As someone who was going through the entire ladder in my career (junior, middle management, top management - CTO & Founder), I can very agree on this. But it i

As someone who was going through the entire ladder in my career (junior, middle management, top management - CTO & Founder), I can very agree on this. But it is actually more behind this than "just" about friendships. There are two types of managers that are toxic for their surroundings. The too friendly one, who can't make tough decisions and the other type is the one who doesn't care at all. Both types will end with a team of juniors (who are only there to gain experience) and toxic people. Not a team you wanna be in (hopefully). You don't have to be friends with your colleagues to be empathetic. And you don't have to be a psychopath to make tough decisions. My advice is, be as transparent as possible (you can't tell everything). If you make a decision, tell exactly why you do so. If you cannot be fully transparent, explain why. The people you manage expect that you make decisions, when it's needed, otherwise they will not respect you. There is something I tell to everyone who is new at managing people. The ultimate bad decision you can make is to fire someone (but it will happen). You should feel terrible, but you should still do it. Do it as quick as possible, don't push it away from you, just do it. If you need a drink in the evening afterwards, that's totally fine ;). I remained friendships throughout the career, even with people I personally had to bring over bad messages (and made that decision by myself). And even worse, as I was in top management, more or less every bad decision will be pushed on you anyways. Sorry for the long text ;).