Answer:

Apply this “campaign” to help you develop your listening skills.

1. Prepare the groundwork for good listening:

1. Learn to read  micro facial expressions.Go to Paul Ekman’s F.A.C.E Training site and pay the $20 to receive the METT Original On-line training in  how to identify fleeting expressions of the seven primary emotions of  happiness, sadness, contempt, disgust, fear, surprise and anger.  

2. Learn to concentrate well.
   Develop your ability to concentrate by practising mindfulness and meditation. Both are proven to improve concentration.  Listening well is just another concentration task. 
3. Practise listening really hard: 
   You can practise listening really hard in these two ways:(a) Do specific listening comprehension exercises.  
   Here, you listen to something for a few minutes and then get tested on how well can remember what you just heard. Click here for some excellent online listening exercises.(b) Listen “really hard” while watching someone speak  on the TV or on a video.  
   Pretend that newsreader or person being interviewed or giving the lecture is just talking to you. Your job is to be a rapt listener. Throw yourself into the exercise by listening hard and  making supportive noises and facial expressions and gestures. 
4. Put a high value on learning to listen well. Hardly anyone listens well. It’s a beautiful and rare gift to give someone your full, undivided attention. Having someone be fully present while we talk makes us feel truly valued. In fact, listening well is  one of the five identified components of  charismatic behavior.  It’s not that difficult to listen well–the main problem seems to be that we don’t assign a high priority to listening well. Most of us would rather talk intently than listen intently! I know I certainly do!
5. Watch yourself in action.How well do you listen? Why don’t you find out by arranging to get youreslf audio- or video-taped while you are having a conversation.  You may be shocked to discover how often you interrupt or argue or fidget or give off negative emotions or look dead-pan and uninterested.  After watching yourself in action,  you may say, “I had no idea I am such a pain. I’d HATE to be on the receiving end of me in a conversation!”
   
   That’s great news to find that out! At least now you know you have a problem and what needs to be fixed. You can’t fix what you don’t know.

2. Just before you enter a conversation:

1. Run through the key things you want to do while listening.The most important thing is to remember to pay full attention. If you just get that right,  most of the other good listening tips will fall into place. 
    
2. Take a few deep breaths to calm yourself.  
   You’ll listen much better if you feel calm and in control.
    
3. Have a strong cup of coffee about half an hour before. 
   Listening hard with all your might takes a lot of concentration. Caffeine may help you concentrate. Don’t worry–you won’t always have to “caffeine yourself up” before a conversation!
    
4. Memorise these magic phrases for you to use to repair the damage, should you stuff up:
   “Whoops! I’m sorry. I interrupted. Please go on. What were you about to say?”
   “Anyway, enough talking from me. I want to hear what you’ve been up to.”
   
5. Mentally rehearse doing all the right “listening” things in the upcoming conversation.
   Visualise yourself paying close attention, not interrupting, etc.

During a conversation:

1. Deliberately wait two seconds after the other person has stopped talking before you start to talk.
   
   This way, you  make sure the other person really has  finished and isn’t just taking a pause.  You can use those two seconds to process what the other person has just said and to plan a better response. While you’re waiting out the two seconds, wear an expression that says “Wow, what you’ve just said is thought-provoking!” This way, rather than think your pause before speaking is odd, the other person will feel flattered to think you are thinking so hard about what they’ve just said.
    
2. Be an dynamic, supportive listener.
    
   (a) make supportive grunts and murmurs;
   (b) nod your head appropriately;
   (c) make expressive facial expressions that match the content and feelings of the speaker;
   (d) touch the speaker supportively when appropriate;
   (e) laugh generously when the speaker laughs or says something amusing;
   (f) interrupt occasionally with  short supportive words and phrases  such as “How incredible!” “You’re kidding?” “Did she really say that?” or with probing questions such as  “How did you feel about that?” “What did she say  when you said that?”or empathic remarks such as “You must have felt really sad about that” “That’s perfectly understandable. I would have done the same thing myself.”
    
3. Adopt a good mindset to listening. Conversation isn’t a contest where the goal is to see who can grab the conversation ball and keep hold of it the longest! Nor is it to show the other person how fascinating you are! it’s better to think of a conversation as a two-way joint creation of something mutually satisfying. Here are two good conversational goals that will help you be a better listener:
    
   (a) Aim  to learn at least one useful piece of information from the other person. Listen hard  and ask good follow-up questions, or you might miss it!
   (b) Practise loving-kindness. Commit to giving the other person your gift of “being fully present” while they speak. Being really listened to will be such a rare treat for them and will make them feel very happy.
    
4. Monitor your response to what the other person is saying. Watch out for these bad thinking traps:
    
   (a) “I know what she’s about to say (and it’s wrong!)”
   (b) “What she’s saying is so wrong!”
   (c) “I know the answer to her problem she’s telling me.”
   (d) “I have lots to say about this topic too and if I don’t say it now, I’ll forget!”
   (e) “I know this topic better than she does so I should take over.”
   (f) “What she’s saying  is boring and she’s so slow in getting to her point!”
   
5. Watch that your negative emotions don’t leak out, such as:
   (a) shaking your head
   (b) frowning in disapproval
   (c ) rolling your eyes in contempt
   (d) opening your eyes wide in disbelief
   (e) crossing your arms and turning away
   (f) breaking eye contact, and so on.
    
6. Check every now and then  that you are in sync with the speaker. If  your feelings and thinking and body language don’t feel perfectly  in-tune with those of your speaker, listen even harder.  The harder you listen (nonjudgmentally), the more in-sync you’ll be.
    
7. Practise the challenging skill of “entertaining the other person’s idea without accepting it. Just “try the ideas on” while temporarily suspending judgment; try hard to see the ideas from the speaker’s point of view. You can’t do this if you are often thinking “How stupid!”.
    
8. Practise focusing on the speaker’s whole message:  not just their words.  Look for the feeling behind the words, look for the message that isn’t said but may be implied, try to guess why the speaker is bringing this topic up, look at the speaker’s facial gestures and body language and tone of voice. If you focus on all these things,  you’ll be more than busy enough without having your mind wander off because it’s bored or underloaded. And you’ll be mastering the important social intelligence skill of empathic accuracy.
    
9. Trot these magic phrases to repair the damage when you’ve stuffed up:
    
   (a) When you’ve caught yourself interrupting the speaker:
   “Oh, I’m so sorry. I interrupted you. Please keep talking.”
   (b)When you’ve caught yourself talking too long about yourself:
   “Anyway,  enough about me.  I want to hear about you and what you’ve been up to.”