The major mistake in communication is to believe that it happens.

George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright

The art of communication is essentially a practical one. It includes skills such as speaking, listening, writing and reading, which we all do, but which few do excellently. Skills can all be improved by study and practice working together, hand in hand.

In practical communication the first two, the oral skills, take precedence over their two literary siblings. Thus the focus of Part Two is on effective speaking and the art of listening.

Don’t think of effective speaking as being only about public speaking, the sort of talk you may be asked to do at a wedding or other formal occasion. As a manager you will be speaking all day: at team meetings, on the telephone, at one-to-one meetings, at conferences with colleagues or clients. The six principles of effective speaking are relevant to all these situations.

You will also be doing a lot of listening at work. Part Two raises the bar for you as a listener. Don’t aim to be a good listener – that’s too easy. Don’t even aim to be a very good listener, rare as they are. Go for gold!

Like learning a new language, your conscious efforts to study and practise the principles in Part Two may seem awkward and full of mistakes at first. But that is to be expected, for art lies in perfecting our natural gifts. Eventually these efforts will drift into the subconscious mind and continue to influence your attitudes and actions without you being aware that they are doing so. And one day people will say that you are a ‘born communicator’. Little do they know!

After a concert an enthusiastic member of the audience came up to the great violinist Fritz Kreisler and said, ‘I would give my life to play the violin like you did this evening.’

‘I did,’ replied Kreisler.