These days (and the older I get, frankly), it takes a lot for me to get worked up about anything. But over the years the one thing that still gets me irritated is job titles.
Daily, I work with lots of employees in advisory firms and there is a huge ego around job titles—a silly power struggle to my way of thinking. There are a lot of managers out there that will use job titles as motivation. I just so happen not to be one of them because I know that the motivation around giving someone a "cool" job title only lasts for one second and I want a longer-term solution.
Don't get me wrong, I believe job titles are critical, but when you have to give yourself a job title or request from your manager a job title to make yourself feel important…well, I just don't buy it.
Over the years of working with advisory practices, I've come to the conclusion that everybody in the firm should have a job title that means something to the clients. That's because the advisory business is a service business, which means everything about an advisory firm should be centered around the clients, including titles.
