Advisors who rate the highest on reliability will not just deliver their work on time and on spec. Nor will they simply be consistent, even at a level of excellence. They will also be expert at a variety of small touches that are aimed at client-based familiarity. Sending meeting material in advance is one example; staying current on client events

requires a moderate amount of time to establish. For the rational component of credibility (believability) we can examine someone’s logic, or check someone’s claims against the direct experience of others (i.e., references). This doesn’t take long. The emotional side of credibility (honesty) takes longer to evaluate, because it takes longer to assu

Reliability in this largely rational sense is the repeated experience of links between promises and action. We judge someone’s reliability with due dates and quality levels: “on time and on spec.”

thoughts on reliability: 1. Make specific commitments to your client around small things: getting that article by tomorrow, placing the call, writing the draft by Monday, looking up a reference. And then deliver on them, quietly, and on time. 2. Send meeting materials in advance so that the client has the option of reviewing them in advance, saving

find (or create) a number of opportunities to demonstrate both rational and emotional reliability, by making promises, explicit or implicit, and then delivering on them.

Through the following kinds of behaviors (which both represent and help create an inner state of client focus): 1. Letting the client fill in the empty spaces 2. Asking the client to talk about what’s behind an issue 3. Using open-ended questions 4. Not giving answers until the right is earned to do so (and the client will let you know when you hav

no greater source of distrust than advisors who appear to be more interested in themselves than in trying to be of service to the client. We must work hard to show that our self-orientation is under control.

most egregious form of self-orientation is, of course, simple selfishness, being “in it for the money.”

Intimacy is about “emotional closeness” concerning the issues at hand, so it is obviously the most overtly emotional of the four trust equation components. It is driven by emotional honesty, a willingness to expand the bounds of acceptable topics, while maintaining mutual respect and by respecting boundaries. Greater intimacy means that fewer subje