Hearing is not listening. Hearing is passive while listening is active and requires skill and interpretation.
To offer effective listening, you need to find out the message behind the spoken words, attend to the questions, concerns and feelings.
Encouragement and expressing your trust in him or her to be able to solve the issue without jumping into offering solution or throwing at him or her evaluation or judgement.
Using non-verbal communication through eye contact and nodding make the other person realize that you care about him or her.
Avoid poking questions and try not to expect justification
Being more objective than the other person, help highlight and summarize important aspect of the conversation. Give him or her the freedom to end talking when he or she is ready to do so.
Validating, summarizing, encouraging, clarifying, and restating are some ways to ease the dialogue and facilitate interaction.