Is it bad that I want to answer this before even reading the article? My answer: because programming is not the only difficult thing in life. <goes off to read article>

Not even sure what the article was getting at. Other than my email address. :(

It takes more than just having a human element to do well. In large part, many managers are bad because they are not given any real control. Sure, they have some control over their workers, but that only gets you so far. Unless the manager has real control up, as well, they can only be so good. This is especially so on projects that are likely in a death spiral.

Worse, though, is that many "good" managers probably don't have a real idea on exactly what makes them good. Even more perplexing, they likely did well at some point and there may not be any obvious variables that have changed from their success to their failures. Other than the outcome.