These are often the “high skill, low will” people you work with. They know everything, but don’t want to share it. It’s a source of power for them as a way to control others and how they are valued in the organization.

Often this is driven out of insecurity: they choose this strategy rather than being confident enough to share their information as part of a team. They prefer being an individual contributer. They think if they share their information, their value to the organization goes down, and they become disposable.

These are hard people to deal with. Here are my suggestions:

1. If you’re a manager, start creating opportunities for knowledge sharing. Have the individuals present to each other what they are working on, initiate a project where people need to document their processes. If you include your whole team, it’s not targeted at one individual….and the person won’t want to appear like they’re the only ones not participating.

2. If it’s a colleague, keep asking questions. Usually, the hoarder thinks they can wear you down by being defensive. Keep asking, but in an interested way: not a “just tell me and I’ll leave you alone” way.  People tend to respond when you’re interested in them, not just what you can get from them. Bringing them a cup of coffee can also help!

3. If it’s your boss, this is the phrase I use: “I want to do my best work, but I can’t because…..” It doesn’t put blame on anyone, but it makes it clear that I can’t do what I need to do.  If my boss doesn’t seem to want to teach me, I’ll say: “I want to do my best work, but I haven’t been able to get all the information I need to do that. I know you’re really busy, is there someone else I can talk to for help?”

One other tip: I tend to over-compliment them publicly: “Thanks to Susie’s help, we were able to get this done on time.” If you share the credit visibly, they’re more likely to help you the next go around.