Over the course the past few years, organizational titles have gotten stranger and even more meaningless. Why does a title mean so much? Why is it so important for corporations to give inflated titles to positions that don’t really require it?
It is as if we believe that by giving someone a heightened title, it will encourage them to act in a different way.
For some people that may work well, however for the majority of employees, a title that is not relevant or realistic to the work that they do can seem silly at best and insulting at worst.
It can actually work to undermine or demean employees.
Titles that have come up recently:
• Chief First Impression Officer = Receptionist
• Deputy Creative Director = Assistant Creative Director = Creative Directors second-in-command
• Hair engineer = Stylist = someone who cuts and styles hair for a living
There is nothing wrong with new titles or even inflated titles; the problem is that titles don’t make a job or work environments any better, just like changing the name of poop won’t make it smell any different.
Research shows that the most critical things for employees are that their work is challenging, the work environment is good, and their managers are great. If the focus for companies is to creating a productive, profitable, and great place to work then, for the most part, titles are very secondary.
If we are spending too much time trying to come up with nifty titles instead of making the workplace great, then energy is being wasted.
Employees see right through the attempt to “cover up the smell.” Companies that focus on creating productive profitable and highly engaged organizations will likely succeed regardless of the titles they give their employees.
Companies that focus on gimmicks, like flashy titles that don’t put the hard work into making a great place to work, will fail no matter what they call people.
Would you think about all the crazy titles that are out there? What are some of the most interesting titles that you have seen lately?
Anil Saxena is the President of Cube 2.14, an organizational development consulting firm that works with clients to increase both customer and employee engagement while decreasing turnover, improving customer retention, and increasing profitability within organizations.
Saxena is a certified High Impact coach and trainer and a Joint Application Design facilitator. He is also certified by both Rush Systems and IBM as a focus group facilitator. He is an inaugural member of Northwestern University’s Learning and Organizational Change program, and he earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology.
