The toastmasters organization is a great place to go and practice giving speeches in front of people. I highly encourage all of you to do that especially if you want to focus on this week's topic of learning to communicate better. all week I've shared advice things like learning to prepare and practice I'll share today's final tip in just a second. Yesterday I suggested smiling more and that you could even hear someone smile over the telephone today I want to talk about another important aspect of communication nonverbal cues we all give off and receive 10s of thousands of nonverbal cues every day the way we dress the way we comb our hair what we do with our hands the way we stand there all of those are absolutely critical and you must consider those when you are communicating think about the way you present yourself it's important. 

I believe you can hear a smile over the telephone that's right if you were to say a sentence while smiling and then say the exact same sentence without smiling over the telephone I think that you could hear the difference I believe that your tone and even the facial expressions that you're using help shape your communication smile more!   

This week we are talking about learning to be a better communicator nothing is more important to a successful career in a happy life and the great thing is that we can learn to do it better. I am embarrassed to admit it but my wife and I sometimes watch reality TV and the one thing you can learn from that is sometimes it's better to just be quiet even when they're trying to apologize to each other these Real Housewives will say something nice and then add one more sentence at the end just to have that little dig remember sometimes the best thing to do is just be quiet and not say anything at all.

Poor communication skills make life so much more difficult. It makes school embarrassing and makes students lose confidence. it makes getting a promotion at work much harder and it makes having a good strong relationship impossible. this week we'll talk about ways to communicate better both written and verbally. To communicate better you need to prepare and practice if you have a big presentation at school or at work you should prepare a week in advance and practice every day until you can get it right if you're going to ask a girl out figure out what you're going to say and then practice if you want to tell your husband that you love him do the same thing a little practice and preparation will make your communication go a lot better. OH, and if you're going to send an e-mail write it and then wait for 24 hours before you send it.

Good communication skills are so important to a happy career good communication skills are so important to a successful career and a happy relationship all this week we are talking about how to have better communication skills yesterday I suggested practice and preparation I'll give you another piece of advice right after this. There is an instructive Dale Carnegie story about a time he met a famous New York industrialist. they had an hour-long conversation and afterwards the industrialist said that Dale Carnegie was the best conversationalist in the entire world. Dale was asked about this and he said yes during the hour I asked him several questions and he talked the rest of the time. to engage in successful conversations, you need to start off as a practice of active listening.  Stop thinking about what you are going to say next and just listen.