Becoming a better communicator in all aspects of our lives

With the recent addition of my second son to my home, and the every day adventures with my 2-year-old son, I've recently been thinking a lot about how important it is to be an effective communicator is important in all aspects of my life. Here are five lessons about communicating I've recently learned from my two sons:

• Pay attention to the proposed questions/problems as they will always help you give the desired and correct response (or at least get close to the correct response).
• Learn to anticipate potential problems (or as we like to say: opportunities) coming down the road before it is in front of your nose. This will save you from crying babies and upset clients.
• Don't ignore an issue (again, this could be stated as "opportunity) as its begins to grow. It's better to be proactive than reactive. (Fun little anecdotal story to back this point up: my son and his friend were both playing in the garden on Saturday. Then one of them sprinkled some dirt on the other. Harmless, right? Well, next came the chunks of dirt being thrown at each other. Next, she hits him with the shovel. His response, we'll call the climax (as we finally broke it up) was to hit her back... with the plastic wheelbarrow. It all seemed so innocent at first, but the total time before the chaos ensued was about 30 seconds.)
• Learn to understand what is meant and not what is said. For our son, when he wants "milk" he is usually just hungry. How many clients could and should we apply this too?!
• Apply patience when communicating about complex issues.

This is obviously not a comprehensive list, but the idea is there. We should be looking for opportunities to become better communicators in all aspects of our life. It will help us as we progress down the road of professionalism.