Health professionals often take on managerial roles at short notice and with little or no preparation. Although they may be highly clinically qualified and accomplished, the practicalities and relationships involved in management - helping staff to feel motivated and valued, building and leading teams, managing meetings and presentations, writing reports and managing change, to name but a few - present new challenges and pitfalls for which they are unprepared. This book is for managers and prospective managers who want to approach their new responsibilities professionally from the very beginning. Based on the authors' successful Vital Signs education programme, it identifies the critical skills needed to hit the ground running as a manager. It is an accessible, easily comprehensible guide to gaining the self-confidence and the respect of staff, and to creating a steady platform for acquiring and mastering a wide range of skills in the future. 'This book is dedicated to helping leaders and managers prepare for people responsibilities. It also addresses three areas which usually make leaders and managers uncomfortable - running meetings successfully, making presentations and writing reports. [It] gives accessible and practical examples and I have no hesitation in commending it to a wide readership.' - From the Foreword by John Edmonstone