The Trusted Advisor: 20th Anniversary Edition

A common trait of all these trusted advisor relationships is that the advisor places a higher value on maintaining and preserving the relationship itself than on the outcomes of the current transaction, financial and otherwise.

Becoming a trusted advisor at the pinnacle level requires an integration of content expertise with organizational and interpersonal skills. Trust doesn’t just “happen” with the passage of time. Typically it requires a form of personal courage—the will and the skills to raise difficult issues, to communicate empathy and understanding, and the abilit