Coming trends are for companies to eliminate managers. By and large, they are useless. Managers were invented in the late 1800’s to push workers, who were deemed “lazy”. The cut will save money and, more importantly, reduce turnover.
Instead of nannies who constantly badger about teamwork, skilled workers will have “leaders”—or “go-to” people. Being irritable and quirky will no longer get a craftsman fired, bad craftsmanship will.
Managers are not specially trained in the core skill of a company’s product or service—they’re trained in working with people as a skill itself. But a company can’t sell “people skills”.