My very first job in High School was working for my neighbors who owned Country Boy’s Home & Garden Center in Greenville, SC.
My office space was an outdoor nursery filled with plants, herbs, shrubs, pine needles and produce. Allen and Lucy were generous to provide me with more responsibility than a 15 year old kid should have had. It was a great training ground.
From there my office spaces consisted of a cubicle, a car, an airplane, and now a secluded space overlooking a beautiful lowcountry view.
Even with seclusion, distraction is just a click away. Owners and key leaders must have incredible discipline to resist distraction and to set space where distraction is a minimum.
Enter the “owners space”.
While working with a non-governmental organization I spent time with a number of stakeholders of the organization. One such stakeholder was a much older man who was a land developer and philanthropist in North Texas. In the 2000’s, his office still carried the interior design touches of an office outfitted in the late 1960’s. Not much had changed; mustard yellow kitchen appliances, retro toilets, shag carpet, and brown panel walls. It was gross and touching.
What struck me was the desktop computer in his office that was never powered on. On one occasion I walked into his office and asked to pull up and article, he spun around in his chair and called for his assistant to come power up his computer. He had no desire to even learn the simple power button. Just another distraction.
This owner was focused and locked in on developing land and giving away money.
Your workspace is important. We are constantly encouraging owners and their key leaders to paint the walls of their space with heads-up-displays of mission, values, process, and workflow.
Recently, during one of our Architect coaching calls (Architecture Firm Freedom Formula with myself and Enoch Sears), one of the firm owners shared this picture with us...
This is the owner's space. Notice a Master Process Roadmap (the large printed image), an updated Org Chart (the smaller printed image), printed process, books, notebooks, and no computer.
Obviously we are not saying you do not need technology, you do, but it needs to be harnessed in boundaries.
The owner’s space should be setup like the dashboard of a cockpit with all of the necessary instruments to fly your business. What are those?
First, every business owner should have their vision story, mission statement, and unique core values printed out, posted and reviewed continually. These are the ultimate leveling tools to help you the owner determine if you are on course with the correct heading.
I write about how to develop a vision story, mission statement, and unique core values in full detail in my book Let Your Business Burn: Stop Putting Out Fires, Discover Purpose, And Build A Business That Matters.
Write them, print them, post them, and implement over and over.
Second, every business owner should have copies of a current Org Chart, Weekly Schedule, and Master Process Roadmap (all processes that exist in the business...see the larger printed image in the picture above) printed out and posted on the wall.
Also, owners should consider using our Business On Purpose Implementation Dashboard. It is a brief snapshot of what you should be thinking through daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, semesterly, and annually as a business owner.
Finally, every business owner should have completed and printed their updated 12 Week Plan. Brian Moran has written a powerful book, 12 Week Year: Get More Done In 12 Weeks Than Others Do In 12 Months.
We have sent hundreds of these books to people over the past couple of years. We even run an entire event based on these principles every 12 weeks so our local and virtual business owners and their teams are on the same page with their 12 week plans.
Your space should be set apart, special, unique, and should facilitate your highest and deepest level of work.
If technology or those trophies from 10th grade are distracting you, move them somewhere else and setup your office on purpose. The owner’s space should be an intentional place to think, to lead, to vision, to innovate, to build, to design, and a place that empowers you to say “yes” to the right things and “no” to the wrong things.
Scott Beebe is the founder of Business On Purpose, author of Let Your Business Burn: Stop Putting Out Fires, Discover Purpose, And Build A Business That Matters. Scott also hosts The Business On Purpose Podcast and can be found at mybusinessonpurpose.com.