What’s in a Name?
Red Rose from flickr user Hamed Masoumi
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
– Juliet, Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)
William Shakespeare had a point - you can call a rose a flower and it would still smell as lovely.*
Well is that true with job titles? Does title matter?
Some titles provide a clear, common understanding - CEO, Quarterback, and Host are a few examples in which people know what those roles mean. They may not necessarily know what they do and indeed, some with the same titles may do different things, depending on the organization.
For example, some quarterbacks like scrambling, getting out of the pocket, and throwing the long ball. Others prefer to throw underneath the secondary and use short passes to move the ball down the field. What they choose to do depends on many factors - their skills, strengths, weaknesses, injuries, ability to read the defense and so on. The best quarterbacks have a clear understanding of how their team works together and leads them down the field.
Other titles are much less clear - Customer Service Specialist, Administrative Specialist and Analyst come to mind. What do these titles mean? What kind of career path can they lead you on? Do you start as a Customer Service Specialist before moving on to a Senior Customer Service Specialist? What happens after that? Can you become the Customer Service Manager? Then on to Director of Customer Service?
In smaller organizations with a clearly defined, hierarchical org chart, what happens to people who start as functional specialists? They move up or they move OUT. There’s only so much room at the top, and by clearly defining them as specialists in one area, opportunities to grow in other disciplines become limited. Not only that, each person’s identity is tied to his/her job title. Reframing an identity is hard.
Select for fit, both short and long term
People moving out creates waste, in the form of lost institutional knowledge, including ways to be effective within an organization. Hiring the best and underutilizing them is another form of waste as well - you don’t want to be over human capitalized. Instead, you should hire the best person for the role and see multiple ways he or she can fit into your company long term.
*I know his real point refers to the Montague/Capulet lineage and history that resulted in the death of two young lovers, and that the female party was making the point that names shouldn’t matter
Hat tip to Adina Levin and Jim Benson for inspiring this post.