Experienced leaders can lead approximately 5-7 people

Experienced leaders can lead approximately 5-7 people^1,2.

• The broader the leaders scope, the less time they can lead effectively. E.g. if you have to manage a lot of technical decisions, you do not have time for effective team organization and leadership¹.
• Similarly, responsibility for team functioning, e.g. Project Management, technical leadership should be split among individuals. If not, the leaders effective count will decrease¹.
• Experience level of the leader and team also impact how high this number can be¹. More experience, more effective leadership through experience of the leader and collective experience. Importantly the converse is also true, a more junior team needs more diligent feedback and care to be effective.
• Organizational bureaucracy also slows down leaders

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1. Kua, P. How Many People Can Someone Lead? (2021).

2. Kolyaskin, K. First rule of the team: size. (2022).