How to Manage remains the classic text on building the rational, political and emotional skills you need to succeed.

Books, like managers, must keep learning, growing and moving ahead if they are to stay relevant. Since How to Manage was first published, I have received many helpful suggestions on topics readers would like to see included. I have also received many stories and ideas. My only regret is that I cannot include all the material and ideas submitted.

The major change for this edition is to recognise that the nature of management changes as you progress. Being a first-time manager of a team of five people is different from managing a global division of a large multinational. For the first time, this edition lays out how your role will change as you progress, how the rules of survival and success will change and how you will have to learn and change in order to thrive. This is now the focus of a completely revised Chapter 5.

In addition to these changes, I have reviewed the whole book and updated stories and cases, and included new ones where appropriate. Recognising that your time is at a premium, I have also condensed as many chapters as possible, which creates space for some of the new material.

You can read this book in any order you want. I have kept a relentless focus on the skills you need to succeed, and each skill has a separate section which works as a standalone piece. This allows you to dip in and out and focus on the areas which matter most to you. But equally, there is a logical flow and sequence to the book, so if you have time you may prefer to read this in the traditional manner: start at the beginning and finish at the end.

The fundamental message and framework of How to Manage has not changed: the best managers have the right combination of intelligence quotient (IQ), emotional quotient (EQ) and political quotient (PQ).

How to Manage is not a theory of management. It is successful management, as anyone can practise it.