The Trusted Advisor

Although written for professional advisors, this is useful for mentors because it examines credibility, reliability, intimacy, and self-orientation. VMT’s altruistic model creates unusually favorable conditions for trusted relationships, but trust must still be earned through behavior.

Readers learn how trust develops, why excessive self-focus weakens advisory relationships, and how listening, reliability, discretion, and genuine concern affect whether difficult advice can be heard.