executive office success

When you’re moving into an executive office, there’s a lot think about. First, you need to organise the office space to suit your working environment, get your desk, furniture and decor in order, get your team motivated and organised and that’s before you start getting in touch with clients, coordinating meetings or making appointments!

Below is our insider's guide to running a successful executive office. We’ve put this together because we’ve had a lot of experience working with all types of executives and business people, setting up their offices and helping them establish their business in our Brisbane based executive office spaces

Be a motivated and disciplined executive

This is probably the most important aspect of walking into your office every morning. Without motivation you will never have the spark to want to get things started, and more importantly without discipline you will never move forward and get the work done.


Dave Berke spent 23 years in the Marine Corps as a fighter pilot and has this to say in his article titled “I spent 23 years as an elite fighter pilot, and it taught me that motivation is meaningless” 

“In real life, when fear, fatigue, and doubt set in, no speech can provide the motivation you need to keep going. The only thing you and your team can rely on is discipline.”

Now he was talking about a combat situation which is obviously very different to the business world, but a lot of his lessons can be juxtaposed for today's business executive and their team. In Dave’s article he focuses heavily on discipline, which makes sense given his military background but here at Milton Business Centre we think both motivation and discipline are two very important aspects of being successful in business. 

Further reading on motivation and discipline:-

Discipline Equals Freedom by Jocko Willink
F**k It – Do What You Love by John C. Parkin
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel H. Pink 
Don't Sweat the Small Stuff by Richard Carlson
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey  

Organise your team

Organising teams can sometimes be hard work as not everyone will work the way you work or be as motivated by the same things you are or as disciplined as you can be. 
Everyone has their own personal style or preferenced when it comes to how they organise their workspace or get stuck into that important project. Understanding your team’s personalities, motivations and preferences when it comes to getting them organised and motivated is essential for getting the most out of your team (and yourself).

There’s a lot of articles online and books dedicated to getting and being organised, we’ve boiled all these down to ten points to easily digest:-

  1. Empower your team to make decisions
    • Empower your team to make decisions. This will help speed up the decision making process and give a sense of ownership on projects.
  2. Focus your strategies on solutions
    • Focusing on solving the problems of your customers will immediately lead to strong strategies that will positively affect revenue and profits 
  3. Build a sense of ownership throughout your team.
    • Ownership of projects means teams and individuals will be personally invested in the success of the project.
  4. Align your team’s self interest with the organisations interests
    • By aligning personal interests with the organisation’s interest people are more likely to be motivated to do well in all aspects of the project / business. 
  5. Choose smarts over skills
    • Anyone can be trained in a certain skill, but it’s hard to teach someone how to be smart, inquisitive and hungry for answers and solutions.
  6. Understand your team's strengths and weaknesses
    • Don’t ask a creative person to work on spreadsheets or accounts all day, likewise if someone loves crunching numbers, public speaking or public relations probably isn’t going to be one of their strengths.
  7. Monitor progress
    • Check in on yourself and your team often.Are you on target for that particular element of that particular job? If not then it’s likely the whole project will blow out.
  8. Celebrate small wins
    • If you only congratulate or celebrate when a project is completed, it’s likely your team will get fatigued. Celebrating small wins gives people the motivation to keep going. 
  9. Be a leader, not a dictator
    • Leading by example is the best way to show people what you expect of them and gain respect. 
  10. Have crystal clear goals and vision
    • By making sure everyone knows where you should be headed, there’s no reason to run off the track into the dirt.

Design and Decor

Now this is mostly taken care of in our Brisbane executive office suites, however there’s nothing stopping you adding your own elements to our serviced offices. At the Milton Business Centre we’ve opted to go for a range of different furnishing types with modern executive decor and wooden mahogany furnishings. This provides a nice contrast of natural tones and modern decor.

Dress for Success

Part of running a successful business, team or project is about how others perceive you and more importantly how you perceive yourself. The difficulty with appearance is that many people (customers included) attribute your appearance to your performance. By understanding what’s appropriate for your industry and how your customers might expect you look and dress, you can ensure that you fit within the bounds of good taste and expectations whilst giving your own personal flair to your style. 

If you’re feeling good because you look good, chances are you’ll be doing good work that day!

Better Business Presence

Creating a better business presence is part knowledge, part confidence and part training. Gaining knowledge in your field, your products and your customer’s problems will help you understand how your business can help and assist your customers with services and products. 

A deep knowledge of your customer’s headaches and the solutions you can provide will lead you to be more confident when talking to, writing about or explaining your services to someone. 
From there if you have the appropriate training to close the deal, get the job done and support it with great customer service, you’re onto a winning combination. 

The final word

Running an executive office is sometimes difficult but if done right, the rewards will always outshine the challenges. If you’re looking for a serviced executive suite to rent in Brisbane, feel free to give us a call on 1800 629 143.

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If you have questions about our Serviced Offices, Virtual Offices or Meeting Spaces, please feel free to contact us by phoning direct on (07) 3842 3111, Emailing or fill in your details below

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