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Trust in Thought Leadership

#ThoughtLeadership w/o trustworthiness = disaster.
Brilliant insights are simply not enough.
Your team can promote your ideas everywhere.
But without #trustworthiness, you’re sunk.
So what is trustworthiness?

It’s not an edict.

You can’t simply tell your clients and prospects —
“trust us. We know.”

Those words will be a huge red flag to your audience.

One of my favorite frameworks (of all time) is
the #Trust Equation by David Maister and Charles H. Green.

Credibility + Reliability + Intimacy
———————————— = #Trustworthiness
Self-Orientation

This framework isn’t something you can calculate in a spreadsheet, it’s more a mental heuristic.

🗣️Credibility has to do with the words we speak and the claims we make.

👍Reliability connects to our actions, dependability, and follow-through.

🦺Intimacy speaks to the sense of safety and security when they entrust us with something — their needs, concerns, etc.

🤳Self-Orientation refers to focus and motivation. For thought leadership, why are you sharing this idea? Are you being pushy or salesy?

Self orientation lives in the denominator. As it increases — trustworthiness trends towards zero.

But it’s really useful for orgs as they plan and deploy thought leadership campaigns.

How are you and your team increasing the #trustworthiness of your org’s thought leadership?


I write about
#ThoughtLeadership #OrgTL #B2BMarketing

I publish on
most weekdays and some weekends