The A Group has just moved into its new offices. This is the third, and the largest, office space I have helped design for my company; however, this is the smallest corner office I’ve had since the beginning of our company 10 years ago. The shrinking of my personal space and the growth of my company is both symbolic and practical. It’s been a slow learning curve for me to lead a growing group of highly talented professionals. Here are some thoughts about my shrinking office:

The A Group is much more than the sum total of my skills. At one point I ran a business that was mostly, if not solely, dependent on my abilities. When you hire smart people, they will not stay around unless you allow them to grow, find their place, and make their unique contribution. You cannot do that if you believe that every great idea must come from one source, and that being you. I’ve watched my team flourish over the past years and continue to do so.

It is important to put our resources where it will best serve the organization. No one in our executive team, including me, got new furniture for their new offices. But we bought state-of-the-art Herman Miller workstations for our entire tech team. After years of working shoulder to shoulder, these guys deserved the upgrade. The executive team unanimously decided that it was the best way to invest our resources.

I am more secure than ever before in my team’s abilities to do amazing work instead of my personal brand. The entire organization has become the source of my professional pride and not my over-sized office or ego. I’m not saying that if you have a big office, you have a big ego. But it was true for me. And while my ego is still rather large, I have realized that the quality of what we do is more important than the wow of a large corner office.