Making sure you're understood

As a leader, your only responsibility is to build an organization that can deliver, and you do this mainly by communicating and making sure you're understood. Leaders excel in the communicating part, but many fall short in the being understood part. 

It doesn't work if you're not understood.  

One easy way to make sure you're understood is by asking: "what did you understand from what I said?" You should ask this even if you think you've been understood (that's the point). 

When the understanding is different from what's being communicated it's worth stopping to consider why before repeating the same message again. Is everyone on the same page in terms of the facts, and the meaning of those facts? Do you share the same assumptions and beliefs about the topic being discussed? You may need to take a step back to move forward as one team.