I like his comment at about the 2:06[0] mark where he says "They knew how to manage but they didn't know how to do anything..."
However...a dynamic I see happening in my professional world is that the 'how' of doing things is changing so rapidly that managers aren't able to keep up and so might find themselves in a position where when they first started managing they were an expert in their domain but over time the domain has changed so much that their expertise has fallen behind. At that point I think a manager can still have value by performing classically managerial tasks:
- setting/reinforcing/communicating the vision (as Jobs notes in the video)
- recognizing great work by individuals on the team (both within the team and across the org)
- minimizing uncertainty within their span of control/removing 'blockers'
- providing autonomy to their staff
- facilitating collaboration
- striving for fairness and transparency in management decisions
However...a dynamic I see happening in my professional world is that the 'how' of doing things is changing so rapidly that managers aren't able to keep up and so might find themselves in a position where when they first started managing they were an expert in their domain but over time the domain has changed so much that their expertise has fallen behind. At that point I think a manager can still have value by performing classically managerial tasks:
- setting/reinforcing/communicating the vision (as Jobs notes in the video)
- recognizing great work by individuals on the team (both within the team and across the org)
- minimizing uncertainty within their span of control/removing 'blockers'
- providing autonomy to their staff
- facilitating collaboration
- striving for fairness and transparency in management decisions
[0]https://youtu.be/rQKis2Cfpeo?t=2m6s