In my case: when you move to a new role in the same company and you realize 3 months later that your manager is terrible, you start making comparisons with your previous manager and you find a long list of differences, the plus parts on your previous managers are all signs. The signs for me are: - I feel free to do anything I believe it is good for my company and my manager fully supports me after I prove I did the right thing over and over - my manager cares about me (this can be in different forms; my manager traveled half of the world just to have a couple of days of face 2 face talks; he is not the kind of guy to travel a lot) - my manager has a plan, a vision, that he articulates, we all know it and we all have input in it, so we all feel we own it - my manager takes (calculated) risks more often that others - my manager is trustworthy - my manager talks straight - I can call my manager at any time and tell him I don't agree with any of his decisions, he will listen and he can easily be convinced if he was really wrong (it happened usually when he did take decisions based on incomplete information) - I can call my manager any time and he will find the time to talk to me; he knows that if I tell him "we need to talk now" then it is something important enough to talk right now