142: "What Happens When Your Team Suddenly Doubles in Size?" ft. Alli Murphy

The rise of the “mega manager” is real—and it’s breaking traditional leadership models. In this conversation, Erik and Alli unpack what happens when managers go from leading 6–8 people to 12–16 (or more), why it’s happening, and how leaders can adapt.

From rethinking one-on-ones to abandoning the “subject matter expert” trap, this episode explores the tension between what leadership should look like—and the messy reality leaders are navigating today.

It’s part strategy, part mindset shift, and part honest reckoning with a system that’s quietly forcing leaders to evolve.

🧭 Conversation Highlights

• The Rise of the Mega Manager. Average team sizes have jumped ~50% in a decade—creating unsustainable expectations and forcing leaders to rethink everything.
• Why This Is Happening (It’s Not Just One Thing). Layoffs, remote work, poor leadership development, and over-reliance on SaaS tools have all contributed to fewer managers overseeing more people.
• The “Subject Matter Expert Trap”. Most leaders were promoted for doing the work—then stay stuck doing it, instead of actually leading people.
• The Steelman Argument for Bigger Teams. What if oversized teams force leaders to finally develop real leadership skills by removing the option to stay in the weeds?
• Leadership Systems That Actually Scale. Rotating team leadership, restructured one-on-ones, and async communication become essential—not optional.

💡 Key Takeaways

• You can’t scale leadership the same way you scale teams. More people doesn’t just mean more effort—it demands a fundamentally different approach.
• Time pressure exposes bad leadership habits. When your team grows, you lose the ability to hide in meetings, problem-solving, and expertise.
• Leadership is not knowing more—it’s developing others. The faster you let go of being the expert, the faster your team grows.
• You must redesign your systems, not just work harder. One-on-ones, meetings, and communication need to evolve with your team size.
• If you don’t advocate for change, you’ll own the failure. Leaders who don’t “plant the flag” early risk being held accountable for broken systems later.

❓ Questions That Mattered

• What’s actually driving the explosion of team sizes?
• At what point does a team become too big to lead effectively?
• What do you stop doing when you no longer have time for everything?
• How do you maintain development and connection at scale?
• When should a leader push back—and how?

🗣️ Notable Quotes

• “We don’t know how to develop leaders.”
• “You have no choice but to get out of the minutiae.”
• “You can’t bend the laws of physics and time.”
• “You’re doing the job of two people—so negotiate like it.”
• “You owe it to your future self to plant the flag.”

🔗 Links & Resources

• Listen to other episodes co-hosted with Alli