This is the 269^th tip I have written, and I realized the other day that there’s one critical construct I haven’t focused on since Tip #15—and even then, I didn’t cover it very thoroughly. It’s time to circle back.

The construct I’m referring to is a mnemonic device I created when Charlie and I were writing The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook. I call it the Three Ps. I’ve since come to see how important the Three Ps are because they shape our thinking about trust, and mindsets are everything when it comes to trust building.

Last week, I shared five communication pitfalls that leaders are too often felled by during times of great change and uncertainty—specifically related to broadcasts (like presentations and staff-wide emails) as well as dialogue. I promised more trustworthy options this week, so here we are.

I usually work specifically with people who are in client-facing roles, helping them be more influential and impactful by leading with trust. I recently had an opportunity to look at key trust lessons through a different lens, as I worked with a group of senior leaders on how to communicate with staff in more trustworthy ways. I think my preliminary conclusions are worth sharing, so here we are.

I work with so many great thinkers and generally super-smart people who routinely fail to be as influential as they could be simply because they lean too heavily on false assumptions about how rational we human beings are. Today’s tip aims to shed some light on a more effective approach.

There are a few really important things we go to work on in our deep dive workshops on trusted advisorship and trust-based selling and one of them is uncovering blind spots. This week’s tip offers three specific ways you can do a little self-study on the topic. And by the way, if you think you don’t have any blind spots, read on; that might be your biggest and most worrisome blind spot.

Last week’s tip on the importance of knowing who you are (and aren’t) had me thinking about a striking example that we can all learn from, thanks to … the state of Nebraska? Yes, the state of Nebraska.

Apparently, Nebraska has had a tourism problem. For four years in a row, it ranked last on the list of states that Americans wanted to visit.

Bring to mind someone you know who’s confident without being arrogant, humble yet not overly self-deprecating, and generally enjoyable to be around. What is it that we universally admire about people with these traits? This week’s tip answers the question and helps us all be a little more like them.

I’m always on the lookout for examples of distinctive—and real—communications. This week’s tip features a great illustration from the software development world. While techies aren’t usually known for their interpersonal prowess (I can say that because I used to be one), in this case we could all borrow a page from their book.

I have a client who’s a senior leader in a large consulting firm and looking hard at whether or not it’s time to go elsewhere. This isn’t a trivial move as there are many years of investment to consider (mental, emotional, financial). He’s seriously exploring his options anyway. Not surprisingly, he’s being recruited by several other companies (all competitors with his current firm). One of them made an unconventional offer as part of the courtship that’s well worth sharing here—not to mention finding ways to emulate.

We had a really interesting discussion in a team meeting the other day about a trust-building technique that we’ve been espousing for years (one that Charlie Green first wrote about in Trust-Based Selling in 2005 and has been a favorite of mine ever since he taught it to me). We talked about how that technique, when used by women, might unintentionally compromise their trust-building efforts in a big way. This week’s tip digs a little deeper into the issue and proposes a solution that actually applies to women as well as men.