Earning a Seat at the Table, Blog #19

When you enter a meeting room, where do you sit? Do you choose the chair in the corner, in the middle of the crowd, among friends, back of the room or do you head directly for a seat at the table? Your seat selection is an important indicator of where you see yourself in the organization. It also denotes your level of interest and focus on the discussion.

Cozy Corner. The corner seat keeps you out of the spotlight. It is safe, warm and makes it hard to be vocal when called upon to provide information as a subject matter expert. 

Middle of the Room (Middle of the Road). Choosing a seat in the middle of the meeting room may become a challenge for several reasons. It may cause you to disappear into the ether and meld into the crowd which may hinder you being viewed as a thought leader. In addition, you may be perceived as someone who chooses a middle of the road approach to supporting topics and projects. 

Sitting with the “Gang”: Sitting with your friends is a comfort element many of us learned in school and continue to follow as adults. Sometimes, you may attend conferences or other professional events and feel the need to sit with the “professional team”, “the gang”, or your pals who are like-minded thinkers as a way to ease crowds. The group may also help you to ease into the moment so you may feel like you have backups to help you manage the myriad of professional communications that may occur. The more positive peers around you, then you are more likely to go into the crowd as a group and rarely venture out to meet others with diverse views. 

Back of the Room: Some people may choose the seats in the back of the room for two reasons: they may have arrived late to the meeting or a lack of interest in the topic offers the opportunity to be disengaged enough during the session to check your emails and texts without being obvious. Neither one sends a positive signal to leadership that you are focused, engaged and interested in the meeting at hand. 

Taking a Seat at the Table: Some of us instinctively know where we will sit during a meeting…that is  

at the table. 

Those who choose to sit at the table and engage with leaders, managers and peers reflect a quality of leadership that is often forgotten as a tangible skill set. For example, those who sit at the table are viewed as confident, engaged in the communication process, willing to share and receive information as well as provide input for serious consideration. This is done without the distraction of friends sitting next to you or people trying to hear or see you from the corner or back of the room.

Next time you are invited to participate in a meeting and no other protocols are used to identify assigned seating, take the place you earned in the room. A seat at the table.