Before you can strengthen your listening skills, it’s important to explore the foundation of listening: how you listen, why you listen, and the potential pitfalls of multitasking when trying to listen.

When you listen to someone, you’re not engaged in a single act. Instead, you are taking part in a process—a series of separate yet linked actions. As you’ll see in the text that follows, how you listen is guided by your motives for listening. What’s more, each step of the listening process can be disrupted if you try to engage in other tasks while listening.