[user123456780]

As a former middle manager I completely agree with this. It can be a very difficult role. I called it the the A-symmetry of knowledge. As a tech person on tools you have such a small view of the company at large and all of the other issues that are going on. Most of which you as a manager cannot/should not share with your team.

I have had tech leads come to me with solid solutions for their little slice of the world except it would be detrimental to another team or project that you can't talk about yet.

So you have to delicately tip to about your tech team with out upsetting them. Which is difficult because they largely see you as useless middle management. All this while doing the dance with the senior managers/execs justifying why your team deserves bonuses and pay rises, or taking their half baked ideas and 180 flips in directions and trying to calm them and figure out what problem it is they actually want solved.

[joeblubaugh]

The idea that you can’t talk about it is fundamentally flawed. If you can’t give your reports the information they need to be effective, you and the company are failing the people who get the work done.

[aahortwwy]

Yup. Super common to see organizations habitually creating problems for themselves out of thin air and then becoming wildly inefficient as a result.

[gmadsen]

unless it is required by law, such as ITAR projects, a company intentionally siloing information from groups would be a huge red flag. I understand that with a company the size of Apple, that becomes a liability, and maybe thats why I prefer start ups. I need to feel like I can trust my coworkers for me to be most effective