As good as our negotiation styles and negotiating techniques may be, it  turns out that we may be missing one of the most important skills that a  negotiator must have: the ability to listen well.  

During a negotiation, it can be very difficult to listen well to the  other side when they are disagreeing with you. It can take both time and  practice for us to become better listeners. One of our biggest problems  with becoming better listeners is that we have a real temptation to  talk instead of listen. This fault seems to increase the more educated a  negotiator is and the more they know about the topic at hand. I’ve got  some bad news for you: smart people are most prone to making the mistake of not listening. 

How can we go about becoming better listeners?