When I was fresh out of college, my first job was as a junior copywriter.
If you wanted to find me on the corporate ladder, I barely had a toehold on the bottom rung.
In my very first meeting with a client, my boss Mary simply introduced me as a colleague on the marketing team.
It was a jaw-dropping moment for me. I’d been out of college for about 15 minutes, was still trying to figure out how to call adults by their first names, and was very much in awe of my confident and commanding new boss.
She could have said, “This is Marianne, the most junior of junior copywriters. She is brand new and has no idea what she’s doing. And she’s really lucky to be working at all, let alone for me.”
Every word in such a statement would have been true. But instead Mary referred to me as a partner and collaborator, suggesting that I was a competent person who had something to contribute to the meeting.
In reality, of course, the only reason I was there at all was to take notes. But my boss’s introduction made me sit taller in my chair, type on my laptop with more flair. I may have even said something in the meeting other than, “Could you repeat that for me, please?”
By calling me her colleague, Mary helped me to see myself as a vital member of the team. And she helped me take the first steps toward making that a reality instead of a promise.
In fact, not once during the time we worked together did Mary ever refer to herself as my boss. Not once.
I was young and impressionable and oh, did that make an impression on me.
Now, of course I’m not saying that job titles don’t serve a function in organizations. They do, as an indispensable tool to build out organizational charts, assign functions, determine compensation and define relationships between employees.
But outside of HR conversations, what’s the point of using them? How do job titles contribute to day-to-day work operations? They don’t.
Most critical of all, how do job titles contribute to achieving business goals? Again, they don’t. And they may even get in the way.
Job titles are labels and labeling people puts them in boxes. For senior-level staff, job titles can be isolating. For everyone else, job titles often diminish or limit the contributions that they are making to the bottom line.
And job titles are confusing. A title doesn't tell what projects a person has been assigned to or her particular areas of expertise. A job title just tells you where someone stands on that old corporate ladder.
So let's stop a moment and think how we could do this differently.
Take job titles off business cards.
Keep it simple: Company name. Your name. Department, division or team.
Done and done.
This actually becomes a conversation starter during the inevitable business card swap. Everyone operates on a level-playing field, which makes asking questions that much easier. And when asked, “What do you do for ABC Corporation?” your response can focus on what work you do to support company goals and objectives, not the label you’ve been given.
Talk about staff in terms of their contributions, not job titles.
Shift the focus from where people sit on the organizational ladder to how they help achieve corporate goals and objectives. It’s a subtle way to reinforce that everyone makes a difference and everyone matters.
Model “We,” not “I,” language.
If you stop using job titles on a daily basis, but make it clear with other word choices that an “us” and “them” mentality still operates, the impact will be negligible. Or worse, look hypocritical.
Sadly, I’ve lost track of that first boss who helped me set a personal goal for the kind of manager I wanted to become. Mary’s lesson was that ignoring job titles is a win-win for any business. The ROI includes happier, more engaged employees. Higher retention. A culture that’s attractive to new talent. And a clearer vision of a team where every player matters.
Thank you, Mary.
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