About the Author Bob Pretre has a varied and extensive background in several areas, including: mechanical, electro-mechanical, and electronic maintenance and prototype testing; training development, delivery, field service and training management; technical writing and documentation design capabilities; and relational database systems management. These skill sets are combined with a history of accomplishments in the military, reprographic, aerospace, computer and other related industries. He has garnered experiential knowledge while working with multiple corporations and businesses in his multifaceted career - both as an employee and as a consultant. The following are a few of the numerous companies of which he has been affiliated - Xerox Corporation, Bell Atlantic Business Systems Services, Nielsen Media Research, GE Security, Arthur Andersen, Jabil Circuit, Inc., WebMD Practice Services, US Air Force and Northern Virginia Community College. As a training developer and facilitator, he authored and presented the cognitive soft skills and interactive communications seminars and workshops that are summarized in this book. He has presented these seminars and workshops to hundreds of participants, managers, supervisors, customer service employees, trainers and field technical analysts, over a period of several years. He has five trainer and curriculum developer certifications: -USAF Air Training Command Trainer/Instructor -USAF Air University Advanced Academic Instructor -Xerox Corporation Instructor/Facilitator -Instructional System Design (ISD) Curriculum Developer -Criterion Referenced Instruction (CRI) Curriculum Developer He is currently retired from the US Air Force and Xerox Corporation and enjoying finally having the time to devote to writing and helping others gain a higher level of experience and competency skills through better "people-to-people" communications.