, and so [they] remain happy and healthy."
While they might not notice their own incompetence, the people who work for them do notice it, only they're not able to say anything about it. They continue carrying the weight for their manager's incompetence, wondering what success actually looks like.
8. 'We need future-proofed solutions'
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People who say they want "future-proofed solutions" don't realize how impossible that really is. As nice as it would be to have them, future-proofed solutions don't actually exist. The world changes too quickly for there to be any true sense of stability.
As technology advances, some solutions become obsolete, no matter how much planning people put into them. This phrase gets used by people who want to appear competent without putting in the work to find practical solutions for long-term growth.
9. 'I want this initiative to be a game-changer'
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One of the brilliant phrases that make people look more competent than they actually are is "I want this initiative to be a game-changer." By using this phrase, they are relying on flashy terminology to carry them.
This phrase sounds proactive and bold, but it's actually just an example of wishful thinking. Without a clearly-defined tactic to execute change, there's no real plan in place. This phrase is an example of peak jargon. It sounds exciting, but doesn't mean much.
According to Adam Galinsky, a professor at Columbia Business School, jargon can be useful, in very specific situations.
"When you're younger, and you're using jargon correctly, it lets people know you understand," he said. "For junior people talking to their superiors, it can say, 'I'm new to this field, but I'm confident and I've picked up what I need to know...' But as a leader or a manager, it makes you seem like less of a visionary."
10. 'Let's think in terms of scalable solutions and not a band-aid fix'
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This phrase is brilliant because it makes people look more competent than they actually are. As insightful as the phrase sounds, it's an example of overcomplicating something that doesn't need to be so difficult.
People use this phrase to seem smart while rejecting their colleagues' suggestions on solving a problem, without offering any alternative solutions. It's peak jargon: shielding what they're actually trying to say with fancy yet hollow language.
According to Harvard Business Review, jargon is "a linguistic tool that people can use — consciously or unconsciously — to signal their membership in a professional community." As a communication tool, jargon sends a clear message about the person saying it. More often than not, using jargon is driven by "insecurity and the desire for status in one's profession."
"Status brings influence, material benefits, and psychological well-being to those who have it," they explained. "People often compensate for a lack of status by trying to signal that they have more of it than they actually do... Jargon sometimes functions like a fancy title, a conspicuously displayed trophy, or an expensive, branded watch — people use it to signal status and show off to others."
People who use this phrase think that they seem competent, but really, they just sound insecure.
11. 'Our key constraint is resource allocation'
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People who say "our key constraint is resource allocation" use corporate jargon to side-step accountability for the problems their company is facing. They cast blame on outside forces, like a lack of money, instead of acknowledging internal inefficiencies.
According to research in the American Journal of Industrial and Business Management, using jargon makes daily communication more difficult, which hurts their chances for success. It causes misunderstandings that negatively impact productivity and profit margin, and it often causes organizations to waste much-needed resources.
Alexandra Blogier, MFA, is a staff writer who covers psychology, social issues, relationships, self-help topics, and human interest stories.