iab: as for being a great manager, I think any personality can become one. I don’t think Jony Ive is a great sales person. He comes across as an introverted geek who is detail oriented. That made him a great design director because he was actually focused on product. Many sales people make horrible directors because they want to spend 90% of the day chasing leads and selling. They don’t focus on research, communicating that research to the dev. team, ensuring that the design work is at a high level.
Mind you, I’m talking in generalities. I think everyone has the capacity to adapt. However, that requires time which managers don’t often have.