​I​f you’ve been with us for a few weeks, you’ve probably noticed a theme: personal risk-taking. This week’s tip highlights a special kind of risk-taking.

Imagine a long-term personal relationship, like a marriage, where difficult conversations are absent. It’s likely not a sustainable relationship. Concerns pile up over time, and if left unspoken, the relationship can’t benefit from the shared experience of intimacy that comes from working through them.

Most of us probably agree in theory with the principle of transparency—being honest, open, and candid. It is easy to say, “Honesty is the best policy!” Dig a little deeper and it is not so clear.

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?”

Leading with trust and being masterful with the “soft skills” takes something, both organizationally and personally. It starts with getting honest (and accurate) about your limitations.

The Trust Equation is a deconstructive, analytical model of trustworthiness. It includes four variables: credibility, reliability, intimacy, and self-orientation.