First thing to note is that it took me a decade or more to understand what makes (for me) a "good manager". Here's my current list:
1. Removed obstacles for me doing a good job - that could be handling politics, ensuring requirements are readily available, logistics of equipment, working space, whatever it may be. Turns out, a good manager handles a trillion seemingly trivial things that add up to being crucial to smooth team operation, but may never be visible to actual team members; kind of like nobody pays attention to Infra until it breaks :S
2. Made themselves available: I now understand the value, and difficulty, in answering "Yes" to every "Hey, got 2 minutes?".
3. Mentorship: it may be advice particular to current skillset, but typically it's more thoughts and frameworks on things I'm not familiar with or above my paygrade: how to work with clients or management, how to approach one's career, etc.
Somewhere between Time & Mentorship, a personal example: in 2011, we had a major document deliverable; every evening, for weeks running, my lead would spend an hour or more going over the documents I produced, making horribly annoying corrections over and over and over again. It took me a long time to realize a) the kind of time commitment this presented on their part - it would be so much easier for them to fix the document themselves than to patiently guide me, but would not have advanced me; and b) how much it made me pay attention to detail, readability, assumptions and scope ever since.
This is a good list and I'd only distill it with the following: The best manager is the one whose only focus is for each of the team members and the team collectively to be successful.
In some companies or teams that may be removing distractions or introducing accountability or getting rid of a bad apple or providing vision, etc. If the team is not successful (over time), it is your fault. The sad part is that most managers are more worried over self preservation and being "important" than worrying about success. Ironically, being focused on team success would make them even more indispensable.
1. Removed obstacles for me doing a good job - that could be handling politics, ensuring requirements are readily available, logistics of equipment, working space, whatever it may be. Turns out, a good manager handles a trillion seemingly trivial things that add up to being crucial to smooth team operation, but may never be visible to actual team members; kind of like nobody pays attention to Infra until it breaks :S
2. Made themselves available: I now understand the value, and difficulty, in answering "Yes" to every "Hey, got 2 minutes?".
3. Mentorship: it may be advice particular to current skillset, but typically it's more thoughts and frameworks on things I'm not familiar with or above my paygrade: how to work with clients or management, how to approach one's career, etc.
Somewhere between Time & Mentorship, a personal example: in 2011, we had a major document deliverable; every evening, for weeks running, my lead would spend an hour or more going over the documents I produced, making horribly annoying corrections over and over and over again. It took me a long time to realize a) the kind of time commitment this presented on their part - it would be so much easier for them to fix the document themselves than to patiently guide me, but would not have advanced me; and b) how much it made me pay attention to detail, readability, assumptions and scope ever since.