You can't escape underperforming communications.

You see it in the halls of power in Westminster and Capitol Hill, on the campaign trail in Des Moines and Manchester, to multinational boardrooms and trade association meetings.

On any given day, the White House needs to walk back a quote and issue a "what we meant to say statement."

You read about executives at the pinnacle of the career finally getting media training and witness professional athletes giving pissy answers to journalist questions.

Underperforming communications by one or by the organization cuts equally.

Communications is a holistic activity.

Communications is a system activity.

Communications isn't one thing; communications is several things happening in concert.

You may have a communications team or an employee specializing in this task. Heck, you might be a solopreneur.

But never forget, regardless of your structure, your communications is a holistic and system activity.

Communications succeeds when thinking is aligned and arranged with a commitment to communications success.

From decades of experience consuming and practicing communication, these are the seven mistakes causing your communications to underperform:

1. No clear and consistent strategy

2. Over-indexing on tactics

3. Poor organization and staffing

4. No consistency and lack of an editorial calendar

5. Know-how is not shared and seen as too precious to be made available to stakeholders

6. Efforts are exclusively reactive and by chance

7. Online activities are not in sync with offline activities

Your communications doesn't need to be underperforming.

Communications succeeds when thinking is aligned and arranged with a commitment to communications success.

Eliminate the seven mistakes above, and you will be on your way to communications glory.

-Marc