beautiful metaphor. anyway, I quasi-agree, though I've become suspicious of managers who claims to be an umbrella protecting their team from the rain. Half the time, they're really just trying to make sure their team doesn't see the forecast and quit.
Unfortunately, in my experience, I've had my fair share of "shit funnels" or "shit multipliers." That applies to any manager role, really.
As a former product manager, I think of it as being at the bottom of a canyon and shit rolling in from both edges of the canyon (business and technical). It's a hard job to do well and keep everyone happy.
such good PM/managers/leaders are very rare. Instead it is usually this way https://cheezburger.com/4626943488/corporate-ladder , just with even more levels in real life and resulting amplification of the signal.
