Managerial differences

The Key Results Areas were considered as:

 

Operations Director	Maximises utilisation of materials and resources Implements more efficient production methods
Sales/Marketing Director	Develops and implements sales targets Proposes product/pricing strategies to optimise profitability Develops product/market opportunities
Finance Director	Co-ordinates preparation of annual budgets/plans Develops systems for controlling key aspects/areas of business Produces monthly/annual management accounts for local and Group requirements

 

Previously published research indicated that compared to their peers:

 

• Operations Directors may be less open minded
• Sales/Marketing Directors and are more extraverted
• Finance Directors had higher IQs and are less extraverted

 

Another study has concluded that high performing managers are moderately more intelligent, independent and stable and slightly more extraverted that their peers, with the best Finance Directors being slightly more anxious (no full night’s sleep for the successful Finance Director then!).

 

More recent research concludes that intelligent, highly extraverted, stable and independent-minded people with a focus on results and a degree of interpersonal skill would be a good proposition for all three functional roles.

 

Effectively, with regard to personality and competencies, the roles have far more in common than differences.

 

So you’re probably in your current role as a result of learning or luck!

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