It's a pull relationship versus a push relationship from IC's to managers, these days it feels like IC's don't get anything unless they ask for it. This should be the other way around. There's no team building anymore, no more team spirit we're almost in competition mode with our colleagues rather than learning from each other.
There's a nice little theory (always messier in practice) around situational leadership by Blanchard and Hersey. 4 different leadership styles are needed to match employees in 4 different "states". Exceptional managers are able to match their style to their employees state. "Just good" managers usually default to 2 of the styles, and so don't always to well. Bad managers are either incomptent, or only use 1 style of management that mis-matches their team.
Check out https://online.stu.edu/articles/education/what-is-situationa... for more info.
Some of the people I manage/have managed seem to think I am great. My evidence for this is two-fold:
1) multiple people that I have managed before have moved on, and yet treat me as a friend/mentor: invite me to social events, still reach out to me on a regular basis with requests for advice, etc.
2) I get regular feedback via performance reviews as a manager that some people I am managing think I am great.
Likewise, some of the people I manage seem to think I could improve. My evidence for this is likewise, two-fold:
1) Some people tell me directly what I could do to improve in my style of managing them specifically.
2) Some people only give feedback on areas where I could improve anonymously via previously mentioned performance reviews.
Anyway, the point I am trying to make is that I am a mixed bag, but I am not universally terrible, and therefore my opinion shouldn't just be dismissed as "oh, you are just one of them". With that preamble out of the way:
What do we think of someone who, for example, says "I've never had anything but bad boyfriends / bad girlfriends". Well, the common wisdom is that if you are consistently having shitty personal relationships, you are at least part of the problem.
Likewise, If someone says "I've never had anything but bad managers", I apply the same pattern: you are probably not really putting in much effort into your professional relationships with your managers.