Cameron Herold tells the story of a Las Vegas CEO who broke down barriers with employees by letting them into his personal life. The CEO discovered that transparency and openness actually strengthened his relationship with the team.
I was working with a CEO in Las Vegas, and he said, I don't want to be totally transparent with my employees because I don't want them to know how much money I'm making. I'm like, dude, they get it. You show up every day in a 50 foot long limousine. You have two private Cessna Citation jets with a pilot who's waiting for you. They know you're rich. So that weekend, he brought all of his employees to his home, this massive mansion in Las Vegas. And they already knew he was rich, but they were excited to be brought inside of his life for the first time. And he realized that he could be totally transparent as well. Try it. It totally works.