To become a close ally of your boss, follow the rules of trust: rule number 1 is never to surprise the boss. Most leaders have what is called the inner circle. The inner-circle rule states that every leader has a close-knit group of people who s/he confides in for the most key secrets of the job. These are the people who do the errands of the boss for the success of the organization and the “close knit-group”. In politics, it is called the ruling team. These are people privy and close to top secrets. The next course of action. The…

Most of the time when leaders invite me to facilitate their strategic retreats, the first thing to do is to encourage self-discovery, break the boundaries to create team cohesion. To achieve this quickly, we do a simple exercise called the ‘trust game.’ In 2019, I was invited to facilitate a strategy retreat for the Board and EXCO. The CEO had earlier briefed me about one of the challenges the company was facing; poor board relationship due to trust issues.  As part of the retreat, the CEO asked me to help deepen bonding and trust among members for team cohesion. At…