So spot on. You see tons of articles and "thought leadership" on Managers vs Leaders as if managers are holding a company back through incompetence or malice. Oh man. Reality is leadership sets processes because they believe the "last ounce of juice" hasnt been squeezed. I can point you to a whole bunch of leadership rubriks (at faang/maangs) that is all about showing "impact" vs getting actual work down - and they all get vocalized a lot more during perf/calibration seasons. I am pretty sure someone who is a "Leader" will just say true work always equates to quantifiable impact (north star metrics etc) all the while ignoring the fact that collaboration needs a lot of political skills - ie convincing why we should do what leadership wanted to begin with - but without their ack. "I trust you will sort this all out instead of depending on us leaders".

I know i know. I really apologize for sounding angry there. I have seen so many smart and well meaning people getting demotivated (and giving up) because the modern corp is built around "preventing" work getting done than channeling all this passion and then execs are surprised at why people are "saying they are burnt out" or not being productive.