"A good leader would delegate to a person he KNOWS will do the job right. A good leader knows that, because he has the right people working for him, he can depend on the work they've done, and doesn't need to review their work. A good leader hires people who already "think outside the box", who already HAVE the skills he needs them to have, and yet still provide training to improve their skills and update them. A good leader stands behind his employees because he knows he always can - that they have done their best, and he believes in the decisions they have made. A good leader, like you said, creates an environment in which his employees can succeed, and then lets them do so." You just described Ken Lay---he hired people that could do their jobs-he hired leaders who could think out of the box----but he never defined the box--he never set parameters for what side of the box was okay to think out of and what sides were verbotten. The business was very poorly, disaterously poorly, managed----
and I don't think that management manages too much because they have the wrong people working for them, I think it is because they have not accepted the ability of those people to act reasonably on their own nor have they assessed those people's abilities as juxtaposed with company goals and mores.
But I will say, that it is incumbent on a leader or a manager to review the work of his subordinants, not for the purpose of redoing it or constricting the inicentive, but to make sure it is consistant with the strategic plan, that he understands what his subordinants issues and concerns are and that he provide adequated feedback----due diligence is not micromanaging