Priors and Abbots
Artt finds he balks at the title of Abbot; it smacks of landdeeds, somehow, fur robes and roast swan. "I believe I'll be their Prior instead. First among equals".
-- Emma Donoghue
When I started my current job, it was two other engineers and me on the team, all of us reporting to different managers. When asked if the team needed a dedicated manager, I recommended against it, on the idea that the team was doing fine without it. This happened several times. At my job before that, I went through a similar situation; when we began to hire out our nascent frontend team, I was asked if the team needed a manager, or if I'd be willing to do it. I opted for the latter.
Eventually, the scenario was the same again: I opted to take on the management responsibilities of the team rather than have another manager. My opposition to the idea was that the team was performant and self organizing, and did not need another manager. In many ways, I still believe that is the case for the current makeup of the team (we've had three rotations of engineers now and the team is larger).
This is becoming a bit of a management philosophy for me--to be a prior, rather than an abbot. To work with the team, to advocate for the team, and to prefer to do the things that the team is less interested in or help them be better at their jobs. But not just a management philosophy, but also a rule for engagement in an organization, and in life: to be never more than the first, and always among equals.