1. The silky skills of the best suits mean they can deliver negative feedback or outright criticism and make you feel like you just won the lottery. A common trick is taken straight from marriage guidance counselling – deliver five complements in relation to one piece of negative feedback.
2. If someone delivers some great news, some wonderful complements or even heated agreement and then says 'but' we all know they didn't mean a word they just said. I has a junior suit who used to say, "I agree completely, but….". He was a bit of a joke. The cunning suit will say, "I agree with you AND…." Hoodwinking the less subtle of us into thinking they're building on your argument rather than destroying it.
3. They will never speak negatively of anyone behind their back, as they know there is a wierd quirk of psychology that when we do this, the traits we asign to the people we're talking about are actually asigned to us! So what they do instead is pretend to be enthusiastic about the person and find away to be enthusiastic about their deepest flaws. For example, "I love our creative director, it;'s amazing how he managed to overcome that untrue scandal about the scam work". "Oh yes, Jenny, isn't it great how she's managed to not be judged just on the fact her Dad is one a shareholder".
4. They never rise to conflict. No matter how much someone winds them up or tries to shaft them, they kill them with kindness. They evil bastards know that nothing winds an aggressor looking for a fight more than you not wanting them. They know that no one looks more like bigger person in the eyes of others than the one who happily lets others vent spleen and use underhans tactics – they're just extremely cunning in makin sure others know about it (see above).
5. They never win arguments. They always find a way to con you into thinking you got more out of it than you did, or making think you won, when you lost horribly. And they behave in victory in manner more akin to a loser.
6. They let everyone else speak first. They know that excitable creatives, planners and clients can't wait to get their word in. They'll let a discussion run it's course and then insert their point like a rapier precisely when it will the most effect, mostly when everyone is exhausted and can't remember what they were talking about.
7. There are interested. Suits are great at making you feel like the most special people in the world, simply by making you believe they care about what you care about. They can, of course, talk about all sorts of stuff, but they're great at listening a lot, especially when you're talking about things close to your heart. They'll have learned that you love obscure Brazilan cinema and will have developed a working knowledge of it, or got you to teach them.
8. They never flap. Inside. they might be burning and ready to get a McJob rather than deal with the fact Clearcast have just put a big no on the script it took months to develop, or the fact the client won't pay because they hate the work, but they know they need to lead by example and project an aura of calm and optimism which is infectious enough to pull everyone together to solve the task in hand.
9. Suits are devious. They always make sure they know the people that really make agencies tick. That means in creative agencies traffic, and in all places the PA's who are the gatekeepers to directors and such, internally and externally.
10. They dress better than you.
NORTHERN PLANNER 
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