Skills
General and Operations Manager Skills & Tools
The technical skills, people skills and tools employers look for in general and operations managers, and how to build and show them.
General and Operations Managers need technical skills such as operations management, budgeting, and process improvement, plus people skills like leadership and problem-solving. They also use tools such as ERP systems and Scheduling software.
Technical (hard) skills
- Operations management
- Budgeting
- Process improvement
- Scheduling
- Data analysis
- Staff management
People (soft) skills
- Leadership
- Problem-solving
- Communication
- Decision-making
Tools, equipment and technology
- ERP systems
- Scheduling software
- Spreadsheets
- KPI dashboards
- Inventory systems
- Project management tools
Skills in action: common tasks
These step-by-step guides show how general and operations managers put their skills to work:
- How to find and fix a bottleneck
- How to run a daily operations huddle
- How to explain a budget variance
How to show these skills on a resume
- Lead your skills section with the technical skills from the job posting, for example, “Operations management” and “Budgeting.”
- Prove soft skills with results: instead of listing “leadership,” describe a situation where you used it.
- List credentials such as Lean Six Sigma near the top, with the issuing organization and date.
- Use the employer’s vocabulary. Our general and operations manager glossary covers the terms hiring managers expect.
How to build these skills
Formal training, supervised practice and certification are the most direct routes. Our General and Operations Manager training introduces each of these skills with plain-language lessons, procedures and a final knowledge check: a strong foundation before hands-on training or your first day.