On a daily basis in a work/business environment, we are inundated with titles. VP of this and that, Director of X, Business Development Rep, Sr. Engineer, and so on and so on.  Some people get inventive with their titles, particularly in smaller organizations or companies where there is less of a standardized and bureaucratic structure in existence.

Certainly there are logical and necessary reasons to have positions and career paths to be able to differentiate between responsibilities and so forth.  As with many things in life, titles, in my opinion, are ok in moderation. But when do they become useless, self-promotional, and even harmful?

There are generally two reasons titles, or the quest for titles, can go seriously awry. The first, in any situation when a company puts heavy weight on titles and the bureaucratic structure. This is probably the most prevalent in my experience as I have worked in mainly larger companies, save a few years here or there. You know what I am talking about, when the bureaucracy gets so bad that instead of talking to the source or the decision maker, you have to flow it up through numerous different channels because heaven forbid a Supervisor talk directly to a VP. “Send it to your boss who will then send it to me and then we will talk.”

Granted, in the above scenario, the enemy is really the bureaucratic structure, but there is another symptom that is tied more closely to the titles themselves. This is not only the pursuit of a higher title, but abuse of the job title in which you have. There is nothing worse than the politics people play in order to get that coveted “title” or to get into the favor of someone who holds that coveted title. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen people stifled at the hands of the “title holders.” That is the real damage, the inefficiencies, the wasted time, the stress, and the stifling of innovation.

Now onto the second reason, and this, much like the first has a little to do with pride and veiled self promotion. In this situation, these are generally the less formal titles we give ourselves. Perhaps you work in a small company or you are a consultant, etc. Whatever the reason, you have some say in your title and you decide to be a little inventive with how you “label” yourself to the rest of the general working population.

If you own your own company and you have built it up and you want to call yourself the CEO even if you are the only person, by all means, you deserve it. Some people get carried away to the point that the significance of a title gets diminished with the over use of it. These titles generally start off ok, but end with some interesting adjectives like “Rockstar,” “Evangelist,” or the variety of different Experts of this and Innovators of that.

So at the end of all of this ranting, what do I really have against titles? They rarely, if ever, directly tie into the value of your work, what you are capable of, and often interfere with people’s ability to excel beyond the title game. They can be deceiving to outsiders and prohibitive within an organization.

It is engrained in us as a society to place weight on seniority, social status, a pecking order if you will. That is not something that will change, but consider for a minute what it would be like if we stripped away the formal titles and all worked together. People could freely work with and pitch ideas to anyone without needing to be at a certain pay grade.

In an ideal world, all of the real experts and collaborators would be at the top not just because of their knowledge and proven track record, but because of their ability to empower those below them.  Until then, you will have big companies losing talent due to lack of upward mobility, people in roles because they are masterful at playing politics, and a lot of wasted time and dollars for those trying to work with a dysfunctional system.

By the way, for the record, my job title is Senior Product Manager.