[hinkley]

I've met some pieces of work in my time. One class that stands out is the people who, on purpose or subconsciously, will hammer on someone, manipulating there sense of rightness (and often lack of self-soothing skills) to extract... I don't know what. Overtime? Self-esteem/aggrandization? Something else?

I have a vivid recollection of a moment where I was explaining how we were actually going to fix a deep problem while in the corner of my vision I watched the face of the person who brought it up fall like a rock. He was clearly expecting a dodge, and I pulled some sort of 5 Why's judo move on him with a, "yes, and...".

Incidentally, one of the superpowers of being someone that people can have a frank and potentially confidential conversation with is that people will bring you 'maybe problems' that sometimes turn out to be nothing (teach them how to do it themselves next time) or a potentially very bad situation. Having even a half hour head start on people to start thinking about a big problem makes you look a hell of a lot smarter in the OMGWTF meeting that follows. If you save people from looking or feeling stupid in front of others, they will pay you huge dividends, including Right of First Refusal on all sorts of things.