Want a great manager?

Every employer says the same thing: “We want a great manager.”

Reality check: great managers don’t exist. At least, not in the numbers you think.

To be “great,” you’d need emotional intelligence, logic, reliability, charisma, competence—all at once. Sounds magical. Too bad it’s basically a unicorn hunt.

Psychologist Gilles Gignac https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S019188692400415X  crunched the data this year: out of 1,000,000 people, only 85 had just three of those traits. That’s one in ten thousand. And we haven’t even asked if they can actually run a business.

High emotional intelligence? Over-hyped. It’s a cluster of 40–80 micro-skills almost nobody masters. And even if they do, they usually lack the hard skills to actually fix anything.

The managers who save companies aren’t “nice.” They’re sharp, sometimes abrasive, but they know how to build systems, bring order, and create calm. They don’t need hugs to lead.

So, employers—pick your poison:
👉 Chase unicorns you’ll never find.
👉 Or hire the tough builders who will actually drag your company into success.

Which do you want? The comfortable crisis… or the uncomfortable success?