No one plans to become a bad boss, but the pressure that comes with being a manager and the awkwardness of having to manage friends can combine to create a toxic cocktail of ineptitude. Jenny Boxall, convenor of the New Manager programme at the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business, says newly promoted managers face a range of challenges - from being an introvert who prefers to work alone, to having to work with a team who are always at odds. She has this advice: • People are usually promoted because of their good work as engineers, accountants or doctors, for example, but managers need a whole new set of skills, including mentoring and problem-solving; • Managers usually have less time to do the work they used to do and spend more time communicating, through meetings, phone calls and e-mails. "That is why managers need to be masters at communication," she says; • Learning how to be a good communicator can be the crucial difference between being a good manager or a ver...
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