Maxim Behar for TBmagazine: The Ice Cream Salesman and... Something Else

In his weekly column "Max's Column" for TBmagazine, Maxim Behar talks about the real role of managers and their ability to manage their teams so that they start loving their jobs.

The phrase is more than famous. It goes around offices, it stands framed in CEO's offices or conference rooms, in companies' halls, and from every row of it there seems to be a frowning little man standing and wagging his finger.

"If you want to make everyone happy, become an ice cream salesman, not a manager!"

Come on! Very clever!

So there's no way a manager can make the company colleagues happy, right? Or does he have to make some of them, if not all, unhappy? Or should he put on the apron and white chef's hat and go out on the street offering ice cream from the cart.

Well, quite the opposite!

Now, already in 2022, and years earlier, it is the most qualified managers who have the ability to make everyone happy - his team, his customers, his partners. Modern means of communication, the lessons we learn every day, but also the teams that are becoming more knowledgeable and more prepared, really make this possible. All to be happily managed by a capable manager.

And yes, who can't do that - just start selling ice cream wherever they want and to whomever they want. But they cannot become a manager for sure!