THE 7C’s

OF EFFECTIVE
COMMUNICATION
 What is effective
communication?
● It is more than just exchanging information
● More about understanding emotions and intentions behind
the information
● Be a better listener in order to communicate effectively
● It should be instinctive but also carefully delivered
● Ineffectiveness causes misunderstanding, frustration and
conflicts
 Completeness
● The message must contain all the details required by the
listener .
● It should answer the five 5 W’s : Who, what, when, where
and why.
● It should convey all the facts and figures required by the
audience.
● Examples: Incomplete Sentence: The incredible performing artist from Toronto

Complete Sentence: The incredible performing artist from Toronto won a

Grammy.
 Conciseness
● A message should be as brief as possible without
compromising on any other C in the process.
● It underlines and highlights the main message as it
avoids using excessive and needless words.
● A concise message is more comprehensible and
appealing to the audience.
● Example: She walked very slowly.
Fix: She plodded along.
 Clarity
● The message should be clear and easily understandable
to the recipient
● The words being used in the message should be familiar
to the receiver
● The sender should focus on the length, unity, coherence
and emphasis of the sentence
 Consideration
● Empathy, human touch, understanding of human nature
● “You-attitude”
● Foundation of the other six C’s

How?

● Focus: “You” instead of “I” or “we”

● Show: audience benefit/ interest
● Emphasize: positive/ pleasant facts
● Example: Professional knowledge, level of education, age and interests, should
be taken into consideration.
 Courtesy
● The message sender should not only be aware of
receiver’s perspective but also his/her feelings.
● The message sender must be sincere, thoughtful and
appreciative in sending the message.
● The message should be respectful and nondiscriminatory.
● Example: My apologies for troubling you while you are on
a vacation, but could you please email the details of our
client to me?
 Concreteness
● The message should be specific, definite and vivid rather
than vague and general
● If the message is concrete and clear, the receivers
understand the message exactly the way sender wants to
convey
● Guidelines to help compose concrete, convincing
messages:
Use specific facts and figures
Put action in your words
Choose vivid, image-building words
 Correctness
● Correctness has more to it than just proper grammar,
punctuations and spellings
● There are three characteristics to correctness:
○ Using right level of language
○ Checking accuracy of figures, facts and words
○ Maintain acceptable writing mechanics
● Also, the message must be exact, correct and well timed
to have its best impact