Why Sit Behind a Desk?

So many people meet prospective employees, visitors and sales representatives while sitting behind a desk. We see this all the time in movies and on TV but does that make it right? Well, it depends on what you want to accomplish.
Sitting behind a desk maintains a distance and a barrier between you and the other person. For some situations, this might be appropriate, for others, possibly not. When you have a barrier between you and another person, it's difficult to form a relationship.
For the person using a big desk, it can act as a barrier, an intimidator or as a power play. Perhaps you are just going through the motions of interviewing, a big desk helps you keep your distance. Perhaps you don't like your sales rep but want to hear about a new product--this keeps the relationship at a distance. Perhaps you want to make certain that an employee knows who's boss! The big desk helps get the message across.
But. . . .. . . . . . . what about the person you do want to get to know? What about the prospective employee that will fill a critical position in your organization? What about the sales professional that has solved numerous problems for your company? What about a key employee that just saved your company a large amount of money? Is the big desk what you want them to remember from your conversation?
OK, you don't want to get rid of the big desk. No problem, get a small round table with chairs and have your face to face conversations there so there are no barriers between you and the other person. No room in your office? What about a conference room? No conference room? How about a sitting area with sofas and chairs.
The key for effective relationship building is to eliminate barriers. When you eliminate barriers, you can move closer to the person in order to create results.
Another reason to move away from the big desk--you can see a person's lower body language. Most people today have learned to control their upper body language but not the lower. When you don't have the big desk obstructing your view, you can look for signs of deception and can see the shifting feet, the nervous hands, the fidgeting foot. All critical pieces of communication that you would miss with the big desk.