Two local residents, Ben Haskell and Walt St. John, had their new book, “Essential Communications Skills For Managers: A Practical Guide for Communicating Effectively With All People In All Situations, Vols. 1 and 2,” recently published by Business Experts Press.

The book is designed to provide current and aspiring managers, as well as students of management, with a practical and comprehensive source for communicating with all kinds of people in all kinds of on-the-job situations.

According to its authors, this reader friendly “how-to” book will provide readers with the knowledge, attitudes and skills to perform both their routine and special managerial sections.

The book presents the information in two volumes. It is a unique book in that it presents information by using lists with bullets, deals solely with the communications aspects of each of the managers’ duties, and every topic is divided into things to know and things to do.

St. John and Haskell were asked to write the book for BEP Expert Press, which has been publishing books, ebooks and digital libraries since 2008. BEP publishes concise, practical treatments of the topics taught in MBA programs, written by professors and practitioners who translate real-life business experiences into teaching tools.

Both St. John and Haskell were well qualified to write the book. St. John, a semi-retired writer who has lived with his wife Sharon in Old Town for many years. He has managerial experience in both the public and private sectors, including time as an executive with the Hershey Company, director of management and educational services for a national trade association headquartered on New York City, assistant vice-chancellor of a state university, and president of The Management Communications Institute.

Haskell and his wife Betty, meanwhile, are long-time residents of Brewer. He officially retired in 2014 after 26 years as an instructor and the executive vice-president and academic dean of New England School of Communications at Husson University in Bangor. Before his time in higher education he worked for 17 years as staff announcer and program director of two radio stations in Ellsworth.

St. John, who has penned other books in the past, said he still enjoys writing at age 87, but acknowledges that the technology involved has now passed him by. He said Haskell helped tremendously in that aspect, and that their skill sets complemented each other in putting the book together, a process that took about three years of writing and research.

“We worked very well together,” said St. John. “I’m more task oriented, he’s more of a people person. I enjoyed working with Ben.”

“Essential Communications Skills For Managers: A Practical Guide for Communicating Effectively With All People In All Situations Vols. 1 and 2” is available atwww.businessexpertpress.com, local bookstores, and on Amazon.com.

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