Really listening; not to respond or to fix, but to understand. Stephen Covey wrote about this in 1989 in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The fifth habit is: First understand, then to be understood. This visual summary represents the 5 levels of listening that Covey describes:
1. Ignoring, not listening
2. Pretend listening
3. Selective listening
4. Attentive listening
5. Empathetic listening