I believe that nobody in particular can arrive at any particular percentage for this issue. It also largely depends on the type of professionals and kind of people you are working with. The 'What' and 'How' varies with this.

My definition of good professionals will be pros who know the technology, implementation, know how to get help when stuck, help/collaborate others with tech questions etc.

My definition for good people: ummmm..... dedicated people, dedication towards project, company etc. Basically, people who take their job seriously and understand how their (in)competence could affect the entire company, team and project.

Consider yourself a manager. You must understand how your subordinates, peers and team members think about you and you must know each individual to some extent. There could be 4 possibilities:

1) You have a team of good professionals and good people. You, as a manager, would discuss and explore different areas with everyone but still would most likely to distribute power of making and taking decisions to 'n' number of people. (but won't sit back and relax, because you are not installing a copy of Windows).

2) Team of Good professionals but not-so-good people. People might have personal differences, or might not like each other etc. Your role as a manager would more likely to be "How" to get things done in a smooth manner rather than "What" because you could depend on them for they might be best in their field.

3) Team of not-so-good professionals but good people. Most likely, you would end up putting people in a group who have understanding, friendship and help each other on tech front. You might have more concentration on "What" to be done so that the team(s) could finish the job on time. Note, "How" is equally important too, but "What" gets the focus, so that appropriate job could be given to appropriate group.

4) Unprofessional and bad people. Not possible. Companies generally don't hire such people and even if they do by mistake, not matter what strategy you employ, you are doomed.

In a typical project environment scenario, the "what" has already been decided, but the balance between "what" and "how" needs to be done throughout the designing, development and maintenance of project/ system etc.

@Mendhak, as a Developer, even I used to think everything a part of politics, but you need to be part of politics to come out clean. Personally, I have never done that and like to stay away from all this nonsense, but if your reporting manager is idiot and doesn't know how to deal with politics and same people, you may end up in bin (like me). And what will you prefer?