> And you need to give up control and really allow them to do their part as they see fit (and not as you see fit).
...in reality that's exactly what's NOT happening, 99% of the time.
CEOs and bean counters better at coding than me abound. They're all better than all programmers!
- "Can't you just... not do it that way?"
- "Do it faster, we're on a deadline." <-- yeah, this one REALLY solves your problem, right there and then.
- "We cannot afford your solution." -- what they mean is they want to save money this month and spent 50x the money over the course of the next 2 years.
Examples are endless.
I like your sentiment and that's how I think about good managers but for 16.5 years of career I barely met 3 managers fitting that profile. Everybody else was not suited to even coordinate cardboard boxes distribution in a small warehouse.
It is exciting to see what you can achieve by communicating your goals to a team and by working with them on the goals. It feels like you are able to multiply your forces.
What the author points out is you need to be willing to do different things than before: instead of coding, you mainly listen and talk, and remove obstacles so that others can work undisturbed on the details.
I totally agree that this is not what everybody likes. But it is also not some 'marketing cancer'. It is simply what must be done if your team becomes larger than ~7 people.