Corner offices are out, contemporary layouts with greater interaction are in. Here’s why—and how to furnish them.

Ask the average worker when the last time they had a casual conversation with the CEO was and the answer may surprise you.

Executives who used to operate almost exclusively behind closed doors and glass walls are becoming intentionally accessible. Netflix’s Reed Hastings and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg have made sitting in the so-called trenches part of their professional personas. But the benefits of leading an organization from the ground up hold true outside Silicon Valley.

Here are four essential principles to make the pivot to a more modern executive — and how office and furniture design help make it successful.

Featured Products: Cofi® seating and Workwall®

Lead by Example, and with Empathy

Collaboration requires role models, and in an organizational hierarchy, that responsibility falls on leadership. Workers want to know executives are involved and conscious of decisions that impact their jobs. Transparency is a fundamental element of companies with high employee engagement, and the best leaders use it to rally teams to a common goal. Beyond increasing engagement, workplace transparency also improves morale, boosts performance, and lowers job-related stress.

A survey conducted by HR solutions provider Businessolver found 87% of CEOs across all industries believe their financial performance is determined by their company’s empathy. Yet the same study revealed a significant drop since last year in perceived empathy by their own employees — among fellow workers, executives, and the company overall.

Even in open offices, empathy sometimes requires privacy, particularly when it comes to personnel matters like interviews and performance reviews. Create a shared executive space that fulfills that expectation. Consider HON’s Concinnity™ for the presence such conversations require. Its sleek design offers a respectful upscale appearance that still delivers functionality for whatever the day has in store, with superior configuration options to suit any need or taste.

Featured Products: Ignition® seating, Voi® desk, and Matter® collaborative seating

Embrace Influence as the New Marker of Success

Dynamic workforces need dynamic workspaces. Corporate architecture firm CBRE found 51% of organizations polled anticipate a shift toward more agile office layouts within the next two years, a jump from just 17% that considered flexibility a driving factor in the design of their current environment.

“Hierarchy, in a more virtual world, relates to influence in an organization, not an expression of physical space,” notes Lenny Beaudoin, global Head of Workplace Design at CBRE. “There are other things that matter more and that everyone sees inside of an organization, which are types of projects that people work on and the influence they have inside the company.”

For daily use, choose a desk that signals your shared purpose. HON’s Voi® series of compact workstations come in various configurations with options to serve employees and executives equally. Whether used as individual touch-down spaces, or arranged into enclaves that bring teams together and foster collaboration, it’s among our most versatile workstation solutions.

Featured Product: Cliq® seating, Empower® Workstations, and Fuse™ Storage

Democratize Space

Perks like private bathrooms and designated parking aside, the most conspicuous standard of executive status used to be square footage. In the United States, 90% of corporate real estate is allocated by title. But research shows that mindset is shifting, favoring teams and departments whose roles require more room to create and collaborate.

That’s why Google CEO Sundar Pichai shares the same space as the company’s artificial intelligence lab. “Any CEO thinks a lot about where people are sitting — who they can walk around and have casual conversations with,” explains Diane Greene, who oversees Google’s cloud computing team and sits on the board of Alphabet, Google’s parent company. “It is a very significant statement that he has moved that group right next to him.”

All of that collaboration demands storage that’s just as innovative. HON’s Flagship® and Contain® Storage Islands are often the perfect fit. Infinitely scalable and available in more than a dozen classic and contemporary finishes, both add horizontal work surfaces and fit seamlessly into dedicated project spaces and informal meeting spots so workers will have access to the materials they need, from markers to note cards, to adapters and batteries, when and where they need them.

Discover the Advantages of Immersion

Startups exist to shake up the status quo. When it comes to workplace design, their philosophies about hands-on leadership and office layout often intersect.

“While chiefs at Facebook and Google are known for designing seating charts that bring the most critical teams closest to them, I prefer to fill desks across from me with new hires,” notes Sanjay Beri, CEO of cloud transformation firm Netskope. “I’m sure it’s unnerving for employees on day one, but by the end of their first month these folks have had an accelerated course in the culture that makes Netskope what it is.”

Seating options are just as important as seating arrangement, and HON has the right solution for every space. From the sleek sophistication of our Cofi™ executive conference chair to the universal utility and custom feel of our Cipher™ and Nucleus® task chairs, finding the right fit for everyone is easy.