There's been a lot of talk in recent years about Active Listening. That is, listening that's focused on the speaker, making sure they feel heard and understood. It uses verbal and physical affirmation from listener to speaker, and is commonly used in areas like counselling, training, management, conflict resolution, community consultation, and even journalism. I think the intention of this originally was to come into your listening interaction from an empathetic stand point -

Young people entering the workforce today are expected to have 17 different jobs in 5 different industries in their working life. What were