/p>

Communications skills are more important today than they have ever been. The advent of technology makes it harder and harder to hold a person's attention through the spoken word. If your delivery skills are average, you are ignored. Great communication skills command attention, even in our plugged in age.

The first fe

In Abraham Lincoln's time people would listen attentively to a two hour speech even if the speaker was not that well polished. Oh, how times have changed.

Today, our kids watch an average of more than eight hours of TV per day, as well as play computer games and talk to their friends online or phone. Adults sit in front of computers at work all day, responding to email and voicemail immediately, while still trying to do their jobs.

We are manacled to our cell phones, or have Blackberry devices commanding our every move. Americans already had short attention spans, but this reliance on technology and multi-tasking has cut them even shorter.

A Hewlett-Packard study indicates that 62 percent of British adults are addicted to their e-mail--checking messages during meetings, after working hours and on vacation. Half of workers felt a need to respond to e-mails immediately or within an hour, and one in five people reported being "happy" to interrupt a business or social gathering to respond to an e-mail or phone message.

So, is it any wonder that when you stand up before a group that they are sneaking a look at their Treos and Blackberries, or jumping up to go outside and take a call about 30 seconds into your spiel? To combat the short attention span, you need to give them some theater.

Communications skills are more important today than they have ever been. The advent of technology makes it harder and harder to hold a person's attention through the spoken word. If your delivery skills are average, you are ignored. Great communication skills command attention, even in our plugged in age.

The first few

computers at work all day, responding to email and voicemail immediately, while still trying to do their jobs.

We are manacled to our cell phones, or have Blackberry devices commanding our every move. Americans already had short attention spans, but this reliance on technology and multi-tasking has cut them even shorter.

A Hewlett-Packard study indicates that 62 percent of British adults are addicted to their e-mail--checking messages during meetings, after working hours and on vacation. Half of workers felt a need to respond to e-mails immediately or within an hour, and one in five people reported being "happy" to interrupt a business or social gathering to respond to an e-mail or phone message.

So, is it any wonder that when you stand up before a group that they are sneaking a look at their Treos and Blackberries, or jumping up to go outside and take a call about 30 seconds into your spiel? To combat the short attention span, you need to give them some theater.

Communications skills are more important today than they have ever been. The advent of technology makes it harder and harder to hold a person's attention through the spoken word. If your delivery skills are average, you are ignored. Great communication skills command attention, even in our plugged in age.

The first fe

A Hewlett-Packard study indicates that 62 percent of British adults are addicted to their e-mail--checking messages during meetings, after working hours and on vacation. Half of workers felt a need to respond to e-mails immediately or within an hour, and one in five people reported being "happy" to interrupt a business or social gathering to respond to an e-mail or phone message.

So, is it any wonder that when you stand up before a group that they are sneaking a look at their Treos and Blackberries, or jumping up to go outside and take a call about 30 seconds into your spiel? To combat the short attention span, you need to give them some theater.

Communications skills are more important today than they have ever been. The advent of technology makes it harder and harder to hold a person's attention through the spoken word. If your delivery skills are average, you are ignored. Great communication skills command attention, even in our plugged in age.

The first fe

l gathering to respond to an e-mail or phone message.

So, is it any wonder that when you stand up before a group that they are sneaking a look at their Treos and Blackberries, or jumping up to go outside and take a call about 30 seconds into your spiel? To combat the short attention span, you need to give them some theater.

Communications skills are more important today than they have ever been. The advent of technology makes it harder and harder to hold a person's attention through the spoken word. If your delivery skills are average, you are ignored. Great communication skills command attention, even in our plugged in age.

The first fe

/p>

Communications skills are more important today than they have ever been. The advent of technology makes it harder and harder to hold a person's attention through the spoken word. If your delivery skills are average, you are ignored. Great communication skills command attention, even in our plugged in age.

The first few minutes of your presentation are more critical than ever. You must grab the audience before they have time to get anxious and mentally move on to something else.

If you want a money skill for the 21st Century, it is public speaking, hands down.