Your Desk – Your Barrier

Your desk is a barrier to effective leadership. Yes, that hunk of furniture holding all those papers, pictures, and your computer is a barrier…if you try to lead from behind it.

Where you place your desk in your office is truly a Subtlety of Leadership. In fact, it is so subtle that most corporate leaders never think about the impact it may have on employees entering your office.

Your office is a direct reflection of you. It reflects your likes and dislikes. It shows your style and it tells your story. In fact, salesmen are taught to form an early bond with customers by quickly surveying a client’s office to find clues about things the customer likes.

Since your office is a reflection of you, what does it say to employees when you place a large, solid object between you and them? As Hunt & Weintraub wrote in their book, The Coaching Manager,

“It takes more than open-door management. It takes an awareness of the fact that as a leader, you’re always sending signals. Does your behavior signal that you’re interested in the employee, or not?”

Like it or not, when you sit across a desk from an employee, the physical structure creates a barrier that you must overcome to effectively lead. Good communication is already difficult. Creating artificial barriers makes it even more so. When there is a desk between you and another person, the desk may imply that you are "above" them. The discomfort that arises can impede the communication process and erode your ability to lead.

Sitting across a desk from your employee also shows a general lack of decorum. That’s not just my opinion. Read what Cynthia Grosso, the Founder of the Charleston School of Protocol and Etiquette wrote:

“I suggest that you do not sit across the desk from your guest, but rather put him/her next to you on the same side of the desk. This means your office needs to be set up with two chairs on the same side of the desk. This positioning eliminates the desk as a barrier between you and your guest.”

The topic of a desk-as-a-barrier is nothing new. In fact, clinical studies conducted almost sixty years ago demonstrated that positioning a desk between a doctor and a patient increased the patient’s anxiety five-fold! The 1953 study at Mount Sinai Hospital measured how cardiac patients reacted when they were seated across from a physician with and without a desk between them. The results were staggering: 55.4% were judged ‘at ease’ when no desk was present versus only 10.8% when a desk was between them.

A good leader doesn’t lead from behind a desk. She knows that she will look at emails or start glancing at whatever is on her desk. Don’t kid yourself. People know when you aren’t focused on them or what they are saying. M. Scott Peck said it best "You cannot truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time."

Good leaders strive to create a sense of commonality or common ground. If your desk is situated correctly, there will be open space between you and your employee when he enters your office. This puts you in a powerful position in which you can turn to face them. This subtle act of moving ‘toward’ the person indicates an openness and willingness to communicate. On top of that, researchers at University of Northern Iowa determined that individuals using open body positions are perceived more positively and are considered more persuasive than those with closed body positions.

To know whether your desk is situated properly, stand in your office doorway. Can you walk directly from your door to your chair without going around your desk? If not, it is likely that anyone walking into your office will be forced to communicate across the barrier you created with your desk.

There is one caveat to this rule; don’t place your desk so your back is to the door or entrance. This is less welcoming, could be misinterpreted as disinterest and may make you appear unapproachable.

While the method described above is ideal, there are plenty of situations in which the desk as a barrier cannot be overcome. A prime example is a cubicle or office in which the furniture is attached. Office size may also restrict your ability to situate the desk properly. In addition, desk placement is not usually an issue in home offices or offices in which you don’t have visitors.

If you cannot avoid a “barrier desk”, try one of these options to minimize its impact on your ability to communicate your message:
- place a chair at the end of your desk
- always move around and sit next to your employee
- ensure that all meetings and extended discussions are conducted over a round table (rectangular tables always have a ‘head’)