It might be shocking to you, but it is exactly the manager's main job. If people would magically communicate well and work together fluidly, we wouldn't need managers at all. It would just be team leads talking to product owners.

You can try to hire around this, and sometimes this works, especially in small teams or early stage startups. But at some point this breaks down, humans simply can't be rational and social all of the time.

Yes, it’s the manager’s ultimate responsibility. But it’s not only the manager’s job. Every team member, and especially those with more experience, has a responsibility to ensure the team communicates and operates cooperatively and effectively. It’s the sort of thing that can’t be imposed by above by a manager if individuals aren’t taking responsibility for it in the first place.

> but it is exactly the manager's main job

I would disagree; a manager is not necessarily an engineer and thus cannot mentor a junior engineer as well as a senior engineer could. I'm not saying that a manager cannot or should not mentor, but that a senior engineer should ALSO be mentoring based on shared experience. There's no need for a mentor monopoly. :)

This is a bit off topic, but to me, a good manager is basically an umbrella and a funnel for the team. The manager covers the team and protects them from crap to keep them productive, then funnels their communications and output to the correct places. Basically, the API for sales or execs or whatever to communicate with the team. That's where a manager differs from a senior dev for me -- the responsibilities are completely different.

You can't have a good team driven from the top; everyone has to be working and pulling their weight.

Now, I'm not saying that we should expect people to be rational and social all of the time, just that a large part of mentoring should include "soft" skills like how to deal with other people and yourself when you're not rational or social. This is definitely something that can be learned and eases workplace friction so, so much.

Edit: If this sounds familiar, I think it might be because I tend to harp on this on HN whenever it comes up. I feel like the "soft" skills are under- or completely devalued here sometimes, but they can really make or break a team just as much as technical skills.

I saw this comment on another thread that's sort of speaking to the same effect but from a practical perspective: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18158042

Don't know why you are being downvoted, this is exactly how I see a manager as well. To add to protecting the team from external shitstorms, is also to be an advocate for team members so they don't have to constantly worry about raises and promotions.