@MICHAEL:

I think you are seeing it wrong. After all Wallace is a programmer. Wallace is paid to fix bugs - which he does very efficiently. The reason why Wallace is a programmer and not a manager is that he is insanely good at fixing difficult bugs, while weaker in communicating and strategic thinking. If every single programmer would be also a communication and strategy expert there would be no reason to hire guys like Rands to manage them. It is Rands who is paid to communicate and manage: a communication failure in his team is his failure to supplement the skills of his direct reports with his own.

I say this as an engineering manager: unless you can beat your engineers at their core expertise you should rather not challange them in your core expertise. In other words: as long as you don't excell at fixing insanely nasty bugs yourself accept that your job is to supplement the communication skills of those who are.