A district council in Northamptonshire is to have a managing director for the first time and the role will rotate among four most senior executives.
Corporate board directors at Daventry District Council, will take turns in a role held by the head of paid service.
The change will not have any financial impact but is a reflection of the need for a figurehead, a spokesman said.
Executive director Simon Bovey is first in the new post which each executive director in turn will hold for a year.
He said: "The managing director is to front the organisation, drive continuous improvement and deal with the many challenges that a council faces.
"Managing director is a more familiar term and more business-like. It is an easier term for people to understand so they know who to write to if they want to raise an issue.
"Our experience was that head of paid service was a statutory phrase, but that the general public were not sure what it meant."