They ask you to be open-minded, flexible and think outside the box. Then they squeeze your professionalism into the confines of a job description.
A title that, perhaps, does not fully represent your skills and does not describe well the activities carried out every day. Without considering that the same title changes shape and content depending on the sector it belongs to. How many contact points does a Project Manager of a digital communication agency have with a Banking Project Manager? Almost none.
In the contemporary era of innovation and flexibility, do we still need to put a tag in front of our role?
Let’s try to give us an answer and open a comparison. Spoiler alert: the topic is provocative.
What if the job description is a limitation?
It sounds like a challenge, but there is some truth. The job title can represent a brake on ’individual initiative.
There are no rare cases of professionals who limit themselves to acting within the “job description zone”, carrying out only the tasks required by the contract. No flickering, no trespassing, little desire to look beyond your own garden.
At the same time, l ‘idea of growth is bound to’ improvement of the title itself : from account executive to account director, from product specialist to product manager and so on.
What happens to the much-publicized hybrid roles, the contamination between areas of activity, the mythological professional fluidity?
If the profiles most sought after by the Companies are those of resources oriented to ‘continuous learning and proactivity, closing oneself behind a job title is not the right approach.
Rethink the job title creatively
Let’s be serious: we are certainly not discussing how strategic it is to put one signature, rather than another, on a business card.
Certainly, however, the debate on the “title” can be an opportunity to reflect fully on your profession and really decode your role in the company.
This is supported by Marcela Sapone, co-founder and CEO of Hello Alfred , who declared how important it is to shift the focus from the position intended as personal status to a job title oriented to the Company mission.
According to Sapone, it is not important to evaluate a candidate based on the last title won, but to look at the person and evaluate how the resource has concretely influenced the performance of the Company during the period of activity.
Goodbye to the job title?
Not really: according to many experts, including Adam Grant and Justin Berg of the University of Pennsylvania and Dan Cable of London Business School, it can be constructive to make employees choose the title to assign.
An initiative that may appear singular, but which hides a great awareness.
To give himself a title, a resource must fully understand the nature of his position in the company, must analyze the tasks actually carried out every day and clarify, first to himself, his own perimeter of activity.
It is by stopping to analyze the existing situation that one can reflect on the future and set a path for growth.
An added value that does not lie in the title created, but in the path taken to develop it: a process that pushes resources to question themselves on the objectives of their work, on the nature of the output, on cross-functional connections.
Having listened to the word of the experts, the ball passes to the professionals: how many of you are fond of your title, how many would prefer to rethink it in an innovative way, and how many would avoid any label, marrying a flat organization?
The debate is open.
Comments