How to deal with people who think they are better than you

No matter how smart you are, you need to know how to deal with people who think they are better than you. You are bound to meet people like that in your life. That’s the case even if you’re an internationally renowned scientist or MENSA member, because when people think they’re better than you, it’s them, not you.

come to some understanding

In order to properly treat people who think they are better than you, you need to take a closer look at them to find out what made them so arrogant. Often the reasons are deep-rooted, in childhood.

By finding out more about the person’s motives and background, you may discover that they actually lack self-confidence and therefore need to make you look worse than they do. It could also be that they grew up with authoritarian parents and that is the pattern of behavior they have learned.

Whatever the reason the person thinks they’re better than you, once you figure it out, you’ll be less intimidated by them and probably pity them. His arrogance will have lost her power over you.

increase self esteem

This is a two-way street. If you have higher self-esteem, you won’t worry about people who think they are better than you. You will be perfectly happy with your own abilities and you will realize that life is not a competition.

It is also possible that if you lack self-confidence, you may be mistaking confidence for arrogance. Perhaps the other person is as confident as you wish you were, and you are jealous. You are not in control of how the other person acts, but you are in full control of how you react to them.

Also, the last thing you might want to do is further boost the self-esteem of the person who you think knows more than you do, but may be exactly what you need. Perhaps they are arrogant because they feel abandoned and want to be recognized for their achievements.

If they feel confident in their abilities, they will have less need to brag and make you feel inferior.

However, if they continue to bluff, you may want to try a different tactic:

Minimize your achievements

Just treat the person who thinks they’re better than you like they are anyone else. Pay attention to them, but if they make exaggerated claims about your accomplishments, play it down. Point out how other people also contributed to the achievement, if that is the case, or how what they did is just a part of routine work tasks.

If you must, walk away

People who think they are better than you need an audience to brag to. Don’t be part of the audience; You have better things to do. That should help remind the arrogant person of his duties and her position.

So in learning how to deal with people who think they are better than you, you must initially fight your natural instincts to blank them out. Get to know them better and find out why they feel the need to put others down. If he needs a confidence boost, help him give it to him while protecting his own self-esteem and self-respect. If that fails or even makes them worse, they try to show the arrogant person for what they are: people just like anyone else, with strengths and weaknesses. This will help you deal with them even if it doesn’t help them change their behavior.