Managers of one are people who come up with their own goals and execute
them. They don't need heavy direction. They don't need daily check-ins. They do
what a manager would do--set the tone, assign items, determine what needs to
get done, etc.--but they do it by themselves and for themselves.
These people free you from oversight. They set their own direction. When you
leave them alone, they surprise you with how much they've gotten done. They
don't need a lot of hand-holding or supervision.
How can you spot these people? Look at their backgrounds. They have set the
tone for how they've worked at other jobs. They've run something on their own
or launched some kind of project.
You want someone who's capable of building something from scratch and
seeing it through. Finding these people frees the rest of your team to work more
and manage less.