[da_chicken]

> Taking "is good at IC duties" as the measure for "should lead a team of ICs" is sloppy.

Yeah, but the flip side is that "has an MBA" is equally sloppy. Anybody who's ever had a paper manager that "doesn't know their ass from a hole in the ground" knows that while hiring an MBA might get you someone who is good enough at managing people, if they have no understanding of the core business -- or worse, no capacity to understand the core business -- then they can't lead.

Leadership and management are two very different things just like leadership and expertise or management and expertise are two very different things.

[wool_gather]

Oh, absolutely agreed. My ideal world has people moved (not necessarily "promoted") to manager because people up the chain know that they'll be good at it, and not for any other reason.