Who are the equivalents of olympic champions for soft/social skills? What occupations do they usually hold?

I am aware of a show format in America, in which a host invites a guest to a news show, and chats with them. I would assume that would require them to be able to hit up a conversation with pretty much anyone.

Or the insurance salesman signing a deal in well over the majority of the cases.

... or the cult leader.

What is the present day equivalent of the Byzantine courtier managing to turn friendships into grudges, and making lovers stab each other in the back?

Or generally, the best performers in the cynical management of people so they further their goals?

I would like to know who are the creme, and most importantly, the occupations which select for such abilities (this in hope of there existing textbooks/playbooks/workshops titled Handbook of /Occupation/ from which allows one to acquire these skills.)

I am most interested in the first (being able to hit up a conversation with anyone, from truck driver to scientist, and continue to do so for a reasonable time)

I recall Kaj_Sotala writing up about a friend of his, who was able to do pretty much that, and his drawing a mind-map of conversation topics, and generally, that conversation is just like anything else: you ought to put effort into it, prepare if you want better outcomes, and anything which goes for any complex activity, so goes for this. On the IRC channel when there was talk about AI box experiments, ridiculously long pre-prepared scripts were mentioned. Debate teams also do this

Any other (play/hand)books i should check out? This seems like a search query which would result in too much red herrings, so I am writing here first hoping you guys have a better understanding around this area.