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.