As time passed, and a couple of jobs, I decided I’d better just keep my mouth shut, until I accidentally discovered, like you, that staying out of the gossip game didn’t mean that others left me out. On top of that, there were people who thought I knew stuff, but just wasn’t sharing with them.

So then I just decided to repeat everything I was told, always giving attribution to my source. This cut me out of the gossip loop in a hurry.

Now if somebody starts off a sentence with “Don’t say you heard I from me, but…” I stop them dead in their tracks and tell them that I don’t keep secrets and I give them permission to do the same with anything I say.

I have to point out that there’s a difference between healthy discretion and keeping secrets that develops with maturity, and in my case, making a handful of mistakes along the way.

But don’t tell anybody I said so.
.-= Don Lafferty´s last blog ..Trust Summit Breakfast with Trust Agents and Trusted Advisors: Trust Me =-.