[skeeter2020]

just an observation: if you moved from developer to CEO without significant time as a Dev or Eng manager you have very different skills and focus. CEOs of all but the smallest companies are playing checkers; Dev Managers play chess. This isn't some sort of insult; we need to focus on individuals with distinct skill sets and characteristics. CEOs can't and shouldn't be concerned with this level of detail.

It's also uncharitable to split teams into either high-performance special ops teams vs. mediocre, low skill / low potential teams. Two trends make this distinction meaningless: GROWTH and SCALE. If these don't apply then you can totally let the team self-manage. FANG companies typically have all those rockstars you're looking for and multiple levels of technical management.

[lostcolony]

Google even tried to go without managers. They backpedaled pretty quickly. https://www.inc.com/scott-mautz/google-tried-to-prove-manage...

[pc86]

Even if CEOs "can't and shouldn't be concerned with [individuals with distinct skill sets and characters]" (not a point I'm conceding, what makes you think a CEO's job is "checkers" compared to the chess of a Dev Manager who is realistically 2-4 levels below them in the organization?