The General Manager
a.k.a. Business Manager · Managing Director · Branch GM
Runs the business to plan across teams and locations.
Who they are
Where the general manager runs the day from the desk.
Runs the business to plan across teams and locations.
Software relationship: daily
Goals · what “good” looks like
- ▸Hitting revenue, margin, and retention targets
- ▸Operational alignment
- ▸Reduced chaos and rework
Who shows up · how they think
Demographics & mindset.
Demographics
Typical MBTI types
the temperaments we keep meeting in this seat
A day with the general manager
Wake to bed.
10 waypoints. 2 peak-stress hours.
Wake
Coffee. Glance at the daily scorecard on the phone before the house wakes up. Yesterday's revenue, callbacks, and cash position in one screen.
Drive in
Mentally rewrites the day's agenda based on what looked off in the numbers. Voice-memos two follow-ups for the Operations Manager.
Monday huddle
Department leads bring scorecards. Margin, first-time-fix, retention, AR aging. Wins called out, misses owned. Forty-five minutes, no agenda creep.
1:1 with the Service Manager
Walks through callback trends and the staffing plan for next week. Pushes back on a hiring request until the productivity number moves.
Approvals block
Signs off PTO, hiring offers, and any vendor PO above threshold. Tries to keep this to a fixed window so it doesn't bleed all day.
Working lunch
Eats at the desk. Drafts the weekly ops report the Owner expects every Monday afternoon — what's on plan, what's at risk, the one decision they need.
Customer escalation
Owner forwarded a one-star review tied to a botched install. Calls the customer directly, assigns a make-good, then digs into how it slipped through QA.
Margin work
Pulls the HVAC P&L. Margin is four points below budget two months running. Lines up the parts cost, labor hours, and discounting story before the next finance review.
Close-out with Operations Manager
Walks tomorrow's board. Reassigns one job, flags two estimates that need a follow-up, and confirms the plan for the new dispatcher's first day. Five-minute call with the Branch Manager on the drive home — branch on plan, commercial renewal coming through at the bumped rate.
One last look
Re-checks tomorrow's calendar and the daily scorecard from the couch. Replies to one Slack thread, then puts the phone down.
What they own · where they slip
The job, frankly.
Core duties
what’s on their plate every week
Where they trip
watch for these, they’re common
What makes them a champion
Monday huddle with every department's scorecard already populated.
Career map · the ladder in and out
Where they came from, where they’re headed.
Keep exploring
