The cave dweller syndrome may be impacting your ability to connect, communicate and socialize. A CEO may have cave dweller syndrome. This is when the CEO has the hidden corner office and rarely comes out to interact with fellow employees. A large publicly traded company CEO may have access to a limo, a protection team and a private jet. Not much interaction going on here with the “regular folks”.

The CEO might answer, “Do you know how many meetings I attend?” … “Okay and how many people there challenge you or in reality bobble head yes to everything you say. This is not interacting. It is closer to dictating.”

A founder of a start up may spend hours or even days locked up working on the idea, the concept, the rollout and easily loses track of time. Often the human interaction in person with other people may fall by the wayside. As cave dweller syndrome sets in there is limited feedback or interaction from the outside world.

The entrepreneur busy running their own business may have cave dweller syndrome. They may find themselves squirreled away for hours on end working on their business and not interacting, not networking, not socializing with other people other than their family and often not doing this too well (a topic to discuss in another article).

Recently in speaking with one of the under thirty generation about daily habits, work and productivity, the topic of staying in touch with the news and current events came up.

Basically the entire idea of staying in touch with what is going on in the world and current news is considered ‘clutter’ of the mind. If a topic of interest happens to come over on twitter or on facebook and the item appears to be of interest, well then it is looked up online. Maybe one or a few newsfeeds are subscribed to or not.

What do you think about this behavior? Would you consider this to be higher productivity and a clear mind to get work done more effectively or another cave dweller syndrome participant?

Here are a few suggestions which will not greatly interrupt the established routine and may actually pull someone out of the cave dweller syndrome.

First – join a round table or a mastermind group. The CEO might participate in an Executive Mastermind Group. Confidentiality is primary and best practices and advice are openly shared. Similar to groups run by me.

Second – work with an Executive Coach, trusted advisor, a person from the outside who is there for you and only for you. Study after study reflect the great performance improvement and impact of working with an Executive Coach. The ICF certification held by me is attained by less than 5% of coaches.

Third – network like your life depends upon it. NSN – Never Stop Networking. Start by approaching this by thinking – “how may I add value to others?”

Want some guidance on networking listen to my networking audio – click here to download my Ninja Networking Secrets audio and be sure to follow me on Facebook.

Mitch Tublin is an advanced certified executive and personal coach, a business consultant and professional speaker who resides in Stamford, CT.