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Dealing With A Know It All Person

People who act as if they know everything are extremely obnoxious, especially when you need to work with them. Dealing with a know it all personality can put you in a sour mood, but it doesn’t have to. There are several ways to handle the ‘know it alls’ in your life that don’t involve you losing your cool.

Talk to the Offender

Often times Mr. or Ms. Know it all doesn’t realize they are annoying people. Other times they are feeling insecure in a new setting and are trying to hide their insecurity by acting as if they know everything. Taking the offender aside and having a polite, non-accusatory chat with them can be a big step to solving the problem. Many times the person doesn’t want to annoy people, but doesn’t realize they are doing it. Be sure to be polite when you bring up the issue, because if they feel attacked they won’t be listening. Sometimes it might take a few gentle reminders to stop the know it all behavior completely, but stay keep it friendly and the situation will improve.

Practice Positive Reinforcement

If talking to the person doesn’t work, you can try to subtly influence the person’s behavior through positive reinforcement. This often takes a group effort to see real change, but the results can be well worth it. To practice this method you essentially disregard any know it all behavior, and only acknowledge non-know it all behavior. Obviously, you can’t completely ignore all their know it all personality if you are working on a project together, but you can focus more on the positive interactions and downplay the others. Since people like reactions, positive or negative normally, to the things they do, the obnoxious know it all behavior will slowly fade and disappear.

Take it with a Grain of Salt

When all else fails, you can make a conscious decision to ignore the know it all behavior and not let it affect you. This is much easier said than done, but with a bit of practice it can become second nature. Any time you find yourself becoming annoyed or agitated by their know it all attitude, try and remove yourself from the situation to cool off. Leaving is not always possible, so in that case focus on deep breathing and remembering that the know it all is only hurting themselves by sabotaging their relationships with their peers. Always remember that another person’s annoying behaviors can only affect you if you let it.

Dealing with a know it all is never fun, but with a bit of communication and/or effort, the interactions can become bearable.

Article by expert author ‘Emily Cordz’.