Good leaders are great conversationilists. They always consider it their responsibility to carry the burden of conversation. Let's say you are with a person completely unknown to you. You need to talk to him/ her – just to kill time or for a purpose. You have exchanged greetings and smiles nothing goes beyond that. How do you carry the conversation? Here are some steps that can be a help to you to deal with the situation.

1. Pause for a very brief period. Try to judge the next person's mood. Ensure he or she is not engulfed in a deep thought or worry. Your conversation should not add to his / her woes. If you feel okay, take next step

2. Find a good topic. These are a few good topics to carry on a conversation: Local weather, Popular sport event, News about very popular personality – news your city paper puts on the front page that day.

3. Look around. If a topic doesn't come to your mind, don't worry. Just look around you. Speak something nice about things around like the floor, the ceiling, wallpaper, etc. Or comment on weather.

4. Make the next person say something. End your sentence with a question ('Isn't it?') to seek his/ her opinion.

5. Listen well. Make eye contact whenever possible. Show that you are interested in what he or she is talking. Look for clear clues about his/her interests.

6. You got clues. Show your interest in them. Let the next person talk, explain, complete his view. Interrupt with other question only if you think he or she is carrying it for too long. Once the next person feels happy talking to you – and mostly it shows on his/her face – you can turn to another topic smoothly.

7. Don't ask yes/no questions. Instead you should ask questions that invite more facts and answers. For example a yes/no question would be, "Do you like to listen to jazz?" A better question would be, "What is your favorite type of music/your favorite musician?"

8. End well. End your conversation at appropriate time by saying something nice and mutually agreeable, but that's another art.

9. Be truly engaged. Don't just expect them to carry on the conversation for you, be very willing to come up with things to say in case of awkward silence.