Dear Bob ...Regarding your recent Keep the Joint Running titled "Leadership musings," (2/20/2006) I'm not sure I follow you on ranking managers, specifically, #5 ("Effective managers who are also excellent leaders build organizations capable of doing whatever work needs to get done, without their intervention.") If work that needs to get done is being done without intervention, why would an organization need tha Dear Bob …Regarding your recent Keep the Joint Running titled “Leadership musings,” (2/20/2006) I’m not sure I follow you on ranking managers, specifically, #5 (“Effective managers who are also excellent leaders build organizations capable of doing whatever work needs to get done, without their intervention.”) If work that needs to get done is being done without intervention, why would an organization need that manager in that particular area anymore? #5 appears to be an ideal and not obtainable. Can you elaborate or give a real world example?– Leveling off Dear Leveling …Perhaps a metaphor will help illustrate the point. Imagine three craftsmen. All build durable, attractive chairs. One opens a business selling chairs, and stocks his store with as many chairs as he can craft. The second designs a chair factory that produces chairs that match his designs. He is able to produce more chairs of equivalent quality, faster, and at a lower cost. The third goes the second one better – he hires and trains a factory manager, so he can spend his time designing the next chair.So here we have a manager. The manager can directly supervise the work. The manager can also institute a process (a factory) that ensures the work gets done properly without requiring direct supervision of the work. Or, the manager can build an organization capable of following and constantly improving the process without his direct oversight, so he can spend his time planning, integrating the organization’s function with the rest of the company, looking for areas in which the organization needs to improve, forecasting new capabilities the organization will need to address the demands that will be placed on it in the coming years, and building leadership, management, and technical skills throughout.– Bob Technology Industry