Over the festive break many of us take time out to think about how happy we are at work, and now that the New Year is here, you may be considering making a career change. This can be for many reasons - salary, promotion, to find a job you love or to shed a boss or an organisation that’s been dragging you down for a while.

To ensure you swim and don’t sink in your new role, here’s a list of my top 6 tips to help you succeed.

1. Know Yourself

Once the excitement of winning your new job has died down, you may experience some niggling doubts such as "can I deliver everything I promised at my interview, should I have stayed safely where I was, at a level I know I’m capable of?"

Remember you were the one selected for the job so they clearly felt you had the right credentials for the role. It’s important to understand what these factors are so you can meet their expectations. You also need to acknowledge what your weaknesses are so you can manage these through in your new position and assess any potential risks to your credibility in front of your new colleagues.

2. PR yourself

Don’t wait until the first day of your job to start a personal public relations campaign. Offer to attend team meetings, make an appointment with your new line manager or with your new reports if you will be managing a team. These openings are not social niceties, they’re essential to ensure you make a good first impression. Accept that you will be the focus of office gossip when you first join and win your audience over by preparing carefully for these early encounters.

3. Evaluate your stakeholders

When you meet and greet people in your new role, sound out who will be interested in or affected by what you and your department are trying to do. You won’t be operating in a vacuum so quickly identify and maintain a list of key internal and external stakeholders who have a degree of influence over how you deliver your job (some obvious and some less so). Understand what is important and to whom; tailor your communications appropriately to each and ensure your internal and external messages reinforce each other. Establish what type of relationship you need to build with key stakeholders to aid your objectives and progress.

4. Regularly evaluate your own performance

Ensure you take regular time out to reflect on your progress and plan what needs to be done to maintain your successful entrée into your new role. Ideally this should be spent out of the office and away from any distractions. Work from home, book a meeting room to give yourself some space or work with a coach or mentor to ensure you focus in on your own development needs or issues. Try to structure your days ahead to give your attention to the things that are most important – your people, your stakeholders and your first set of key business deliverables.

5. Get the most from your line manager

Your line manager will be a key contributor in helping you determine your priorities and may have already set your short and long term objectives. If this is not the case, be prepared to this yourself and in writing! This will help you stay focussed and in control even in a fast paced, dynamic environment. It will also prevent you from being overwhelmed by other people’s priorities and crises.

Your line manager is a great source of information so tap into their expertise and experience. Find out what their networks are, make use of them and see where you can add value where weaknesses exist. Your brownie points will really start to rack up if you work constructively to improve inter-departmental business relations and resolve issues.

6. Recognise when you are out of your depth

Joining a new organisation is akin to entering a whole new eco-system that’s a living, breathing ever-changing entity. To survive you have to work out the internal and external dynamics of your environment and never become complacent. View each day as ‘work in progress’ towards your next career move.

If you sense things aren’t going well and you’re unable to manage the situation through, think about a career damage limitation strategy. Sometimes the right thing to do is to engineer a swift exit – yours or someone else’s! The organisation may have sold you an unrealistic proposition. Tackle it, be clear about what needs to change to meet your expectations and be clear about the choices you’ll make if they’re not met.

Lastly, don’t be an ostrich and bury your head in the sand in the hope everything will sort itself out. You are in charge of your own destiny and in today’s buoyant labour market you deserve to be in a role and a business that will help you achieve your personal goals. Make changes when you have to and when you find the role that suits you, cherish it and make the most of it.