Are You Present

Awareness: Get your face out of your phone, and stop thinking about what you’re going to do later today. Pay full attention.
Reception: Be willing to receive new information. Let go of opinions, and be willing to drop your biases.
Engagement: Being engaged involves back-and-forth fairness, like a Ping-Pong match. “I talk, you talk,” says Nickerson.
Understanding: Listen with the intention of interpreting what the other person is saying. Get into a place of understanding, where you’re both speaking the same language, figuratively and literally.
Persistence: Be willing to stay the course and not let your mind wander. If you get bored and tired, push through to maintain your attention.
Resolution: Bring the conversation to a close with takeaways and next steps.
Emotions: Respect the existence of emotions and their roles. “Emotions can work for you or against you,” says Nickerson. “Recognize their roles and learn to discern them and their effect on your ability to hear others.”
Senses: Employ your other senses to help you remember. Look for body language clues in the other person.
Ego: Try to take your ego out of the conversation.
Nerves: Look for stress or tension; it can get in the way of being able to listen.
Tempo: Get in touch with the rhythm of the speaker. Being out of sync with their way of talking can make it hard to listen.