mandelbrot in leadership

Leadership problems are, to a great extent, fractal.  I say this in the mathematical sense of fractal geometry and in the sense that with fractals, complexity is scale-invariant.  In other words, the apparent complexity of a the figure does not change no matter how "far away" or "up close" you are.  Clouds are fractal, which is why you can't tell how far you are from a cloud.

Clarity, alignment, accountability, innovation, autonomy, fear, trust--all these are the same (and of the same importance) whether you're running a 4-person shoes store on the corner or running a multibillion dollar organization.  These aspects of leading are fractal.

The shoe store is easier in some ways; as leader of the shoe store you have greater and more direct contact with the other members.  As such, you can directly influence more components of the organization.  Serving a multibillion dollar entity, you have less direct contact, and so less power in many ways.  Did you ever think about that?  The "boss at the top" is operating with less power, and less information sometimes, than someone on the front line.  Not all aspects of leadership are fractal.

Still, I often reflect that leadership problems are mostly fractal.  If I'm doing a good job with clarity, alignment, accountability, etc., then I can run the shoe store or a much larger entity fairly well.