Active listening is a communication skill that involves fully engaging with another person who is speaking to you, with the intent to understand them fully rather than just listening to respond. It is a way of listening and responding to another person that improves mutual understanding. Active listening includes observing both verbal and non-verbal messages, providing appropriate feedback, and asking wide-eyed questions such as "How did you feel?" or "What did you think?".

Here are some techniques and benefits of active listening:

Techniques:

• Be fully present in the conversation.
• Pay attention to what the other person is saying.
• Show that you are listening through your body language.
• Give feedback to the speaker.
• Refrain from judgment.
• Reflect back what the speaker has said.

Benefits:

• Improves mutual understanding.
• Helps defuse conflicts and seek solutions to problems.
• Aids in reaching consensus in groups.
• Builds understanding in casual conversation or small talk.
• Plays a large role in the success of a leader.
• Enables you to coach others more effectively.
• Leads to clearer communication and more effective relationships with colleagues, managers, and clients.
• Helps manage emotions, retain data and information better, and resolve conflict.

Active listening is used in a wide variety of situations, including public interest advocacy, community organizing, tutoring, medical workers talking to patients, HIV counseling, helping suicidal persons, management, counseling, and journalistic settings. It is a valuable workplace skill that can be improved with practice and by approaching conversations with greater intentionality.