Average managers play checkers while great managers play chess. In chess,
all the pieces move differently; in checkers, they all move the same. Many
IT managers would love it if all programmers thought alike, but a great
manager knows that's absolute bunkum. A great manager figures out who's the
knight, the queen, the pawn. He coordinates all those very different
abilities and contributions into the service of the overall plan. He builds
a team out of individuals.

How an IT manager might play chess with his staff:

Great managers talk about strengths -not things you can do well, but things
that strengthen you. They're appetites as much as abilities - things you're
drawn toward. A weakness isn't something you're bad at; it's something that
drains, bores or frustrates you. An IT manager ought to be able to find out,
for example, that this person loves to pull together and stay till midnight
to meet that deadline. That urgency, passion, camaraderie makes him feel
alive. Others need to go step by step and see the timeline and stick to it
very religiously - never get behind the eight ball.

This kind of management introduces a good kind of disruption into the
workplace. When you don't think of a pawn as waiting to become a queen, but
as someone with a unique way of looking at the world, then you can be open
to the insight a pawn has. You can think of each job as having a certain
expertise and help people extend their contribution. Take someone on a help
desk. The insights that can come from a really expert help desk pro -- about
what clients are really looking for, how the system works, where the bugs
are -- are the most valuable intelligence a company can collect.

Source:
http://www.computerworld.com/careertopics/careers/story/0,10801,100652,00.html