Advise On How To Handle ‘KNOW IT ALL’

Tell It Like It Is

If you’re not a know-it-all but feel like you may be working with one, there are things you can do to address the problem. The first thing you must do is speak up about it. If no one knows there’s an issue, nothing will change. At the same time, with a sensitive subject that involves presenting difficult feedback to a colleague or manager, diplomacy is crucial to a successful outcome.

With Colleagues: If it’s a know-it-all co-worker you’re dealing with, you have a few options to raise the subject. If you feel comfortable enough with her to have a heart-to-heart discussion, you might start by requesting a private meeting, perhaps over lunch. During the meeting, let your colleague know how much you enjoy your working relationship, and that you’ve been thinking about ways to improve it. Mention that you sometimes have a difficult time expressing your ideas to her, and ask for support in voicing your opinion and getting equal airtime.

Try to get buy-in during the meeting for changing the dynamic going forward, so that your ideas won’t be overshadowed in the future. You might suggest discussing ways to alternate taking the lead on certain projects, or creating distinct time slots in meetings for each of you to offer ideas, as well as to listen.

Be sure to ask your colleague for her thoughts on how to improve the situation as well—but be wary of her denying the problem or dominating the discussion once again rather than listening to you. If this happens, you may need to shift to another option: raising the subject with your colleague’s supervisor.

Save this approach as a last resort to consider only after you’ve determined direct resolution with your colleague is not possible. Reporting a problem to someone’s supervisor can jeopardize your working relationship, and may also cause political challenges for you in the office, so this action should not be taken lightly.

With Managers: Often the problem of dealing with someone who always has to be right comes not from peers, but from supervisors or managers. Many managers think it’s their duty to have the last word and the opinion that matters the most—but these aren’t usually the best managers.

If your supervisor or another executive who is senior to you in the organization is making it difficult for you to share your ideas, you’re in a tough—but not impossible—position. By nature of your role in the organization and the hierarchical structure of corporate management, you are in the position of needing to listen to your boss and other managers. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t also be able to express your viewpoints. In fact, it’s part of your job to do so in order to help your managers and your company.

Though it may feel difficult to raise the issue with your boss, you might try approaching the matter as something you’ve thought about to improve your contribution toward your boss’s goals. You could suggest scheduling a regular time on the calendar with your supervisor for the specific purpose of offering your ideas. By carving out a regular time for this to occur, you’ll have a better chance that you’ll have a chance to express your viewpoints to your manager on a regular basis.  

The Acid Test of Listening

Paraphrase Your Customer's Words

The customer is only sure that you have been listening when you paraphrase what the prospect has said and feed it back in your own words. This is where the rubber meets the road in effective listening. This is where you demonstrate in no uncertain terms to the prospect that your listening has been real and sincere. This is where you show the prospect that you were paying complete attention to what he or she was saying. Paraphrasing is how you prove it.

Question for Clarification

When the prospect has finished explaining his or her situation to you, and you have paused, and then questioned for clarification, you paraphrase the prospects primary thoughts and concerns, and feed them back to him or her in your own words.

Use the Right Words

For example, you might say, "Let me make sure I understand exactly what you are saying. It sounds to me like you are concerned about two things more than anything else, and that in the past you have had a couple of experiences that have made you very careful in approaching a decision of this kind."

Feed it Back Accurately

You then go on to feed back to the prospect exactly what he or she has told you, pausing and questioning for clarification as you go, until the customer says words to the effect of, "Yes, that's it! You've got it exactly."

Earn the Right to Sell

Only when you and the customer completed a thorough "examination" and have mutually agreed on the "diagnosis" you are in a position to begin talking to the customer about your product or service. In general terms, this means that you can not pull out your brochures and price lists and begin telling the customer how your product or service can solve his problems or achieve his goals until about seventy percent of the way through the sales conversation. Until then, you have not yet earned the right. Until then, you don't even know enough to begin an intelligent presentation without embarrassing yourself.

Be a Good Listener

The more and better you listen, the more and better people will like you, trust you and want to do business with you. The more they will want to get involved with you as a person and the more popular you will be with them. Excellent listeners are welcome everywhere, in every walk of life, and they eventually and ultimately arrive at the top of their fields.

Action Exercises

Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas into action.

First, remember that your first job in the sale is to get the customer to like you and believe that you understand his situation. Paraphrasing is the way you accomplish this.

Second, be sure that the customer agrees with you completely when you feed back his concerns to him. Only then can you really start selling.