Call Out Risks Up Front
When recommending an architectural or strategic direction, be sure to prominently call out the major risks involved in your proposal.
You might be tempted to paper over the risks involved in your proposal, probably because you think others will be more attracted to your plan that way. If you do this, you will appear dishonest, because you are.
An honest engineer is ready to acknowledge that all proposals carry risk. Calling them out up front shows that you have nothing to hide. This—maybe somewhat paradoxically—will lead other engineers to trust you more, not less.