WHAT’S IN A NAME? IN BUSINESS, QUITE A LOT.
“What’s in a name?”
Shakespeare asked the question centuries ago. His point was simple: a name is just a label. Change the name and you don’t change the person.
Beautiful when recited on stage in the opera house.
In business? Eh… not so fast.
Joe may be brilliant, well-connected, and the guy people quietly call when they need something done. But introduce Joe as the Duke of Something Important, and suddenly the room tilts in his direction.
Monica may be the reliable anchor who has the relationships, knows the business, and gets results. Make Monica Vice President of All Those Things, however, and something shifts.
Not Monica.
The signal around Monica.
Her emails get answered faster. She gets into rooms she couldn’t enter before. Clients take the meeting. Other departments respond with urgency. External partners assume she has the authority to move things forward.
Same Monica. Same capability.
Additional tool.
Because in business, titles are tools.
And it’s time we stop treating titles as meaningless vanity when businesses themselves use them as currency.
Gallup and Workhuman followed nearly 3,500 employees over two years and found that well-recognized employees were 45% less likely to leave their organization. Employees receiving high-quality recognition were nine times more likely to be engaged.
Source: Gallup + Workhuman
A 2026 national survey found that 92% of workers believe companies use job titles to signal career growth, even when no raise accompanies the change. 54% say a title directly influences whether they accept a job offer, and 39% have been given a more senior-sounding title without a pay increase.
Source: 2026 national survey
Research from Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business found that employees who work at companies offering broader title variety see 2% to 10% higher wages over ten years, regardless of whether they stay or leave.
Source: Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business
And research published in the Academy of Management Journal found that titles that better reflect individual contributions increase psychological safety and reduce emotional exhaustion.
Source: Academy of Management Journal
In other words, the company gets a higher—and happier—return on its investment.
Summer is winding down. Vacations are ending. Companies are turning toward the year-end push.
But before we ask people to dig deeper and deliver more, maybe it’s time for another kind of audit.
We audit client satisfaction, inventory, revenue forecasts, and pipeline.
Let’s also audit our commitment to the people powering our profits.
Have we actually equipped them with the tangibles and intangibles required to do what we’re asking them to do?
I’ve placed talent in companies that offered everything from an Uber Black home after a late night pulling documents together for an RFP to free onsite childcare.
Laptops. Corporate cards. Car allowances. Travel budgets. Professional development. Great benefits.
Those are tools used to close, motivate, and generate growth.
But some of the most powerful tools inside an organization don’t come with receipts:
Access. Authority. Influence. Visibility. Decision rights. Executive sponsorship. And yes—a title.
I remember when getting a T-shirt at a conference could make me reach a little higher.
Seriously.
Yes, the compensation structure meant I made more money when I performed. And yes, the company benefited from that extra push.
But there was something about walking around in a T-shirt that said:
TOP PERFORMER.
Everybody could see it.
I earned it.
And I can’t lie—that T-shirt put a little extra lean in my walk.
It wasn’t about the fabric.
It was the validation ironed on the front of it.
ROI goes in both directions.
That T-shirt came back to me recently during a consulting call with an executive who had spent years delivering for the same organization.
The company asked them to build something new from the ground up.
No established book of business. No guaranteed revenue.
The company rolled out the money and resources to equip this person to succeed.
Resources? Yes. Compensation? Yes. Support? Yes. Runway? Yes.
Was everything perfect on Day One? Of course not.
Laptop delayed? No problem—I’ve got my iPad.
Collateral still stuck in legal? No problem—I know what we’re selling.
Those are glitches.
You work around glitches.
And this executive did.
They dramatically exceeded expectations and generated extraordinary revenue.
By every traditional measure, it was a hell of a success story.
Except for one thing.
The title.
Before accepting the opportunity, this executive had been promised a particular title.
At the last minute, they didn’t get it.
And it bothered them. A lot.
So I asked:
“Is this about vanity?”
Their answer?
Nope.
And I got it.
The title wasn’t a shiny reward they suddenly wanted because they succeeded.
It was part of the deal.
Their counterparts doing comparable work carried it. It represented the scope of their responsibility. It communicated something to clients, colleagues, and executives before they walked in the room.
Fair or unfair, before people see our work or know whether we’re actually any good:
The title is already talking.
And yes, that title eventually travels onto LinkedIn and the résumé, carrying years of validation into the next opportunity.
That’s not vanity.
That’s visibility.
Here’s what really stayed with me.
The company had promised the title.
That new laptop? Delayed.
The collateral? Still stuck in legal.
Those are glitches.
But the title?
The title wasn’t delayed in customs. It hadn’t been ordered.
Now we’re talking about something different.
Trust.
For years, this executive had kept their word to the organization. When asked to take on something new, they said yes.
Even when the organization didn’t deliver everything it promised, they delivered anyway—and far exceeded expectations.
They kept their side of the deal.
They wanted the organization to keep it’s side, too.
That’s not vanity.
That’s reciprocity.
And eventually the question isn’t just, “Where’s my title?”
It’s:
Do I trust you to keep your word the next time you ask me to bet on this company?
I’ve sat on the other side of this equation, too.
When I negotiated packages with candidates companies really wanted, sometimes we’d moved the money as far as it could go.
Base maxed? Done. Bonus increased? Done. Benefits leveled up? Done.
Maybe there wasn’t another meaningful dollar available.
But sometimes there was something else we could move.
The title.
And sometimes?
That gave us the W.
Because compensation paid the candidate for the job they were accepting today.
The title could help position them for the opportunities they wanted tomorrow.
Can titles be inflated? Absolutely.
Can people get caught up in them? Of course.
But none of that changes the point.
A title is a tool—the kind of tool that gives greater visibility to both the company and the employee. Because ROI goes both ways.
So before the year-end push, maybe leaders should look at the entire toolbox.
What are we asking people to accomplish?
Who do they need to influence?
What access, authority, and visibility will they need?
And have we given them the tools to get it done?
“Because in business, titles are tools.”
Sometimes it’s the laptop.
Sometimes it’s the corporate card.
Sometimes it’s the bonus, childcare, travel budget, or seat at the table.
And sometimes?
It’s the validation ironed on the front of a T-shirt.
What’s in a name?
More than we think
Hubert Joly
Former Chairman & CEO, Best Buy
At PHOXXYDATA™, we look for leaders whose actions demonstrate what operating in THE LOOP™ looks like.
Our inaugural Leader in THE LOOP™, Hubert Joly, did exactly that during his turnaround of Best Buy.
Rather than treating people primarily as a cost to cut, Joly made them central to the company’s recovery. His leadership philosophy focused on creating an environment where people could flourish, perform and connect their work to a larger purpose—what he calls “human magic.”
The results followed.
By fiscal 2019, Best Buy reported five consecutive years of comparable-sales growth, $1.9 billion in cost savings and efficiencies, and a 335% total shareholder return from the end of fiscal 2013, compared with 104% for the S&P 500 over the same period.
Joly saw the connection:
Equip the people. Enable the performance. The business benefits.
That’s a PHOXXY philosophy.
That’s operating in THE LOOP™.
What are you asking your people to accomplish—and have you equipped them to do it?
Now You’re in THE LOOP™
Continue exploring Enterprise Visibility Intelligence.
The Information Era Doesn't Need More Data. It Needs More Visibility.
Why the defining problem of the Information Era isn't scarcity or access — it's visibility.
Read Next Article →- · Gallup + Workhuman
- · Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business
- · Academy of Management Journal
- · William Shakespeare
Now you’re in THE LOOP.
— Traci Hill
Founder & CEO
PHOXXYDATA
