The 10 Cs of Communication.

What am I saying?
What do you think I am saying?
What do you hear?
What do you think you hear?

What is actually being said?

Most of us spend large parts of our days communicating. And we’ve done so since the day we were born. But no matter how old we get, and no matter how skilful we get at many different things in life, communication is one skill that most of us never seem to master all that well.

Whether it is communication with your target market, your boss or your friends and family, here’s a few tips to make it easier to communicate in the most effective way possible.

The 10 Cs of communication

1. Clear
When writing or speaking to someone, be clear about what you want to communicate. Make sure that it’s easy for your audience to understand your meaning so they don’t have to make assumptions on their own.

2. Concise
When you’re concise in your communication, you stick to the point and you keep it brief. Your audience doesn’t want to hear or read several sentences when you could communicate your message in one.

3. Complete
In a complete message, the audience has everything they need to be informed. All relevant information, like names, dates, times, locations, etc. need to be included.

4. Coherent
When your communication is coherent, it’s logical. All points are connected and relevant to the main topic, and the tone and flow of the text is consistent.

5. Correct
Your communication needs to be tailored to your audience. All technical terms need to fit your audience’s level of education or knowledge. In writing, make sure there’s no grammatical errors and that all names and titles are spelled correctly.

6. Concrete
When your message is concrete, then your audience has a clear picture of what you’re telling them. There are details, but not too many, and there’s a clear focus.

7. Courteous
You communication needs to be friendly, open, and honest and you should always try to keep your audience’s viewpoint in mind.

8. Credible
Your message should highlight your credibility. This is especially important when communicating with an audience that doesn’t know much about you.

9. Creative
These tips are not about storytelling but you should still keep your audience engaged by talking or writing in such a way that they want to hear and understand what you want to communicate.

10. Confidence Check
Never take for granted that your audience gets your message. Just because you know what you’re saying doesn’t mean that your audience will understand you....

So.... Did I master number 9? Did you make it ‘till the end...?