Priorities of an IT Manager

The way I see it, an IT Manager's primary tasks are managing People and managing Processes. If he/she does a good job of both, the People and the Processes would take care of managing the Technology. Of course the Manager should have, or should acquire, a basic understanding the concerned Technology. But the team's success does not depend on his/her being a Technical Expert

But most IT companies seem to believe that an IT Manager's primary task is managing Technology - in other words, being "technically hands-on". If he/she is skilled at managing Processes, that is an added benefit, provided he/she practices it outside regular work hours. And managing People is considered about as valuable as a cricketer's computer engineering degree would be to his IPL team

So if you go to office every other Saturday and write/fix/test code along with your team, saving them from the ignominy of failed deployments, you qualify for accolades and awards. But if you don't have to go to office on Saturdays because you have worked hard to build a strong team, and empowered that team to follow efficient delivery processes, you are judged as only Meeting Expectations