(a) the sphere of influence that is the number of people than a human can "manage, guide, mentor, lead" successfully is 6 ... max of 12 for experienced managers

(b) identify key "natural" leaders, make Task forces and work groups ... grouping as per the tasks to be completed ... and for junior leads make it groups of 3 to 4; for others with 3 to 4 years expertise the group can be about 5 to 6.

(c) u train these leaders ... have a very good template thru which they will report status to u periodically. Also sit down with these leaders and discuss and come up with a sequence of quetsions they can ask to resolve issues themselevs ... and then how and why, when they must escalate to u ... what is so urgent that u MUST know immediately etc etc ...

(d) this training, mentoring and tracking very very closely has to be done for a month or 2 ... after which u can take care of escalations mostly ... and also take up extra trainings, ramp-up and new technoilogy areas etc ... so that the team is always kept in a learning-growing phase: innovative wrt how they can do and execute their work better etc etc ...

Now wrt self-study on any topic which u must do to make a success of step (c) given above, the technique is to search in google for ppt with <keyword> ppt ,,,,

eg How to conduct meeting ppt
Train leaders ppt
Negotiations ppt
Conflict resolution ppt
People management ppt
Goal setting ppt
Status Reporting status ppt
Tracking tasks ppt ...

Why i prefer ppt is 'cos u can store 20 to 30 such ready-made reading material within 5 minutes (u do not need to go beyond page 5 of google for any topic) ... and recap at leisure: The best would be if u browse thru many and create your own favourite 10 to 15 slides of tips ... use these to train the others: once u have this learning environment set up, whatever may be the age of the team member it does not matter: when he kjnows he can learn new things from u, he will be eager to follow u ... the next important step is to create trainers who will repeat the same process of creating training slides and training others ... for other topics

Try out the above steps and let me know. Books u must read are "Skill with people" by Les Giblin, "How to win friends and influence people" by Dale Carnegie ... i have found that u must read these 2 books at least 3 to 5 times AND implement their techniques ... before u can benefit ...

Summary: The way to happiness: Keep your heart free from hate, your mind free from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Fill your life with love. Scatter sunshine. Forget self, think of others. Do as you would be done by. Do to others as they want and expect you to do to them. Support the principles with a dynamic quality of mind for spiritual power. Live a Allah-centered life with the spirit of service. Try this for a week and you will be surprised.

About the Author: Naseem Mariam is the editor of "Management that Soars" Newsletter & author of "Project Serenity - How to gain happiness and peace". Her writings draw life from her 24 years experience as software Project Manager. Let her guide you towards Faster All Round Success and a Stress Free, Joyous Life. Her free ebook and newsletter tell you how. Subscribe with a mail to successAlways@sendfree.com

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