Direct Reports: How Many Should I Have?

Recorded Presentation

 This recording of a live presentation walks through the practical considerations small business owners must face when deciding how to structure their organizations and leadership teams.

Slide Deck

Articles

How Many Direct Reports Should You Have?Most Leaders Miss This Critical Culture Element by Jim Schleckser in Inc. Magazine

Span Of Control - 5 Things Every Leader Should Know by Mike Myatt in Forbes Magazine

How Many Direct Reports? by Gary L. Neilson and Julie Wulf for Harvard Business Review

Group Discussion as Interactive Dialogue or as Serial Monologue: The Influence of Group Size

Tools

The following tools are referenced in the presentation.

One Page Plan

The one page plan is not a new concept. It simplifies the communication of the company’s Values, Vision, Why and Mission along with outlining the strategies the leadership team will focus on for 2-3 years at a time, the near term goals and the short term priorities. The front of Axiom’s one page plan format can be seen below. The back has a space for individual team members to record and track their key 90 day priority and progress toward significant milestones necessary to achieve the priority.

Accountability/Organization Chart

The organization chart is an often neglected form of communication and accountability in small companies. Our preference is to follow Wickman’s paradigm of focusing less on titles and more on the three or four accountabilities that are crucial for each position. It is important to note that the lines on an organization chart do not prescribe communication channels. Rather they explicitly identify who is responsible for serving and leading direct reports.

Software tools such as Omnigraffle for the Mac and Visio for Windows PC’s make organization charts and workflow mapping much easier to assemble and edit.

Gino Wickman’s People Analyzer

The People Analyzer tool developed by Gino Wickman and popularized in his book, Traction, is a very good way for leaders to identify those in the organization who are culture builders and those who are potentially toxic to the culture. Each team member is graded on both cultural values and job specific proficiency (gets it, wants it, capacity to do it). We encourage leadership teams to individually grade their team members then meet as a group to reach consensus on individual assessments. Any team member who is 2/4 or 3/5 on values needs mentoring, coaching and accountability ono the values front. Team members that are 1/4 or 2/5 may be ripe for Necessary Endings. Training needs are often identified in the gets it/wants it/capacity to do it evaluations.

Reach Ecosystem

Axiom has invested in the training and tool sets provided by the Reach Ecosystem. In our view you should be a proponent of Reach, Colby, Myers Briggs, Disc or some other psychometric intelligence gathering tool. There is much understanding and insight to be gained from sharpening the saw when it comes to human behaviour and motivational analysis.

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