Learn to read the people, politics and games operating beneath the surface — before they cost you.
Your Corporate Play Score — the 4-minute assessment
The 90-Day Corporate Power Journal
You can be a high performer and still get overlooked — or blindsided.
And underneath them all, five older questions:
Do I matter here? · Am I secure? · Am I inside? · Do I have a say in what happens to me? · Am I actually able to do this?
You are not imagining it.
When you cannot name the pattern, you question yourself.
When you can name it, you choose what to do next.
Notice what others miss.
Recognise the motive and the game.
Choose your move instead of reacting.
POWER = READ + NAME + MOVE
The inner circle. The loyalty trap. The credit thief. The tall poppy cut. The sponsor who is really just a mentor.
You have met them. Now they have names.
The person with the most power over your career is the one you understand least.
Start here if the problem feels like one relationship.
Something keeps happening. Coincidence — or a pattern?
The exact move being played on you. 25 tactics · 6 types · 25 diagnostic questions · 25 scripts.
Start here if you can feel it but cannot prove it.
You are doing the work. The decisions are happening somewhere else.
Start here if the problem is bigger than one person.
My boss is the problem.
I keep noticing strange behaviour.
I am being excluded from decisions.
I think I am being manipulated.
I do not know. Something feels off.
Overlooked is the polite word. Blindsided is the honest one.
You cannot win games you cannot see.
You stop rehearsing conversations at six in the morning.
You stop wondering if it is you. It rarely was.
You see the move before it lands.
You walk in knowing where the decision really sits.
You choose your move — instead of carrying a feeling.
Your career is shaped by both. Only one is written down.
Performance is visible. Power moves underneath.
Manipulation is influence that hides intent and bypasses consent. Name the move, and it loses most of its power.
The complete 25-tactic toolkit is included with Playbook 02.
And much harder to play.
You do not need to manipulate anyone back — or turn every difficult colleague into an enemy.
Tell a difficult moment from a pattern. Influence from manipulation. A mentor from a sponsor. Discomfort from risk.
Some of it is not a game. Bullying and gaslighting: record, and get support.
Accuracy over paranoia. Discernment over fear. Choice over reaction.
The point was never to make you suspicious. It was to make you less afraid.
I knew how to perform. I knew how to lead. And I still got blindsided.
Rooms I stopped being invited into. Moves I understood only after they landed. It cost me sleep, confidence, and years of wondering if it was me.
Then I learnt to read the games — and the system behind them. It changed everything. It took me to the C-suite, and kept me there for twelve years.
I read hundreds of leadership books. Not one taught me this. The values on the wall are written for the company. This is written for you.
Doing the job and reading the system are two different skills.
The first got me noticed. The second got me promoted.
I would rather you had both sooner.
See What Others Miss.
WHAT CEOS, COACHES, HR EXECUTIVES AND BOARD MEMBERS SAY
Not to competitors. To confusion. Built for the individual — it improves the organisation by design.
VAULT is where we read them.
A private circle for people learning to read power accurately. Real situations. Live reads. Private briefings. New patterns.
Read the people, politics and games — before they cost you.
FREE: Your Corporate Play Score · The 90-Day Corporate Power Journal
VAULT is a trading name. The Invisible Games of Corporate Power™ © 2026 Linda Reddy.
