Know-it-alls can be very difficult to deal with. You will come across people who apparently know everything at your workplace, in your social circle and you may even have one or more in your family or among relatives. It can be quite taxing having a person who knows it all as such a person will tend to interfere or intervene in almost everything. They would be proactive with their advice and will try to demonstrate that they know something you don’t know. All their advice or knowledge would be presented in the garb of help, as if you would be highly benefited from what they are saying or doing. Whether or not you have anything to gain from a know it all, you should learn to deal with them properly.
Here is a brief guide on dealing with know-it-alls.
The first step is to understand where the person is coming from. There are some people who genuinely know a lot of things. There are people who have numerous interests and those take them through lots of learning curves. While they have limited knowledge in several disciplines, the limited knowledge is not necessarily bad. What you have to identify is people who are deliberately trying to be a know it all. Most people who appear to know everything are trying to conceal their insecurities. It is a facade that they have carefully built. You should carefully deal with such people.
There are two very effective ways to deal with a know it all. One, you can simply avoid the person. You can avoid the person physically by staying away or you can simply pay no heed to what the person has to say. When the person would notice that his or her advice are not registering or that their thoughts and opinions are not accepted, endorsed or even asked for or welcomed, they would back off. The other effective way to handle it is to talk to them. That is if you share a nice bond with the person and you have the space to talk about such issues. When you talk to a know it all, it may be difficult for you to explain to them how their behavior is undesirable but you should maintain your calm, be polite and instill some pragmatic sense in such a person. Knowing a fair few things or many things is never undesirable but intervening in everything or having a closed mind and opinion is not healthy. That’s what you should explain to a know it all.