Agree with this. The best manager I have had (in an engineering consultancy) used to be on the tools, but refused to do any more 'real work'. Instead he spent a

Agree with this. The best manager I have had (in an engineering consultancy) used to be on the tools, but refused to do any more 'real work'. Instead he spent all of his time managing the team of ~30. Eventually upper management decided he needed to do 'real work', and it didn't work out. What I've noticed with technical people who come into a management role, is that they're either able to put down the tools, or they aren't. If they aren't able to step away, they're functionally useless as a manager, because they spend all their time down squirrel holes, ignoring the management stuff. Management is an art, and the benefits a good manager provides often seem intangible, but are nevertheless extremely valuable. I still miss the leadership and people management skills of that good manager today, and it hurts to think we traded everything he provided for the assumption that he should have spent x hours doing technical work, much less efficiently than the people he was managing. Sigh...