I'm with you on most of your ideas, but I don't want people thinking 8 is some kind of magic number. For new managers, it might be 3. For experienced managers

I'm with you on most of your ideas, but I don't want people thinking 8 is some kind of magic number. For new managers, it might be 3. For experienced managers managing other experienced managers providing mostly strategic guidance but not getting into weekly supervision, it could be 20. For me, an experience leader of people, I get uncomfortable above about 6 directs because I know I can't commit to knowing enough about their work to adequately assess their performance, or coach them through career success ... but that "6" is a very personal and somewhat arbitrary number. Maybe in five more years I'll be able to do more ... or maybe I'll become yoda-like and only tackle one pet at a time.