“The only person that doesn’t care about titles is the CEO.” – Stephen Gerard
It hit me like a ton of bricks over a year ago. One of my advisors said that to me, and I let it sink in, the man has a way better than anyone else I’ve worked with to get me to be less pig headed about my “ideals”.
Before I get into my new take, let’s go back to why I didn’t have a title when it was just me, and where we have evolved to.
I didn’t want a title, ever. When SEER was just 1 person my cards said “associate”.
- I never wanted people to think I was “important” based on my title.
- I didn’t want to get attention because of my title.
- I never wanted my team to confuse a title, with having a tangible impact.
- Lastly, I never wanted to overweight my importance to SEER.
That last part was most important. I believe we’re like a group of people in a boat rowing, we all play a different role, and maybe at times roles become more important in certain situations, but the role becomes more important, not the person..
See, that there is a team that wants to win, that there is a team who picks up the QB, and you better believe that there were times when I needed my team to pick me up.
Your clients are going to want a Senior in the room
For years advisors would tell me, Wil, you need titles because clients will want to know they have a “senior” so and so in the room. I scoffed and hated that concept. It was the easy way out, I’d rather people show their talents to the point where no one cares what their title is. Might that mean SEER gets “smaller” clients? Great! If they believe what we believe and vice versa that is all that matters to me.
Titles grow margin w/o giving a riase
“See, if you give someone a title, they’ll stay longer and you don’t have to give them as much of a raise.” - Unnamed Advisor
Ouch that was even worse advice than plop factor. Are you serious? To me while the psychology of this is true, and I LOVE behavioral psychology with every fiber of my being, I don’t want to be manipulating my team with that. Nor do I care about adding 1-2% on margin b/c I’m giving titles.
Why will SEER move to titles in 2014?
Ben Horowitz that’s why. Somewhere between Las Cruces, NM and Tuscon AZ, while my wife and dog and I did our annual pilgrimage cross country for me to work from our other office for a few months.
I put in Ben Horowitz’s book on audio, the Hard Thing about Hard Things. It was recommended by an advisor.
In the book, I learned a ton. But one of the many lessons, was on titles.
Ben talks about how when you don’t give titles, you don’t show peoples progression at your company. OOOOH now we’re talking.
I care a lot about people’s path AFTER SEER, if they have been good to us and have helped us achieve our goals and objectives, why the heck wouldn’t we help them on the way out?
Anyone hiring a solid 2 yr PPC'er in Boston? Got someone leaving @SEERInteractive to move back home & want to find her a GREAT place to work
— Wil Reynolds (@wilreynolds)October 17, 2013
Its why we often get 4 weeks and sometimes as much as 3 months notice. People know we will invest that time trying to help them on their new journey / new path and that they can tell us they are leaving w/o us acting like this:
But if I we TRULY cared about people’s path post SEER, are we making it harder for them to articulate the great things they’ve done and their advancement by not using titles? That is what Ben said to me, 3 months ago, and today I know Titles, like other absolutes I had at SEER are going to go. Being in this role is about growth and keeping your mind open, even to your “absolutes”, testing yourself, messing stuff up sometimes, and learning.
If your company doesn’t have titles, wear that proudly. But ask yourself one thing, when someone’s path takes them away from your company, and they have done great work, are you making it harder for them to stand out in that next job? Have you handicapped them in the eyes of HR who will see one person who got three promotions on their resume, and your team member got 3 “internal promotions” but their title never changed. Might that keep them from getting their next dream job, I think maybe. That risk is too great to me, so we’re gonna change some stuff @ SEER.
Hey Ben, who did the audio for that book? Dude had a f’ed up voice…hearing him quote Nas and Game, was gut wrenching.