The other night on TV they showed a rerun of Donald Trump's Apprentse. Troy, was making the case on why he should not be fired. Troy wanted to make his case in a logical manner and had, thus, written down notes, which he was now referring to.

Trump forcefully interjected, "stop reading your notes! Just talk to me."

The startled aspiring apprentice quickly did as he was told, but his fate was now sealed-he was fired within moments of committing the communications blunder.

Was Trump correct in being offended by his underling using notes in a meeting? In this case I would rate The Donald's ability to assess strong communication ahead of his taste in hairdressers or interior design.

Trump instinctively knows that during intense and emotional communication moments, such as when you are pleading with your boss not to end your career, it is simply not effective to be seen as reading from notes. Reading is primarily an intellectual activity, whereas begging to avoid the (job) death penalty is an emotional activity. There are times when communicating is about expressing your passion, conviction, sincerity and commitment. The act of reading or even glancing at notes cuts against all of these communication goals.

Trump was following the old adage "never trust a man who won't look you in the eye." You can't look someone in the eye if you are reading notes.

The lesson here is that notes should never be used during times of highly intense communication where you are covering emotional and personal topics. You wouldn't want to refer to notes when telling your spouse you want a divorce. Notes won't fly when you are asking for a raise from your boss. It's fine to use notes in a presentation when you are giving specific numbers for next years sales quotas, but when you are trying to motivate employees to work harder longer and smarter, you had better look up and at them right in their eye, and make sure the notes are hidden.

Otherwise, your audience will fire you, without even telling you.

~ TJ Walker

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