Like him or loath him, Donald Trump is big news at the moment with his U.S. presidential campaign dominating press coverage across the globe with people seemingly hanging onto every word he says. But effective communication isn't just an essential skill for politicians.

Being able to galvanize people with your conversation skills is also a key attribute for business leaders to ensure productive networking, meetings, interviews, negotiations and career development. It enables you to develop strong relationships with staff and customers alike to motivate and ultimately succeed at work. Unfortunately, conversation is something that most of us were never taught!

In her book 'The Art of Conversation: Change Your Life with Confident Communication' Julie Apps identifies the secrets of how great leaders inspire others and aims to coach business leaders and managers in effective communication.

It's no surprise that we learn to speak from our parents, family and develop this further with friends.  However, this is a haphazard process that often results in us adopting bad habits and sloppy conversational techniques. This is why some of us are stuck for words, whilst others seem to chatter on aimlessly. I suspect we all know someone who can talk comfortably and successfully engage people and build better relationships; thankfully this is a key skill that can be learnt.

'The Art of Conversation' shows you how to converse successfully with a range of people in all situations by learning to:

o Overcome fear which is the most common block to good conversation;

o How to break the silence and keep a conversation going using open questions and verbal prompts;

o Know which topics and language are suitable for the occasion;

o Simple methods for being heard and understood, including speaking clearly, active  listening and using non-verbal communication;

o How to hold a conversation in difficult situations, manage disagreement and speak to those in authority by developing your confidence;

o Use conversation to form relationships, improve friendships and develop your career.

If it helps, please feel free to talk among yourselves whilst reading my article because by learning the art of conversation, you can develop your own effective style of Bahamian-banter that makes you stand out in any Caribbean crowd and talk you way to success.

o 'The Art of Conversation: Change Your Life with Confident Communication' by Judy Apps and published by Capstone.

Keith Appleton JP, BA (Hons), N.Dip.M, MInstLM has extensive experience within an academic, managerial and strategic leadership role. He is a member of the UK Institute of Leadership & Management and can be contacted at KeithAppleton@Hotmail.co.uk.

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