“So, I hear that strategy is very important for you. What if we add the word “strategy” to your job title? Will that work for you?”

I was having a conversation with David, an employee who hadn’t been performing in his current job the way he should have been. He was offered a different position in the organization but he resisted. My challenge was finding a solution for this situation, note, David’s previous manager hadn’t documented anything about David’s performance. David’s challenge was accepting a new position that would give him less status.

David remained silent for a moment. Then he asked,

“Will that also be on my business cards?”

“Of course.”

Suddenly all resistance was gone and he gladly accepted the new position.

Job titles.

Are they important?

Yes, they are.

But maybe in a different way than you think.

Traditionally job titles have been used to make clear what the job was about.

If someone’s title is head of HR, nobody wonders what that position is about.

If someone’s title is manager operations, it is also clear.

If someone’s title is head of customer service, we also don’t need an explanation.

But more and more organizations create job titles that are not so traditional, for example:

Sandwich artists (Subway’s line workers)
SVP of people operations (HR Google)
Director of First Impressions (receptionist)

What is the added value of those kinds of job titles?

The biggest reason to allow job titles like this is that it influences how people feel about their job. Employees who had the opportunity to create their own job titles describe that the new job title makes the job more meaningful to them and reduces stress. That new job title gave people more ownership about their role and it is also a great conversation starter.

Dan Cable, professor London Business School, researched retitling. Cable recommends the following steps for retitling:

Step 1. Employees think about their job’s purpose: what is the why of their job? What value does their work add? What do you do particularly well?

Step 2. Have employees brainstorm about possible new titles. Have them get ideas from other employees and, with input of their manager, decide on a title.

Maybe the real value of retitling is not so much in the new title itself but the process that led to the new title: the connection to the why and the fun of brainstorming about new names with everybody’s input.

Some examples of creative job titles:

– Ambassador of Buzz (marketing specialist)
– World Changer
– Culture Champion (HR)
– Customer Engagement Ninja
– Customer Connection Champ

Of course those kinds of job titles are not appropriate or every organization. It depends on size and on how traditional an organization is. The practice of creating different job titles has been more common at start-ups and companies like Disney.

However, this doesn’t mean that it couldn’t work for your organization or team.

Just think about it. Revisiting and renaming positions job titles can have a positive impact on how people value their job; it creates ownership, and it costs almost nothing. And you don’t have to go public with the new titles. You can use them internally.