One of the great motivators of humans is the drive to be included in the inside circle. We all understand this because we’ve been through grade school. Kids will throw away their morals, their inhibitions, and sometimes their self-respect to be an insider. This doesn’t change once we’ve grown up – everyone in your company wants to feel that they have access to the inner circle.
Rather than fight this reality, here are some ideas to satisfy this need:
- Give out a card to everyone in the company redeemable for 10 minutes with the CEO once/year at their request
- Rotate outside leaders through your monthly problem-solving meetings
- Develop the CEO habit of sharing lunch with a different group of people inside the company once/week
Ignore the law of the inner circle at your peril!