At the moment, the ability to communicate is very critical for the development of one’s personal and career life. It is essential for making progress in any employment sector or constructing a startup. In order to comprehend this concept better, let us discuss what communication means and ways through which it can be easily improved.
What is communication?
First and foremost, understanding the definition of communication and its origin is essential. The term “communication” is derived from Latin word “communicare,” that means sharing in general. To be more specific, writing or other mediums are employed in order to provide or exchange information which is termed as communication. Expression of ideas to others or sharing feelings can also be referred to as communication successfully.
What are communication skills?
Communication skills involve understanding information from others in the right way and being able to explain exactly what you want to say to others. It can be written or spoken in two ways. Today, we will talk about spoken or verbal communication skills. If you notice, there are basically two parts to communication skills – understanding others and being able to understand yourself. While providing different types of information to each other, you use the power of communication skills. Some examples of communication skills include communicating new ideas, feelings, or even providing updates on your project to a colleague or boss, mobile conversations, and digital communication such as email and social media.
Why do we need communication skills?
Communication skills are necessary not only now but also in the past and will continue to be in the future. Whether in academic life, job life, or starting a startup, communication skills are crucial. Not only that, communication skills also increase our acceptance among people.
The 7 Cs of Effective Communication
After understanding why communication skills are needed, let’s explore the seven qualities of communication skills, known as the seven Cs of communication. In 1952, Professor Scott M. Cutlip and Allen H. Center mentioned these Seven Cs.
1. Completeness
Your speech or writing should always be complete. When listeners hear your speech, they should feel very interested. While speaking or writing, keep in mind that the audience or reader will react based on what you say or write. Good points can be seen in a complete text or speech:
- Complete communication enhances the professionalism of a startup or a person.
- It reduces wastage of time and money. For example, if you wrote a letter and it lacked complete information, you might have to resend it, incurring additional courier costs.
- It does not raise any new questions in the mind of the listener or reader.
- This makes decision-making easier.
2. Conciseness
Conciseness means saying the main thing in as few words as possible while adhering to all the features of good communication. When communicating, keep in mind that the listener or reader is busy. Therefore, speaking or writing at length may lead to boredom and time wastage. Consideration
When communicating, put yourself in the place of the listener or reader. Consider the audience’s educational qualification, caste, religion, etc. For instance, while working on a project last year, I had to write a short-term paper on talking to three tong shop owners. As a BBA student, I deal with various business English words every day.
3. Consideration
When communicating, put yourself in the place of the listener or reader. Consider the audience’s educational qualification, caste, religion, etc. For instance, while working on a project last year, I had to write a short-term paper on talking to three tong shop owners. As a BBA student, I deal with various business English words every day.
“Once too many key points are spoken, the audience becomes confused and nothing is said properly.”
In this way, when communicating, you have to put yourself in the place of the listener or reader. Just as nothing can be said that goes beyond the listener’s understanding, nothing can be said that makes the listener feel inferior or hurts his beliefs. While speaking, use positive words as much as possible instead of negative words.
4. Clarity
It is necessary to emphasize one major point while communicating. This helps prevent misunderstanding and enables the transmission of the message accurately. Discussing one topic at a time makes it easier for the listener to grasp what is being said.
The primary focus of communication should be on one message. This avoids confusion and ensures proper passing of information. When discussing an issue, it is important to address one aspect at a time so that the listener may follow easily.
5. Concreteness
Be specific in your communication to avoid confusion among listeners or readers. An absence of specifics in the message creates room for questions in their minds which may in turn promote misinterpretation. Generalized messages particularly those that are not precise sound unprofessional and may lead to unnecessary confusion.
6. Courtesy
Despite transmitting good communication trademarks, a sender can never meet any receiver not satisfied unless it is in polite language. It ought to respect enough for the receiver and demonstrate that the sender truly wishes for his satisfaction. Therefore, it is required that such messages are written or spoken without any bias but taking into account how the listener would perceive them.
7. Correctness
Your statement must be grammatically accurate. Remember that the moment you pen a sentence, it becomes a portrayal of who you are; thus wrong grammar on your part will not go unnoticed by the other person. In case you still have doubts about your own grammar check it out with another person. The name of an organization may also suffer from your grammatical mistakes.
You will communicate well if you abide by these seven principles of communication. The current period is referred to as the era of communication. Today no matter how good someone may be at something if he cannot communicate well he is a nobody and does not get any respect in several places.
That’s all from me this time around until we meet in another blog post. Kindly share this blog with other people.
