Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho....

If you're on the management track, appearances matter - and not just in how you dress or present yourself physically. Speaking to BusinessWeek, Sharon Livingston, a consultant who's studied the dynamics of people in the office, uses the unfortunately analogy of the Seven Dwarfs in explaining how your seat at the table can be perceived by others.

Those sitting opposite the person leading the meeting tend to be Grumpy or Doc, or a combination of the two, says Livingston. Grumpy is openly argumentative and may be hard to control. Doc is the person who faces off against the leader to show off his or her intelligence.

The person who sits on the leader's right is Happy--a yes-man. In her Web-based questionnaire that quickly determines one's dwarf personality, 59% of the 20,000 people who have taken the test fall in the Happy category. "We've been trained in American society to be helpful and support the leader," says Livingston.

BW goes on to offer some hints on how you might use such dynamics to your advantage if you're running a meeting. Or, it says squishily, you can just ignore the whole issue. But check it out and read the comments, which offer some insights of their own.

You Are Where You Sit [BusinessWeek]