You can listen at different levels and with different perspectives. In the following, we have divided listening into five different levels and distinguish between internal listening and active listening.
1. Superficial listening while waiting to say something yourself.
2. Biased listening and with reservations with a view to disagreeing.
When we use internal listening, we put our own views and experiences into perspective in relation to what we hear the other person say.
The conversation will usually be about replies, comments and advice from your own life.
Perhaps we will learn a little more about ourselves, but we will not learn much about the other person's views.
3. Listening to understand.
4. Listening to help the mentee understand/realise.
5. Listening openly and without an agenda of your own.
In active listening, the listener pays attention to and focuses on the person talking and on the conversation here and now. The listener listens to understand and help the other person to achieve new realisations.
The listener’s own perspective is in the background. The listener shows presence and attentiveness to what is being said and focuses on which questions can be meaningful and helpful.