Job titles are the vanity license plates of the workplace.
Beware of title-first people.
People who lead with “what’s the title?” not “what’s the problem you’re solving?” are people to watch very, very carefully.
👉 They will ace your interviews.
👉 They will dazzle you and have all the right answers.
👉 They will have compelling backgrounds and seemingly been the lynchpin at each role they worked in before. It’s a wonder those companies didn’t do more to keep such an individual.
👉 Euphemisms like “rockstar” and “ninja” follow them like groupies at a mall concert.
👉 They will have had some “bad experiences” in the past as well, perhaps short-durations in jobs here and there but have the charisma to dismiss them well enough that you will dismiss them as well.
People who lead with “what’s the title?” not “what’s the problem you’re solving?” are people to watch very, very carefully.
You will want to hire them and, even when the Rewards and People teams question why they deserve XYZ title, you will find yourself using the same justifications they deftly gave you. You might even let slip that they might be a rockstar or ninja, and that we’d be foolish to let this one slip through our fingers.
The title matters. Dont mistake me. But people who are title-first are actually money-first and prestige-first and self-first.
I’ve never seen anyone who worried first about their title in a new role care about their people, their team, their work output or their company more than themselves.
And they will choose what adds to their prestige, influence, and power every. single. time there’s a choice to be made.
And some of them are in your company right now.
One of them might be who you looked at in the mirror this morning.
Be aware.
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