I've had some awful managers in my career. One was formerly an elementary school teacher. She, very predictably, treated everyone like they were in elementary school, going so far as to give people gold stars for things. When called out on it, she confessed she really had no idea how to manage adults.
I've only had two excellent managers in my career, people who had studied management, were also technical, and cared about being effective at their jobs so the people they managed could be effective as well. These folks had formal training, undertaken of their own initiative, and it absolutely showed in all facets of what they did. Top notch folks!
I suspect this lack of training is an American phenomenon, but have no data to back up the claim.
Training is expensive and increased productivity is hard to measure - coupled together you see training as a cost with no tangible benefit.
They then just expect their employees to learn everything in their own time (which from your employers perspective, is free). There's a kind of horrifying logic to it really.
Managers start to feel like bosses when they don't have any technical background. The teams they manage are usually made up of juniors without much technical experience either, they'll be programmers rather than engineers reinforcing the "pop culture" Alan Kay talks about.
Actually, I would argue that most employees don't know what they want their manager to be. If they did, they would remember that and be better managers later.
I don't think that's true. I think most managers, however, when they become managers, learn what their managers expect them to be, which may not be what their employees want them to be.