Lots of arbitary answers : "n hrs are about right"! Why?
I run 3 teams, I delegate obsessively (a my team leads are smarter than me and know what they are doing better than I do) however I thing people, bosses, team, politics, now and next. Every week you MUST meet with your boss, your direct reports, you must meet with your peers and you must have a meeting about the current work and a meeting about the next work. You also need a to be doing some political meeting - random folks who want to talk to you and do things with you/for you/get you to do things.
Team/peers - you will do 2hrs to share everything (min), DR's is an hour each, I have 3 (and a half but that's another story) boss will be 1/2-1hr (as he/she will be at their wits end) big boss will be 1/2 hr (so 2 hrs bosses), politics is 3 hrs. Now is 1/2 hr if all is good.. but there are a lot of nows, so put 2 1/2 hrs min against that, if all is not good budget 5 hrs. Next is 30 mins (at the beginning of a cycle) to 5 hrs (at the end of a cycle.
Tot it up... 13 -> 20 ish.
They all have a specific purpose for me; they keep me employed and they keep the pipeline alive. Being less selfish; they keep those who depend on my engagement happy and they make sure that my company gets the value center that it invests in in the shape of my team. I deliver on the investment, build capability and a work stream.
Most of all I do not piss anyone off by being unavailable or unfriendly - for a manager work is a social activity; if you don't like it you need to look for another dev gig.
I run 3 teams, I delegate obsessively (a my team leads are smarter than me and know what they are doing better than I do) however I thing people, bosses, team, politics, now and next. Every week you MUST meet with your boss, your direct reports, you must meet with your peers and you must have a meeting about the current work and a meeting about the next work. You also need a to be doing some political meeting - random folks who want to talk to you and do things with you/for you/get you to do things.
Team/peers - you will do 2hrs to share everything (min), DR's is an hour each, I have 3 (and a half but that's another story) boss will be 1/2-1hr (as he/she will be at their wits end) big boss will be 1/2 hr (so 2 hrs bosses), politics is 3 hrs. Now is 1/2 hr if all is good.. but there are a lot of nows, so put 2 1/2 hrs min against that, if all is not good budget 5 hrs. Next is 30 mins (at the beginning of a cycle) to 5 hrs (at the end of a cycle.
Tot it up... 13 -> 20 ish.
They all have a specific purpose for me; they keep me employed and they keep the pipeline alive. Being less selfish; they keep those who depend on my engagement happy and they make sure that my company gets the value center that it invests in in the shape of my team. I deliver on the investment, build capability and a work stream.
Most of all I do not piss anyone off by being unavailable or unfriendly - for a manager work is a social activity; if you don't like it you need to look for another dev gig.