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I am a Software Team Lead in a private company where I have been leading a team for more than a year.

Few members in the team calls me 'sir' and few calls me 'brother' since last year. Even though I have asked me to call by name many times, they do not respect that.

Because of this, I am unable to enforce new people joining in the team to call me by my name.

How can I address this?

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    This is probably very culture dependent. Could you add a tag that indicates where in the world we're talking about? – Justin Cave Jan 20 at 3:55
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    I've updated the tags. Please check it :-) – Rakesh L Jan 20 at 4:01
  • Is 'brother' a common form of address in India? Would your team members feel comfortable calling you that? – Dave Gremlin Jan 20 at 16:18
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    @DaveGremlin I believe in a lot of Asian cultures calling someone brother is a display of respect similarly to Sir. – Twyxz Jan 21 at 7:20
  • Why is this even such a big deal? They know how to call you and if they refuse, so be it. – red-shield Jan 21 at 12:16
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Even though I have asked me to call by name many times, they could not follow it.

These are habits. People create habits over long periods of time. Changing these habits can become rather difficult especially when you're in a workplace environment.

Repitition is the best way to change or recreate a habit, everytime someone says "Sir" or "Brother" simply say "It's Rakesh" and make it clear that everytime they call you otherwise you're going to remind them until it changes.

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  • Absolutely, if some people don't change then OP will have to change what he's used to. It's not the biggest inconvenience just potentially awkward for the OP. @JoeStrazzere – Twyxz Jan 20 at 15:56
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Just like the other answer states, reminding them cordially that you would like to be called by your name everytime they use another greeting is the best way in my opinion.

Just to add my two cents, I'd formally inform the team that you would like to be called by your name. You don't need to make a big deal out of it, just use the next team meeting and say something around this:

"By the way, please I'd like to be called by name from now on. I know some of you are used to other forms of greetings, and that was ok until now. I'll make sure to remind you when you don't comply, helping you create the new habit. I won't mind being eventually called brother or site, as I hope you won't mind being reminded."

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