I manage a team of 20. A few people are good at and enjoy being independent and don’t need much management, but most people fall apart and actually end up with a lower job satisfaction. I’m not saying they all desire micromanagement (though I have one high needs but high output developer that enjoys work more with weekly meetings and daily checking, as a stress reliever), but they all appreciate good management as it reduces unnecessary work, wasted effort, and results in a higher quality product.

I started a company and was always a “leave me alone to do it my way” individual contributed, and it took a huge amount of effort on my part to remove that bias of how I like to work, so I could effectively manage people who don’t work best that way.

Culture by the way, is just a common ground tying people together to make everything a little less transactional. I have some transactional people and I tend to be that way myself, but most of our team enjoys shared memories, values, etc. they are the ice breaker between most people that otherwise wouldn’t have the desire or reason to hang out, but are forced to by work. Most people actually recognize this as a tool and happily play the game.