Job Titles - More Than a Meaningless Label

Think about your organization’s structure. Do job titles have clear meanings and consistency? Are they understood in the context of a hierarchy, to ease career planning for your employees? Unfortunately, it’s not uncommon for titles to become inconsistent in a large organization over a long period of time, especially if your Human Resources department doesn’t provide and enforce clear guidelines for hiring and promotions.

Signs that your company’s job titles may be out of whack:

• There are Managers and Directors that aren't truly managing or directing anyone or anything.
• People with the same titles are reporting to each other, for example, a Director reporting to a Director.
• Employees want a Manager title, simply because they don’t see any other options to advance in the organization.
• There is general dissatisfaction and confusion among the troops, who don’t understand how jobs relate to each other and how to get from Point A to Point B in their careers.

Management struggling with these issues need to plot a corrective course.

If the organization has good guidelines for hiring and promotions, they should be adhered to without exception. As soon as you make one inexplicable exception, you have set a troublesome precedent. Necessary changes can be planned, documented, and implemented over time.

All jobs must have a fully descriptive, current position description. Every position description should be reviewed and approved by HR, and employees should have a copy of their own.

Everyone needs to understand the paths available to advance their careers. Management should take the time to understand employee interests, aspirations, skills, and experience. Provide input into what they need to do to get from where they are to where they want to be, and help them devise action plans to manage their careers.

Senior management; show the courage to make necessary adjustments when business conditions change. If your organizational structure is not functioning to help you achieve your strategic goals, you may have to adjust roles, responsibilities, and titles. Failure to do so can have long-lasting ill effect.

Like it or not, titles are still important in Corporate America. In addition to compensation levels, other benefits and perks may be attached to levels in the job hierarchy. Once given, they are very hard to take away. Egos are fragile and missteps in this area can be very de-motivating to productive contributors. Take the time to partner with HR, get it right, and reap long-term benefits.

Win/Win = Progress + Profit

When I follow the news about the bi-polarity of American politics today, I wonder how corporations would survive if they indulged in a similar lack of constructive cooperation. They couldn’t. Obstructive behavior, in-fighting, and posturing would put a stop to the progress and growth so necessary for profitable business.

Negotiation is a common element of effective work environments. The push and pull of opposing ideas is healthy and necessary to finding the best solutions to challenges. People who can articulate the value in their own perspective as well keep an open mind to alternatives have excellent potential to contribute to the achievement of corporate goals and achieve professional success.

Personal insults and intimidation may be common on Capitol Hill, but they are never acceptable in a corporate environment, and rarely encourage positive results. Passion can be high without engaging tempers and spewing vitriol. There is a lot of value in tolerance. Most corporate environments have strict official policies that protect employees from harassment. Harassment is behavior that results in a team member feeling uncomfortable, threatened, or unwelcome where they work.

Senior executives can dictate strategy, but even they almost always have someone to whom they must answer for their actions. Publicly-traded companies have a Board of Directors and Investors. Financial Analysts study how well they are managed and the value in their growth and revenue potential. Bad publicity can affect the bottom line.

Corporate politics certainly exist in every workplace. However, when goals are clear, financials transparent, and management is held accountable, petty politics are less likely to be allowed to interfere with what has to be accomplished. If a stalemate is evident in a counterproductive tug of war, leaders are unceremoniously shuffled, strategies overhauled, and/or teams re-organized.

Why do those who direct corporations seem more accountable for the results of politics than our politicians? Perhaps it’s because they don’t have to wait for an election year to suffer the results of their actions.

Don't Expect a Gold Watch

Some of us remember a time (before the 1980’s) when landing a corporate job provided a long-term sense of security. Seniority sometimes even trumped performance when promotions were handed out. Employees who had “paid their dues” worked 9 to 5, perhaps enjoying a 2-martini lunch mid-day. Many people aspired to stay with a company from college graduation to retirement, and looked forward to being presented with gold watch from a company grateful for their loyalty and 30-40 years of service.

No more. In the modern world of employment, it’s “every man for himself”. Corporations put the bottom line before any sincere sense of obligation for the livelihood of their employees. Workers are always looking for a better opportunity, and have made job-hopping de rigueur. Right or wrong – the norms have changed. Corporations respond to pressure from investors and financial analysts, squeezing operations for profit, and outsourcing jobs. Workers have experienced the extremes of booms like the explosive growth of dot.com enterprises in the 90’s – and the bust of economic disaster, followed by corporate transformations and layoffs that started in 2008.

How can you navigate the new norm successfully and ethically?

KEEP GROWING: A good education and continued learning and growth are paramount to your survival in the corporate world. If you stand still, misfortune may be gaining on you.

BE PREPARED: Keep your resume current, and pay attention to opportunities in your area of expertise and interest. Don’t be hesitant to occasionally test the waters by going on a job interview and/or talking to a recruiter.

NETWORK RELENTLESSLY: When you are looking for a new job, it will most likely be found through your personal or professional network. Meet people. Develop relationships. GIVE before you find yourself in a situation where you may need to TAKE help.

EMBRACE CHANGE: Change is inevitable and ever-present. Be flexible and open to opportunity. Jump at chances to show what you can contribute. If it’s time to move on, take comfort in the very real possibility that the grass might actually be greener on the other side.

The era of feeling entitled to spend decades with the same company is gone forever. There is no reward of a gold watch for our loyalty. That’s really not a bad thing, but it sure does keep us all on our toes!

Economic Uncertainty, Corporate America, and You

I’m studiously trying not to watch CNBC this morning and the continuing tumultuous negative slide of the financial markets. Markets are reacting badly to the unsatisfying political “resolution” to the U.S. bumping up against the debt ceiling. Although Congress acted in time to avoid a default, neither their constituency nor economists were impressed with how that unfolded and what it bodes for the future. That was reflected in S & P’s downgrade of the U.S. debt from AAA to AA+, and is part of what sent the markets back into a downward spiral this morning.

As a corporate employee, here’s why you should care, even if you aren’t an “investor”:

• You ARE an investor if you have a 401K. You may have lost a chunk of your value in the last several weeks. Reviewing your next statement will be unpleasant.

• Many corporations currently have strong balance sheets. Business has been fairly good over the last two years, and they have been stockpiling capital. That looks good on paper, but is a sign that they don’t trust the financial climate. Capital is a hedge against economic uncertainty. In better times, profits would be invested into growth – including the creation of new jobs. No new jobs – no new opportunities for you.

• A lack of job growth results in limited turnover. Workers are averse to making risky changes while the economy is weak. Corporations know this and some take advantage of the situation by asking people to work more and harder in order to retain their positions. Hard to complain when you know that there are eager job candidates waiting in the wings.

• As a corporate employee, you will experience continued budget constraints. Management wants to keep their financials safe. Expect mid-term budget cuts, especially in regard to salary/bonus increases, travel, training, and consulting. Expect a hiring freeze.

• While companies are still looking for places to cut expenses, your job may still not be safe. Hold off on making any major investments and any risky financial moves. Hold on to your savings; you may need them.

We’ll get through this economic uncertainty, but it’s pretty clear that global financial markets (not just the U.S.) are in a readjustment period where some of the norms have changed. Be aware and take precautionary steps to protect yourself and your livelihood.

The Creative Collective

Managers tend to favor employees for whom they have a natural affinity. In other words, we often have a positive bias toward people that we perceive to be “like us”. When we can overcome that bias, we build stronger teams by incorporating diversity into their makeup. Your strengths may make up for my weaknesses. Sharing my experience with you will make you a more complete professional. When I am out of ideas, I will be grateful for your burst of creativity. We should all strive for the push and pull, the give and take of a diverse team.

Diversity comes in many forms. It may be as a result of education – for example, a degree in Engineering versus Music. Each generation has a markedly different perspective. Where people were raised – North, South, East, West, or outside the U.S. - introduces a broad range of cultural customs, which can be made more complex by ethnicity. Every personality is different. Diversity is the spice of life, and necessary to move our endeavors forward.

If we all thought and behaved the same way…well, it’s hard to even imagine. We might continue on with the status quo in ad finitum. Blah.

Embrace the differences inherent in your team. Make sure that you are capitalizing on them. Understand where everyone is coming from.  Listen to “crazy” ideas. Try something new. Color outside the lines. Surprise and challenge each other, and do the kinds of things that can only be accomplished via a creative collective. Not only will you be more successful; you will have more fun.