I'm only new to management, but I try to be fairly hands off unless someone needs something from me. My reasoning for this is, I'm the one who hired this person and if I did my job correctly in hiring the best person, they shouldn't need to be micromanaged.
I too am hands off with respect to managing. I am of the opinion that if you need to actively manage your directs, then you have not hired well. I am a point of escalation when there are incidents or when mediation is required; otherwise I trust individuals to make decisions and be accountable for them. They will mistakes and you should not protect them from it; they need those experiences to grow. For decisions that are irreversible (or really hard to undo), I encourage them to solicit input from me and peers outside the immediate team.
For individual career growth, I try to align interest with opportunities that arise. I give timely feedback, I recognize their successes with new challenges and increases in compensation.
As it concerns project planning, I help with ballpark estimates so as to inform resourcing decisions. I negotiate the scope of projects with product/business leaders.
