How to tell if people who look good in meetings are just faking it

Whether you work remotely or in an office (or a mix of both), meetings are an integral part of work, especially for knowledge workers. According to recent estimates, the average American professional will spend more than 14 years of their working lives in meetings. As Steven Rogelberg highlighted in one of the best books on this topic (The Surprising Science of Meetings): 1. Only half of the enormous time organizations invest in meetings produces adequate returns, even according to the rather unreliable and probably optimistic self-ratings of those who actually have the meetings. In other words, one in two meetings are a waste of time. 2. The figure is even lower when we examine senior managers or leaders, with 71% of them describing meetings as unproductive and inefficient, 65% stating that meetings actually prevent them from completing important work, and 64% noting that meetings undermine deep thinking. Since many meetings are set by senior managers, the irony is hard to miss here. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/10\/tcp-photo-syndey-16X9.jpg","imageMobileUrl":"https:\…