What a manager is supposed to do

So there was this amazing article that I was reading off the net last week. The article didn't catch my eye as much as an epithet from Jack Welch. The epithet went on to describe how a manager is supposed to grow others and how that is his most important duty. Such talk however is idealistic and although instances of it delight me and the masses, it is yet to be something that stops turning heads. I was looking over the issues of peer leadership as well over the weekend. The stakeholder for success model seems to be all too new a concept to gain any foothold at the workplace. Peer leadership seems at once to be the tightest rope that you could hope to walk on, a little less and the project goes to hell. A little too much and not only does the project, but you also go to hell :) Overall, the past project threw up a large dose of problems that go with either a jinx or an invisible force-field that's put there to just throw you off the trail :) Keeping your cool, stretching that extra mile and making sure that the project stays on track is no mean feat, especially when there is all the responsibility and none of the perks. Anyway, getting back to the manager and what he is supposed to do, I strictly mean in a non-hierarchical sense