My respect for simply taking on that role. I'm stuck at the engineer level in my 30-year career by choice because I was in management once and hated it. I was stuck between a VP who knew jack sh*t about technology and someone very good at their job but who had the personality of a rabid badger. The VP wanted them gone. I was out of that role before I had to make that call, by hiring my replacement and getting back to "turning wrenches."
I totally understand staying at the engineering level. I used to be an engineer myself, and one of the reasons I wanted to move up the ladder was to try to be different from the crappy manager I had in the past. Nowadays, I realize that still hard to make a real difference, but if I can help people have a slightly better day, it's good enough for me.
The firing part still sucks, tho.