Be a People Manager

Management is a profession. Full stop. However, it doesn't get the attention and respect that other professions do (outside of lawyers and politicians - even managers are more like then those jobs).

There are a lot of reasons why. One of the first ones is how we refer to managers. If you ask a manager what they do, they will say "I'm an accounting manager" or "I'm an IT manager". The implication is that the department is more important than the fact that you lead people. When someone hears "I'm an IT manager" they think of the person as in a technical field. They don't think of them as a leader of people.

I propose that we change every manager's title to "People Manager". The importance is on the right part - people - and it still focuses on the leader. I'd even be OK with "People Manager of an IT team". But we all look for fewer words, so it would be shortened to People Manager soon enough.

It is a critical distinction. You manage people. You don't manage IT. You don't manager Accounting. you don't manager HR. You manage people.

Until we start to accept that fact widely, management will struggle to be seen as a useful and honorable profession.