Where you sit influences where you stand

Via the BankersBall blog, I found some interesting business psychology 101 regarding conference room positioning from an article in BusinessWeek.

This is based on 40,000 people in Sharon Livingston's (a clinical psychologist and founder of the Livingston Group) career at dozens of large companies and has found that people fit into one of seven personality types based on where they sit, which she explains using the nomenclature borrowed from Snow White's seven dwarves. Those sitting opposite the person leading the meeting tend to be Grumpy or Doc, or a combination of the two, says Livingston. Grumpy is openly argumentative and may be hard to control. Doc is the person who faces off against the leader to show off his or her intelligence.

The person with the most power determines how everybody else positions themselves around the typical rectangular or oblong office table. As a rule, leaders like to sit at the end of the table facing the exit so no one can sneak up on them.

Be sure to review the table diagram located here to make sure you sit in the right seat.