Your job title is often an excuse that cages impact; the article shows why leaders must stop self-pigeonholing and act beyond their title to earn credibility and advance faster.
Titles are convenient scapegoats, but the real barrier to impact is the story you tell yourself about your role. Aviv argues that engineers, managers and even CTOs use "I'm just a X" as a self-imposed cage, limiting the problems they solve and the influence they wield.
When you repeat "not my job" or wait for manager approval, you signal contentment with the status quo and become indistinguishable from any other cog. The piece cites everyday moments-a developer refusing to suggest a product tweak, a QA tester staying silent on process pain, a manager deferring to hierarchy-as missed opportunities that erode career momentum.
The fix is simple but uncomfortable: stop drawing mental chalk lines around your responsibilities. Volunteer for cross-functional projects, surface gaps, propose small experiments, and treat your current role as a launchpad, not a ceiling. Real examples include fixing hidden technical debt, suggesting a product experiment, or aligning a team around a new process without waiting for formal permission.
Leaders who consistently act beyond their title attract attention, earn trust, and see promotions follow naturally. By choosing ownership over excuse, you turn a title from a cage into a stepping stone, demonstrating the proactive problem-solving that organizations reward.
Check out the full stdlib collection for more frameworks, templates, and guides to accelerate your technical leadership journey.