The Art of Active Listening Requires Leaving Your Ego Behind Remember to be fully present. Active listening helps people feel respected and valued.

You've probably become overly familiar with the term "active listening" by now. I know this because as an entrepreneur I'm on top of the latest business trends, and it's a trait always popping up in articles — especially in terms of developing more emotional intelligence as a leader.

But the truth is, few of us can truly say we practice it.

"As a culture, we treat listening as an automatic process about which there is not a lot to say: in the same category as digestion, or blinking," writes British nonfiction author M M Owen for Aeon.