A supervisor once told me that "being a supervisor wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the people." He said, "You get everything squared away. Everything is humming along and then someone does something stupid."
It's hard not to sympathize with him. (And yes, his supervisor may be saying the same thing). Supervising people, with all of the baggage and challenges they bring, requires a lot of attention and skill. One supervisor's results may differ greatly from those achieved by others and yet, on the surface, their teams may seem identical. Often, the difference is due to that sophisticated field known as people skills: the sort of talents many organizations feel are obtained through osmosis.
I recently saw a decision paper that was drenched in cold logic. If people were machines, it would be perfect. The problem is that people don't like to be treated like machine parts. As the paper moves along in the review process, it is likely that a few of those machine parts will start to speak. The rules of supervision are easy. Being a good supervisor is not.
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