Effective executives must engage in upward communication

Effective executives must engage in upward communication, a two-way process in which communication is initiated by recipient as well as received. 

This helps ensure that the recipient understand what is being communicated - because unless the recipient "hears," communication has not taken place. Information and communication are different. Communication has not taken place unless the emitter is sure that the receiver understands what action is to be taken as a result of, say, a conversation, email or memo. 

The most effective way to ensure that real communication has taken place is to ask the receiver to describe what he or she has heard from the conversation, including the demands for required action, and to make sure it is what the emitter wanted to convey.