No. This would be a person who already happens to spend their nights and weekends coding. There are plenty of people who like building things, whether it’s woodworking or software.

> How about, a proportion of their work day must be allocated to keeping up to date with the tools behind the thing they're attempting to manage?

Maybe, but it would need to be solving a real problem the team has, not just leetcode or some random thing. Part of sharpening the saw is the struggle, and subsequent overcoming, which requires solving a real problem.

But you also don’t want a manager owning a critical path project as the developer. Part of a manager’s effectiveness is being available. That doesn’t work in crunch time when a project needs head down coding all week to meet a deadline.

But if a manager is building a trading bot or chess engine on their own time, they will encounter all kinds of real world challenges.

Why is that a waste? I'm an EM and code both at work and on nights/weekends. During the work day, I spend most of my time helping other people directly (code review, talking through designs, 1:1s, xfn collab, etc.) To build larger things, I do them nights and weekends.

It's not a waste. I'm better as an EM because of it. And being a better EM gets me more of what I want (fixing healthcare).

Not everyone can do this—and at some point in my life maybe I can't either—but it absolutely makes me better at my job. I don't consider that a waste.