[deadgrey19]

IMHO, a good manager would communicate the importance of the project along with the spec of the project. "Because I said so, so do it" is not a good strategy for highly skilled, highly competent, highly intelligent people. The "why" is every bit as important as the "what". Presumably you wouldn't "waste" a good programmer on a simple task if it wasn't important. Similarly a good programmer would understand that business priorities means that some projects are complex and interesting, some are important and boring.

As an employee, if the manager is not a skilled communicator, it's not the sort of place I want to work for. As a manager, if the employee is cannot understand business priorities, it's not the sort of employee that I want.