What name properly represents you as a modern manager?
I changed my given name when I was 7 years old. I didn’t like the one my parents used to call me with (which was “Jury”). The name gave me bad associations. And so I selected the 2nd of my official first names (“Cornelis Jurgen”), which suited me much better. I taught everyone to use my new self-given name by ignoring them whenever they used the old one. As far as I remember, it didn’t take them long to learn. And basically, they agreed.
The new name represented the proper me.
The Agile name is now more than 10 years old. I still like it, for software developers. But it seems most managers don’t like applying it to themselves. Sure, we can try to call them by that name, but most will ignore it. Many managers like other names. Like Lean. And Leadership. And MBA. But I don’t like those names. They give me bad associations. And so my question is, what other name could modern managers in the 21st century select to call themselves?
What name represents proper management?
I don't think it's "manager" because nobody seems to like that name either. If you are a modern manager, empowering people and improving continuously, while delivering value to stakeholders, what name would you select for yourself?
(Jurgen Appelo is author of Management 3.0, a best-selling management book for Agile developers. It has a picture of a monster in it.)
