Listen, listen, listen. I harp on it all the time in our programs and in these weekly tips. It’s a critical skill for anyone endeavoring to be a trusted advisor. And I don’t care how adept you think you are as a listener, there’s always room for improvement.

I made my way back up the aisle of an airplane last week and caught a glance of a laptop screen with an all-too-familiar display: a presentation slide with about 20 logos on it. Ah yes, the picture that’s worth 1000 words, meant to convey, “We work with organizations like yours, or organizations that should impress you, or both.” I assumed it was part of a pitch deck and immediately wondered how far into the deck this slide found itself.

I led a 30-minute webinar a couple of months ago. Attendees were global alumni from a consultancy that has hosted a series of my Trust-Based Business Development programs. The goal: boost everyone’s BD efforts over a 30-day period by issuing a “Monday Morning Promise Challenge.” The unexpected result: Me re-learning some of my own lessons about easy BD.

I recently wrote about how important I think it is for services professionals to stay grounded and centered and keep stress levels low. Toward that end, I wanted to share a specific practice with you—a personal one that I used as an opportunity to stretch this year.

The subject of authenticity came up recently in a workshop I was leading, and the conundrum of how to be trustworthy by simultaneously being yourself and being someone who adapts easily to others. Something occurred to me in the discussion that I’d never quite articulated before, which is that the answer lies in staying within our own authentic range.

I’m sure we’re similar in that we have more things to do in a day than there are hours in a day. You probably also struggle as I do to be really present from moment-to-moment—especially in your interactions with others—even though you know that’s an important part of walking the trusted advisor talk. We’re different, though, because you’re not a “spokesperson” for trusted advisorship, and therefore not hypocritical when you fail. And fail I did recently, in a very visible way.

Like you, I get a lot of unsolicited email inviting me to do business with strangers. Those messages are almost always immediately deleted or saved in the “How Not to Engage a Stranger”/“How Not to Ask for a Meeting” folder. (I really do have said folder.)

I brought a little improv comedy into a Trust-Based Business Development class I was leading last week, by way of simple warm-up games and exercises that I learned from expert Shawn Westfall. I was reminded of the power of humor to connect people, to defuse tension, and to create overall feelings of goodwill. Then I remembered a study that indicates humor also makes you more credible. That sounds like another trust paradox to me.

You may recall the retrospective from a few months ago on three extraordinary women (a new broadcaster, pop diva, and my mom) and what they can teach us about trust-building. Now it’s the men’s turn:

Charlie and I wrote about specific ways to accelerate trust-building in The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook, and excerpted a list of 15 favorites. The last on the list, about which I’ve never before written here, might just be the most powerful.