how do I interrupt a monologuing coworker during a meeting?

A reader writes:

I would love some feedback/advice for how to deal with a difficult colleague in a different department. We work with this department to handle legal mattes for our group, so we have to liaise with him occasionally.

He is a terrible communicator. Every time we meet, he goes on long, irrelevant tangents that are the same or similar each time. We usually have a lot to cover in these meetings, and I hate wasting time when things need to get done.

At our most recent meeting, he had rescheduled a number of times and then at the last minute decided to call in rather than show up in person (so I was already annoyed). After being asked direct, straightforward questions, he started going on and on (and on) about something that wasn’t relevant. In the middle of his monologue, I interrupted him and said, “Thank you, but I’d like to keep this moving, we have a lot to cover.”

We moved on, but we could tell he was frustrated, and my two colleagues in the room told me afterwards that I shouldn’t have done that. He is senior to me and his role is really important, and I don’t want to be rude. But I also don’t want to continue sitting in countless meetings where things don’t get done because this person can’t do his job effectively. Help!

I answer this question over at Inc. today, where I’m revisiting letters that have been buried in the archives here from years ago (and sometimes updating/expanding my answers to them). You can read it here.

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