There is no doubt that times have changed. Whereas many years ago an employee would often spend virtually their whole career with one employer, those days are gone. Those employees slowly worked their way up to management so that when they got there they knew their organisation and their colleagues thoroughly. Nowadays, even though there is a limit to how many different jobs it is thought desirable to have appearing on your CV, it is quite a common situation for people to move on to new challenges after a relatively short time.

It is important for new managers to put their soft skills training into practice. In other words, they will take their time in ensuring they understand an organisation and their staff before they start changing things. They need to listen, question and plan before implementing change.

One problem in many organisations is that staff are often promoted to management positions on the basis of their technical skills. They will often have no experience or knowledge of how to manage and motivate people.

New managers should never try to bluff. If a manager finds they don’t know something, they should be able to tell their staff they don’t know.