Attention skills are integrally related to active listening. To actively participate in a conversation or exchange, a listener has to work to receive the verbal messages that the speaker sends. Importantly, a listener should listen carefully to each word that the speaker says but also pay attention to the subtleties of tone in order to detect the speaker's true meanings and intentions.
Visual attention skills are an important component of active listening. Visual attention skills assist a listener in deciphering and decoding the nonverbal messages that a speaker sends. An active listener faces the speaker to read his body language, facial expressions and gestures, as these cues may contradict or complicate the messages that a speaker sends aloud. For instance, if the speaker avoids eye contact or looks down while making a statement, the listener may sense that the speaker is being dishonest.
Patience is critical to active listening, since listeners often have to wait to respond and make contributions to a conversation. Often, a listener may be tempted to interrupt a speaker to contradict or challenge a point or simply to add a perspective to the conversation. However, active listening requires the listener to fulfill his role as a listener, rather than a speaker, until the speaker has concluded. Even if the listener refrains from interrupting, he also has to refrain from organizing thoughts in response, since these mental activities distract him from being an attentive listener.
Empathy is another skill of active listening. Empathy is the demonstration to the speaker that the listener is engaged in the conversation and that the listener understands and respects the speaker's feelings or point of view. To show empathy, a listener should face the speaker and give him eye contact to show that the speaker has his full attention. Further, the listener should give verbal and nonverbal cues that he is listening, nodding his head and murmuring "uh-huh" or "yes" when the speaker pauses. To be an active listener, the listener should also politely interrupt the speaker to repeat a point or to explain points that the listener does not understand. These gestures show a speaker that the listener is actively engaged in the exchange.