Titles and What They Mean to Me

I had a recent conversation with a colleague who discussed her organization going through immense changes with titles. Jobs were not changing. Responsibilities were not changing. Everybody’s title was changing. And it wasn’t for any exempt or nonexempt issues. It was simply a person or people wanting a different sense of organizational hierarchy.

Maybe the title of the blog gives me away, but I’ve never been much of a title person. You can make up titles for anything and it doesn’t describe much of anything. When I look at resumes, I spend very little time on the titles and look for what were the job responsibilities and measurable outcomes. That greatly defines what somebody does rather than what they’re called.

There are good reasons for a title change. If someone’s job adjusts, it makes sense to change their title. However, this was not the case in this specific circumstance. It appears that there are challenges inside the organization. People are unhappy. And the hierarchy thinks that it makes sense to make everyone feel better if we just give them a better title. Maybe for a couple minutes it might help---but in the long run, the deficiencies of the leadership won’t be covered up by everyone having a different title. Different names, same game.

Self-actualization, as defined by Maslow, gives us the thought of being “happy” with who we are while realizing we still have room to grow. Changing a title doesn’t affect that in the long term. Here’s hoping all of us can enjoy more self-actualization no matter what we’re called in the workplace.