Your reliability is essential if people are to associate you, and gravitas. And the first key to this is to avoid assertions. Say only what you can back up with data and evidence and hard experience. The second is to gag gossip. It's easy. It's seductive, and it's pleasurable.

But it is a total waste of time and will completely undermine your gravitas. Leave gossip to other, more lightweight people. And third, carry out commitments. Make sure that your word is your bond. Do what you say. undertake what you promised to undertake.

If you do this, people will trust you. If you do not, they won't. And if people don't trust you, you have no gratitude