It is wise to avoid making
assumptions about your client or colleague. The
assumptions you make may give the impression that you have
privileged information about him or her. When your
assumptions are correct, the aura of omniscience increases the
awareness of your power and is threatening to the other
party. Where your assumptions are wrong, as they often
really are, you do not give your client or colleague the
opportunity to say what he or she intended.
This pattern, of course,
applies most directly in talking about personal matters
involving the other person.