Take Responsibility for Clear Communication

Responsibility also means confirming your understanding by rephrasing what you think you heard or what you think you read. Don't assume that you understood. Confirm your understanding with rephrasing.

Similarly when you are asking a question, making a statement, or making a request gently quiz your audience to find out what what they understood. This gives you an opportunity to clarify or to try again when you realize that your audience didn't understand the message that you intended to transmit. In this way you are taking responsibility for conveying your message as clearly as you can and your are taking responsibility for making sure that your message was received as intended.

I just want to make sure that my message was clear.

• What am I asking you to do?

• What did you understand from what I said?

• What did you understand from what I wrote?

• What do you understand my question to be?

This allows both parties to make sure the the intended message sent was the message received.