Myth on Size

The people count of your organization is clearly a measure of power. But by no means a predictor to your future success or influence. In fact, unless you are skilled enough to organize them, larger organization is frequently a distraction and a derailment cause.

As a manager, you work by communicating. Your effectiveness is limited by two factors: bandwidth and time. The communication bandwidth comes from utilizing various channels and improving skills. Then, you must pay attention to the effective use of your time. Whom are you communicating to? How much time did you spent? What is the result of that communication? Eventually, it comes down to how well you know the person you are communicating to – the better you know him, the better the communication.

Since there are only 24 hours in a day, you cannot possibly command a team that’s too big. People vary, but 5 to 15 is the norm of an effective team size. This means as long as you have a good team of 5 to 10 people, you can be effective, successful, and influential.

Take a survey of those in your organization. Who would you choose to be on your team? Give no regard to their ranks, seniority, and other external factors. Choose those who have the skills and communicate well with you. Can you find 5 to 10 of them? If yes, it does not matter how many more people are there beyond this core team. It can be thousands and it can be zero.
And, lastly, the team members do even need to work for you directly. Think about this next time you need to worry about headcount.