Trust typically gets created between people, and usually in conversations. The Trust Creation Process, brought to us by the authors of The Trusted Advisor, is a five-step model describing how this works best: Engage, Listen, Frame, Envision, Commit—or “ELFEC” for short.

This is our last tip (for now) in a three-part series on the subject of intimacy—a word that businesspeople don’t usually associate with professionalism.

We’re continuing our conversation about intimacy, a deliberately provocative word to use in business.

At first blush, intimacy is a strange word to use in a business context. “What, I’m supposed to be intimate with my clients?”