Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of performance through strong human relations, team building, and Goala giving. This is the seven Minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul Fellavaledo.
Hello everyone, and welcome to the seven Minute Leadership Podcast. It's episode seven forty. Today we're doing something a little different. I want you to imagine I walked into your office right now with a cardboard box, no warning, no explanation. I look around and say, you have sixty seconds. Put in this box. Anything that should not be in a leader's office. What goes in? Because offices tell stories, people think.
Leadership lives in meetings, speeches, strategic plans, and performance reviews. Sometimes leadership is sitting right there on your desk. Your office is not decoration. It is a mirror. Today I want to remove a few things from yours. Not because minimalism is trendy, because clutter creates friction, and friction creates bad leadership. So item number one, the chair that faces you instead of them. Look around. How is your office arranged? Does your desk create distance? Do people walk in and
immediately feel like they're being interrogated. I once heard someone say your office should feel like a conversation not a courtroom, and that's stuck with me. If every chair is lower than yours, farther away than yours, are positioned awkwardly, people notice. Employees decide within seconds whether this room is safe. So try this. Move the chairs sit beside. People occasionally create angles instead of barrier. You do not lose authority by
making people comfortable. You gain information and information wins. Item number two. Awards that expired ten years ago. I know this one hurts. The plaque, the Employee of the Month, the conference certificate, the trophy. Listen carefully, keep meaningful accomplishments, remove museum exhibits. If somebody walks into your office and learns more about who you used to be than who you are becoming, you have a problem. Replace one old
award with something current. A project roadmap, a customer letter, a team photo, a quote that challenges you. Leadership is not preserved in amber. Your office should communicate motion Item number three, the pile of I'll get to it. Every office has one papers, sticky notes, random printouts. That pile is not paper. That pile is stress. It's delayed decisions. So I want you to ask one question. If this pile disappeared tonight, would anyone notice? If the answer is no,
throw it out. Leaders lose energy carrying unfinished business. Create three folders instead action, waiting, archived, Everything gets assigned. No orphan paperwork. Item number four the giant desk calendar full of firefighting. I see leaders do this all the time. Their schedule becomes proof of importance. Back to back meetings, no breathing room, no thinking time. Their calendar says, react, react, react, react. Where's your leadership time? Block? Seven minutes a day, seven
intentional minutes, no phone, no email, no meetings. Think and ask what am I missing? Who needs recognition? What problem is coming next? Your office should remind you to lead, not survive. Item number five the candy bowl. Nobody talks about. Stay with me. This is not about nutrition. Every office has symbols. A candy bowl, a coffee station, open door, the guest chair, the whiteboard. What symbols exist in your office? Because culture leaks through objects. If your office says come in,
people will. If it says do not interrupt, people obey, So design intentionally. One leader I know keeps blank thank you cards visible. Another keeps an empty chair and calls it the customer seat. Everything communicates. Item number six, the hidden door policy. You say your door is open, but is it. If employees have to schedule three meetings and send two emails to talk to you, your office is closed. Remove unnecessary gates. You do not need to become available
every second. You do need to become reachable. Try office hours, Try walking meetings. Try spending thirty minutes per day outside your office. The best leaders are often found where the work happens. Item number seven. Remove the fake productivity props. Multiple monitors, seven notebooks, six apps open, five half read leadership books. Looking busy is not leading. What's in your office exists only to make you feel productive, be honest.
Remove one thing simplify. Complexity makes leaders feel important. Clarity makes leaders effective. Item number eight. Remove one thing that no longer represents you. This is your challenge today, before you end work, Remove one object, just one thing that represents old thinking, old habits, old identity. Replace it with something intentional. Because offices are not storage units, they are command centers, and command centers should reflect where you're going,
not where you got stuck. If somebody walked into your office today and had to describe your leadership style using only what they saw. What would they say? That question might tell you more than your annual review ever could. So take ten minutes this week and just stand in your doorway, look at your office like a visitor would see it, and just ask yourself, does this room create clarity? Does it create connection? Does it create conversation? Does it
create momentum? Leadership leave's finger prints everywhere, even on your desk. This has been the seven Minute Leadership podcast, and I thank you for listening.
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