Making your reports 2x as productive is far more expansive (and less visible) than just ensuring they're working on stuff 2x as important or doing 2x as much work.
Think of software for a moment. Has there every been a library, language, framework, etc that you absolutely love to use? The API is just right, the framework is the perfect level of opinionated vs. not opinionated, it just gets out of your way and lets you accomplish what you want, it's consistently reliable, it has fantastic backwards compatibility, it's error handling semantics are clear and the right level of verboseness, the internals are so well architected that it's also incredibly performant, etc.
It's just such a pleasure to work with. It's always just what you need, right when you need it, exactly how you needed it.
A company is a system, just like software. And a team is a submodule within that system. A 2x manager is the person that is able to make (and maintains) their team into the type of beloved system I mentioned above. How they do that is dependent on their expertise at comprehending, navigating, and influencing the larger system, and shaping their team to be precisely what that larger environment needs.
As hard as it is to do the above, it's really, really easy for a 0.1x manager to destroy that type of system/team. A few breaking API changes ("my team no longer handles those types of request you've been giving my team for years" vs "I've spoken with team x and it turns out they're more appropriately staffed to complete that work. Don't worry though, I've got a change management process in place and will ensure the handoff is seamless for you", refactoring some internal code that kills performance (i.e. losing important ICs without any risk mitigation/change management in place), etc can all tank the goodwill and community adoption of that once beloved system.
I switch between being an IC, a purely people manager, a functional manager (i.e. a team lead with people management and hiring/firing authority), and a "manager" (that's effectively an IC with a manager title so I have the organizational authority to execute the type of work I was doing). If you've never been a manager before, let me tell you: doing that shit right is exhausting. The biggest difference between being an IC and being a manager is that, as an IC, I'm able to ignore 90% of the bullshit around me and focus on my work. As a manager (whether doing IC work or purely people-managing), I can't ever tune out that organizational noise/bullshit/dysfunction/needs, because the more in tune I am with that the more likely that I can position my team to support the company, and in doing so ensure the peace of my team.
It's hard to image what a 2x manager is, because there's no single way to define one. But as an IC, having (or losing) a 2x manager will have a noticeable impact on you and your team's productivity over time, in any of a dozen or so different ways.
I think of managing as keeping a bunch of freight trains from smashing into one another. The manager can't claim to be making things move twice as fast, and it's hard to recognize the absence of disaster as a contribution. But if the managing were going poorly, everyone would be far worse off.
Pretty much. A good manager is easy to spot by the how predictably their freight trains crash (if its not above company norms or team standards prior to their tenure). A bad manager is easy to spot, because you can see the disaster around them. But a 2x manager is like a blackhole - there's nothing to observe directly, and you can only spot one if you're carefully observing everything around it. But if a really good manager disappears and is replaced by just a good manager, you'll slowly see that blackhole-like influence disappear and their team metrics revert to company norms.
That's not wrong, but it's roughly equivalent to saying a 10x engineer can help by unblocking other engineers on their team.
The devil is in the details. Does the 10x engineer accomplish that by pairing, code reviews, architectural leadership, refactoring, mentorship, improving team tooling and build processes, or just doing all the work themselves? The answe is any and potentially all of the above, as whatever the situation dictates. The 10x engineer is seen as 10x because they have a good sense of situational awareness and capacity to adapt both strategically and tactically as needed, which compounds itself to become an incredible source of productivity.
The same is true for a 2x manager shielding the team from corporate bullshit and clearing obstacles. Those are end goals, but there are countless paths to take to get to those goals, not all of which will lead you there. A 2x manager is able to suss out the fine line required to balance team needs against organizational forces in such a way that they'll have the policital capital[1] required to be a good steward/advocate of their team while also having their team seen as a productive asset of the company in order to accrue that political capital. Something which is ridiculously more difficult than it needs to be, if you're attempting to do so in a way that's sustainable continuously and not just a short term play that'll rebound later on.
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Making your reports 2x as productive is far more expansive (and less visible) than just ensuring they're working on stuff 2x as important or doing 2x as much work.
Think of software for a moment. Has there every been a library, language, framework, etc that you absolutely love to use? The API is just right, the framework is the perfect level of opinionated vs. not opinionated, it just gets out of your way and lets you accomplish what you want, it's consistently reliable, it has fantastic backwards compatibility, it's error handling semantics are clear and the right level of verboseness, the internals are so well architected that it's also incredibly performant, etc.
It's just such a pleasure to work with. It's always just what you need, right when you need it, exactly how you needed it.
A company is a system, just like software. And a team is a submodule within that system. A 2x manager is the person that is able to make (and maintains) their team into the type of beloved system I mentioned above. How they do that is dependent on their expertise at comprehending, navigating, and influencing the larger system, and shaping their team to be precisely what that larger environment needs.
As hard as it is to do the above, it's really, really easy for a 0.1x manager to destroy that type of system/team. A few breaking API changes ("my team no longer handles those types of request you've been giving my team for years" vs "I've spoken with team x and it turns out they're more appropriately staffed to complete that work. Don't worry though, I've got a change management process in place and will ensure the handoff is seamless for you", refactoring some internal code that kills performance (i.e. losing important ICs without any risk mitigation/change management in place), etc can all tank the goodwill and community adoption of that once beloved system.
I switch between being an IC, a purely people manager, a functional manager (i.e. a team lead with people management and hiring/firing authority), and a "manager" (that's effectively an IC with a manager title so I have the organizational authority to execute the type of work I was doing). If you've never been a manager before, let me tell you: doing that shit right is exhausting. The biggest difference between being an IC and being a manager is that, as an IC, I'm able to ignore 90% of the bullshit around me and focus on my work. As a manager (whether doing IC work or purely people-managing), I can't ever tune out that organizational noise/bullshit/dysfunction/needs, because the more in tune I am with that the more likely that I can position my team to support the company, and in doing so ensure the peace of my team.
It's hard to image what a 2x manager is, because there's no single way to define one. But as an IC, having (or losing) a 2x manager will have a noticeable impact on you and your team's productivity over time, in any of a dozen or so different ways.
Yeah, you nailed it.
I think of managing as keeping a bunch of freight trains from smashing into one another. The manager can't claim to be making things move twice as fast, and it's hard to recognize the absence of disaster as a contribution. But if the managing were going poorly, everyone would be far worse off.
Pretty much. A good manager is easy to spot by the how predictably their freight trains crash (if its not above company norms or team standards prior to their tenure). A bad manager is easy to spot, because you can see the disaster around them. But a 2x manager is like a blackhole - there's nothing to observe directly, and you can only spot one if you're carefully observing everything around it. But if a really good manager disappears and is replaced by just a good manager, you'll slowly see that blackhole-like influence disappear and their team metrics revert to company norms.
A 2x manager can help by shielding the team from corporate bullshit, and clearing obstacles that make it difficult for them to do their job.
That's not wrong, but it's roughly equivalent to saying a 10x engineer can help by unblocking other engineers on their team.
The devil is in the details. Does the 10x engineer accomplish that by pairing, code reviews, architectural leadership, refactoring, mentorship, improving team tooling and build processes, or just doing all the work themselves? The answe is any and potentially all of the above, as whatever the situation dictates. The 10x engineer is seen as 10x because they have a good sense of situational awareness and capacity to adapt both strategically and tactically as needed, which compounds itself to become an incredible source of productivity.
The same is true for a 2x manager shielding the team from corporate bullshit and clearing obstacles. Those are end goals, but there are countless paths to take to get to those goals, not all of which will lead you there. A 2x manager is able to suss out the fine line required to balance team needs against organizational forces in such a way that they'll have the policital capital[1] required to be a good steward/advocate of their team while also having their team seen as a productive asset of the company in order to accrue that political capital. Something which is ridiculously more difficult than it needs to be, if you're attempting to do so in a way that's sustainable continuously and not just a short term play that'll rebound later on.
We are agreeing, I just didn't have as much free time to type an answer as you.