My workplace has a lot of managers, many of which I find to be rather redundant; however, my manager is the first one that I have ever had in my career that is

My workplace has a lot of managers, many of which I find to be rather redundant; however, my manager is the first one that I have ever had in my career that is particularly "good". He's less technical than some of the people on the team, but what he is very good at is limiting the ability for other departments to interfere with my team's work. He's almost like a border guard and diplomat for our team. Any sort of potential project involving co-operation between departments always goes to him first to figure out whether it fits our team. He also has our team's back in saying, "no, that is not my team's fault" --- in other words, he won't throw us under the bus. He lets us get our work done, and also provides us with clear higher level direction by managing how other departments interact with us. When a big project involving multiple departments develops, he is the one responsible for scheduling and...leading, for lack of a better word. I think some people bristle at the idea of being led, but a good leader is worth their weight in gold. A lot of bad managers are ultimately simply bad leaders. Now, can every department have what my team has? I don't know. But, I can say that his work as a manager has actively improved team productivity and task completion. It's very refreshing once you have a good manager. You're free to just work while he manages the teams bureaucracy, that is other departments pushing the team in a thousand directions at once.