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General manager/director skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025
5 min read
Quoted experts
Dr. Timothy Edwards,
Nina Woodard
Below we've compiled a list of the most critical general manager/director skills. We ranked the top skills for general managers/director based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 12.4% of general manager/director resumes contained customer service as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a general manager/director needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 general manager/director skills for your resume and career

1. Customer Service

Customer service is the process of offering assistance to all the current and potential customers -- answering questions, fixing problems, and providing excellent service. The main goal of customer service is to build a strong relationship with the customers so that they keep coming back for more business.

Here's how general managers/director use customer service:
  • Direct strategy development, marketing, online commerce and telesales, customer service/support, pricing, inventory management and reverse logistics.
  • Configured server station charts to assure high degree of cost-efficient customer service; focus on customer problem-identification and resolution.

2. Financial Performance

Here's how general managers/director use financial performance:
  • Implemented customer sensing and targeting activities along with dedicated brand building which improved the revenue and financial performance of all disciplines.
  • Implement and continuously improve the internal business practices that impact customer satisfaction, employee morale and financial performance.

3. Payroll

Payroll is the sum of all the compensation that an organization has to pay to employees at a specified time. Payroll is managed by the finance or HR department while small business owners may handle it themselves. Payroll isn't fixed as it varies every month due to sick leaves, overtime, etc.

Here's how general managers/director use payroll:
  • Conducted labor evaluations significantly reducing overtime thus resulting in a payroll reduction of 6%.
  • Prepared invoices, managed all administrative office paperwork and payroll.

4. Beverage Operations

Here's how general managers/director use beverage operations:
  • Direct, oversee and manage all food and beverage operations in catering, generating sales of over 2.0 million.
  • Supported the sales and operations teams for the golf component as well as food and beverage operations.

5. Human Resources

Human resources is a set of people in a business or a corporation that are designated to locate, interview, and recruit new employees into the company. They are also responsible to maintain the integrity of the employees and help them sort their problems out. They try to introduce and manage employee-benefit programs.

Here's how general managers/director use human resources:
  • General Management of operation (managed an office of 6), accounting, human resources, all aspects of operation.
  • Conduct corporate unit evaluations to ensure compliance, consistency and efficient use of human resources for the benefit of the unit.

6. R

R is a free software environment and a language used by programmers for statistical computing. The R programming language is famously used for data analysis by data scientists.

Here's how general managers/director use r:
  • Key customer engagements as Service Delivery Head: Cummins, Johnson & Johnson, AIG, Toys R Us.

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7. Business Plan

Here's how general managers/director use business plan:
  • Managed all aspects of business including defining strategy and value proposition, development of business plan and secured appropriate funds.
  • Developed well thought-out marketing and business plans for their market in addition to developing executable capture activities.

8. Oversight

Having oversight of someone means to monitor a process or a situation. If someone has oversight of something, they are responsible for the completion of the project. Oversight is usually given to experts as they monitor their juniors or newbies as they go through a project.

Here's how general managers/director use oversight:
  • Advanced to increasingly responsible positions, culminating in management role with oversight for a weekly publication.
  • Provided direct oversight of Programming/Operations, Business, Membership and Underwriting/Marketing department heads.

9. General Management

Here's how general managers/director use general management:
  • General management, consulting and business development success as above for approximately 90 multinational companies headquartered in the U.S. southeast region.
  • Provided general management to support service departments to several large commercial service contracting organizations and Medical entities.

10. Business Development

Business development is the ideas or initiatives that work to make business work better. Selling, advertising, product development, supply chain management, and vendor management are only a few of the divisions involved with it. There is still a lot of networking, negotiating, forming alliances, and trying to save money. The goals set for business development guide and coordinate with all of these various operations and sectors.

Here's how general managers/director use business development:
  • Achieved a formidable record fostered group s business development, manufacturing, and strategic planning team within manufacturing environment.
  • Directed business development and key corporate initiatives to deliver valued solutions for clients in a variety of industries.

11. Logistics

Logistics is a complete organization and implementation of a problem. Logistics are often considered in a complex business operation, as some works need detailed plannings. Logistics are also used in military action.

Here's how general managers/director use logistics:
  • Reorganized demand logistics, Sales and Operations Planning, to improve predictability and supply throughout the manufacturing and delivery processes.
  • Authored and presented presentations to top company executives, and served as key account executive handling life-cycle campaign logistics.

12. Membership Sales

Membership sales is a process whereby a potential customer (prospect) joins a platform, group, or club, convincing them of its benefits, and closes the deal. Like every process, each step plays an important role in the overall success of the sales pitch.

Here's how general managers/director use membership sales:
  • Hire, train, develop and motivate sales team on a daily basis in new membership sales and personal training sales.
  • Supported the Sales Team through weekly meetings and contributed 5-10 membership sales a month.

13. POS

POS is an abbreviation of "Point of Sale" which is the time and place where a customer completes a transaction. It can either be a physical shop that consists of POS terminals or a virtual shop. A POS system helps simplify the retail functions and track important sales data.

Here's how general managers/director use pos:
  • Maintained company POS system to add/delete/modify new products.
  • Installed a POS system and established cash handling procedures making tracking and reporting of revenues and expenditures more efficient.

14. Labor Costs

Labor cost is the total of all financial expenses incurred during the production of a product or in the services rendered by a company. This includes wages paid to workers directly, benefits, health care, meals, training, and payroll taxes involved in the process. It also include indirect expenses on labor which is why it's divided into direct and indirect wages.

Here's how general managers/director use labor costs:
  • Designed and executed structural implementation to maximize the overall guest experience while also decreasing overall labor costs and COGS.
  • Developed and implemented direct labor incentive pay system increasing throughput while reducing labor costs.
top-skills

What skills help General Managers/Director find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on general manager/director resumes?

Dr. Timothy EdwardsDr. Timothy Edwards LinkedIn profile

Professor, Interim Director, University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Writing and research skills. Analytical and critical thinking skills. Technical skills such as web design, graphic design, audio and video production skills. Employers are interested in potential employees knowledge, intelligence and skills.

What general manager/director skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Nina WoodardNina Woodard LinkedIn profile

Senior Career Development Specialist, Belmont University

For entertainment, digital marketing and content creation skills are critical. Even if a role isn't specifically connected to digital marketing, social media is almost always involved in most entry-level roles. We strongly encourage students and recent graduates to learn basic graphic design platforms, video editing and audio editing. Learning how to maximize impact on social media platforms such as YouTube, Instagram or TikTok is also a worthy investment of time. There's a wide range of self-paced training resources online, many available for free or at reduced costs for students.

What type of skills will young general manager/directors need?

Dr. Barbara DavisDr. Barbara Davis LinkedIn profile

William J. Atkins Dean, Centenary College of Louisiana

Analysis - Graduates will need to analyze situations, identify the best choices, and seek solutions with the highest benefit to the organization.

Creativity - Graduates will need to possess critical and creative thinking skills.

Flexibility - Graduates must remain flexible to succeed in a highly changing environment.

What hard/technical skills are most important for general manager/directors?

Bruce Heiman Ph.D.

Professor of International Business, San Francisco State University

-Analytical skills (ability to gather data, clean it, analyze it, write-up results and present on what the meaning of the analysis suggests for action (the last one is most important--"what does it really mean?"

-Some experience and skills with coding in any language (at the moment, Python or C++ are preferred, though Ruby on Rails is also good)

-Deep spreadsheet skills (pivot tables and macros, as examples).

-Relational database skills, including programming (e.g., MySQL)

-Data mining

-AI/Machine Learning experience

List of general manager/director skills to add to your resume

General manager/director skills

The most important skills for a general manager/director resume and required skills for a general manager/director to have include:

  • Customer Service
  • Financial Performance
  • Payroll
  • Beverage Operations
  • Human Resources
  • R
  • Business Plan
  • Oversight
  • General Management
  • Business Development
  • Logistics
  • Membership Sales
  • POS
  • Labor Costs
  • Menu Development
  • Front Desk
  • Inventory Control
  • Revenue Growth
  • Fine Dining
  • Guest Satisfaction
  • Staff Training
  • Direct Reports
  • Cost Control
  • Bottom Line
  • Product Development
  • Training Programs
  • Wine List
  • Business Operations
  • KPI
  • Event Planning
  • Vendor Relations
  • ISO
  • Cost Reduction
  • Financial Reports
  • Financial Statements
  • L Management
  • Customer Relations
  • Product Line
  • Restaurant Operations
  • QA
  • EBITDA
  • Facebook
  • OEM
  • NET Profit
  • FOH
  • ROI
  • Client Relationships
  • Inventory Management
  • Contract Negotiations

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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