In statistics, every dataset comes with a margin of error — a measure of the data’s reliability. There’s always a level of uncertainty in data, and decision-makers use the margin of error to gauge their confidence in many sources of data, from election polling to business forecasting.

But for many successful leaders, the concept of margin of error extends beyond statistics. They pay close attention to it in other aspects of their leadership. One area where this reflection can be tremendously valuable is in analyzing the margin of error in effective communications.