The right span of control

What is the ideal span of control for a people manager?
i.e. how many direct reports should a manager ideally have to ensure the success of the team as a whole?

Q and A - 2

S: (Visibly angry, with a pre-planned agenda, probably rehearsed earlier) Have you gone through the entire body of my work through the year?

I had rated S as someone who 'needs improvement' during the annual appraisal cycle. That meant that S would receive no salary increment and would probably be asked to leave if he did not show significant performance improvement in specific areas within the next few months.

Q and A - 1

R: I want to work on really challenging projects. I'm rather frustrated with uninteresting work.
R was my junior colleague a few years back who was frustrated with not being part of really high-profile projects despite having the right skills for the job

The beginning

Being the non-writing type, I wasn't sure what would compel me to want to blog at fairly frequent intervals... "so why blog at all" I often thought to myself? I do have opinions on a variety of subjects, but general opinion sharing on the web with an unfamiliar audience does not interest me. I've never had a problem with freely expressing myself, hence resorting to blogging as a medium of self expression held little value for me. This, in a nutshell, probably explains why I did not get on to the blogosphere earlier.

Q and A series - An Introduction

Through this Question and Answer format, I'd like to share some of my personal interactions at my workplace and otherwise (past and present). I may deal with some of these scenarios very differently today, but whats' done is done. I have learnt tremendously through these interactions.. which have shaped my destiny in some way or the other, so far.