Sometimes you read something that just hits you as both true and non-obvious. Maybe this is showing my youth, but there is an article on BNET about 10 Things Great Managers Do. I expected the normal list of things that you see from Harvard Business Review style MBAs – be ethical, support your employees, etc. This article had some of that but each point built on the last and came to a phenomenal conclusion.
Great managers do what has to be done, no matter what.
There are no exceptions. There are no conditions. This is the golden rule of managing. This is a fundamental of success in general.