Be Careful with Your Title

Title isn't entitled

Good evening to all. We all have titles, some define our duties, Registered Nurse, Dietitian, Defensive Line Coach, etc. Others are vague, Vice-President, Supervisor, General Manager and more. Titles are also not consistent throughout industries. A VP in one company can mean something entirely different in another. And as many of us know, some companies hand out VP titles like candy at Halloween. But why do they do this? Sometimes its a realignment of the organization, but many times it’s a way to “give a position” to an employee by creating a new title for that employee. It can also be used to justify salary increases without a formal promotion process.

Whatever the case, being given a title can lead to a manager feeling entitled, and not understanding the responsibility of the position. And 99% of the time, that position comes with the responsibility of being a leader. Leaders, real leaders, don’t need a title to lead. They lead by their actions, by earning respect, not demanding respect. I’d like to share an acronym for leader I’ve come up with.

L = Learner, a great leader is always learning

E = Empathetic, no explanation needed

A = Accessible, great leaders make time for their teams

D = Direct, successful leaders communicate expectations clearly

E = Engaging, successful leaders are in the business, cheering the team on

R = Reward/Redirect, great leaders reward in public and redirect in private

As a leader, are you modeling all of these? Or has your title “promoted you from working?” Because it is harder to be a leader, than to get to a leadership position.

So, focus on the what you do, not the title you are. Looking at LinkedIn you see a lot titles and professional initials. One person I saw had: PHD, MBA, CCA, CEC, FMP, and that wasn’t even their position!! It’s just too much, do you look at that and say, “wow, how impressive, I bet they are a great ______ ." And don’t get me started on the brief bios people post. “Thought Leader” and “Change Agent”

Okay, I digress. The point of this post is that you need to stay humble as a leader and not forget where you came from. The only titles that really matter are the ones that matter to your family, the others are just names on a card.

Thanks for reading and have a great week.

Be kind to everyone you meet.