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Challenge the old ways of doing things

When James Calder set up Distinct Recruitment, he remembered the old ways – when bosses typically sat in their own office when he was a young employee – and it was something he wasn’t keen to repeat.

New leaders are sometimes guilty of running their businesses in the expected way, with cues taken from experience gleaned in an earlier job. But just because a previous employer offered company cars to senior staff or insisted that all the team went out for a “bonding” lunch on a Friday, you don’t have to.

Distinct Recruitment’s Calder had worked with bosses who hid themselves away in a private office and wanted to take a different approach himself. “There was a degree of prestige that went with it,” said Calder, “but the bosses’ offices also used to have quite a daunting feel about them – they were somewhere for younger workers to avoid at all costs.”

As a result, he deliberately doesn’t have his own office, choosing instead to put his laptop down on any free desk he can find.

Have a look at our full feature, where we find out how business leaders favour different working environments – some shut away and some with their employees.

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