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Communication
How often do you communicate with people during a typical day? Just how effective is your communication?
The “Seven C’s of Communication” provides a simple checklist to ensure that your conversations, meetings, emails, conference calls, reports and presentations are well constructed, clear and well received.
Clear communication means that your audience does not need to “read between the lines”. Be clear about your goal or message. What is your purpose in communicating with this person? What follow-up actions are required?
Concise communication is brief and keeps to the point. In writing, your audience would rather read three well thought out sentences rather than having to struggle through a dense paragraph of text containing twenty ideas.
In conversation, try to avoid filler words such as “basically”, “obviously”, “literally” or “I mean”. (Let’s be honest – we’re all guilty of this!)
Concrete communication leaves your audience with a clear picture of what you are telling them. There are details and facts (but not too many!). Your message is solid.
Correct communication is error free and tailored to your audience. This might include:
Are the technical terms, abbreviations and “buzz words” that you are using suitable for the level of your audience in terms of their knowledge, background or education?
In written communication, have you checked for grammatical and spelling errors?
Are the names and titles correct?
Coherent communication is logical. All of the points raised are connected and relevant to the main topic. The tone and flow of the conversation or text is consistent.
Complete communication provides your audience with everything they need to be informed. They also know whether they need to take action.
Have you included all the relevant information – contact names, dates, times, locations, specifications?
Does your message include a “Call to action” (CTA)? Does your audience know what is expected of them?
Courteous communication is friendly, open and honest. There are no undertones, hidden insults or passive aggressive tones. Have you been sympathetic to their viewpoint and empathetic to their needs?
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