There are some in the “Agile Coaching” community and beyond who feel that management is by definition bad — some might even say evil.
Sure, bad managers are bad managers, but that doesn’t mean all management/leadership is bad.
The Agilistas are throwing the baby out with the bath water here.
Poor management is bad. Micromanagement is bad.
But good management is good, and highly effective.
As I’ve pointed out in the past, moving from mediocre management to even more mediocre management, spread-out across the team, is usually a recipe for disaster.
If a business has poor management, they should seek to hire and retain, or retrain, their existing management. If you business needs help in this area feel free to get in touch.
PostAgilist
Post Agilist 
Would we all not bag management if all of them were good and didn’t micromanage? Probably. I have certainly had excellent leaders who just happened to be my manager as well. Were they valuable? Yes, but not in a way that most managers these days would consider normal. They empowered me, believed in me, supported me and listened to me. They saw the positives, gave me insight. What they didn’t do is tell me what to do at a macro or even a micro layer. They didn’t highlight my many faults.
In essence, they were a friend, a support coach. I think my biggest grief is with the term “manage”. It infers to me a perception that I am inadequate in some way, that I need to be handled. Management as a term and practice is bad. Leadership or support coaching is not.
Management is probably a bad term if they are managing people. Managers should manage projects and lead people. I don’t see “coaching” as it’s done in agile helpful but that’s for a different blog post.
PostAgilist
Hence why I used the term “Support coach” to differentiate it.
Ah 🙂 Well I like that phrase as it clearly delineates the role, akin to my Customer Proxy idea 🙂
Good insight.
PostAgilist