Think you’re a masterful listener? While you may demonstrate sparkles of listening brilliance at times, it’s important to be mindful of the common traps to avoid that will sabotage your communication—and, as a result, your relationships and results.

You’re either listening with intention, clarity, care and an insatiable curiosity to learn, or you’re listening with assumptions, fear, contention and judgment that distorts the message, which creates friction and distrust and filters out what you need to hear.

Last month, we discussed why proactive listeners sell more. While it’s important to know exactly what we need to do to enhance the quality of our communication, it’s equally important to be mindful of the missteps that prevent pure, unfiltered and focused listening.

Here are five listening mistakes that limit our ability to build healthier relationships, sell more and coach better:

1) Distracted listening. Are you a multitasking listener? Well, stop. Focus on each person you’re listening to—nothing else. If you’re not present and engaged, it shows. If you’re having a conversation with someone while you’re on your phone texting, it’s disrespectful and demonstrates a lack of social awareness. You’re telling the other person they’re not important enough for you to stop what you’re doing, and that kills trust—which ultimately sabotages business results.

In the same vein, it’s important to be mentally present as well. When speaking with someone, avoid thinking about your next meeting, your personal agenda, how you’re being perceived, how much money you’ll make if you make the sale, your fears about not making the sale or presenting well, or what you’re doing after the conversation ends. And don’t allow background noise or distractions to hinder your ability to stay focused and listen.

2) Impatient listening. During conversations, do you stop listening and cut people off while they’re talking because you think you know what they’re going to say? Don’t be an impatient listener by waiting for a pause so that you can respond with your agenda.

Always make sure you’re truly present and giving your full attention to the other person, not thinking about the next question you’re going to ask in order to guide them to where you want them to be. That isn’t good communication—it’s manipulation. Be patient, listen and let the last word or statement someone shares become the springboard for your next question.

3) Filtered listening. When you listen through a filter, your interpretation of what you hear is based on past experiences or beliefs. You then take those past experiences and project them as a future expectation, believing something like, “The last time I spoke with this person, the conversation didn’t go very well, so I’m sure it will happen again.”

In essence, filtered listening is the belief that you’ve already listened to an entire conversation without having it. If you approach every conversation with a clean slate and without any preconceptions, you open up the opportunity to create a new outcome.

4) Selective listening. Do you hear only what you want to hear? Do you listen differently to different people? Do you pass judgment based on what you see or know about the person, such as their age, status, perceived level of success, personal relationship, disposition, dress, profession or job title?

Good listening means lending your ears equally to everyone, whether they’re friends, family, peers, your boss, customers, strangers or even a person experiencing homelessness.

5) Verbal-only listening. Don’t neglect the message someone is sending apart from their words. Poor listening means ignoring non-verbal cues and body language, such as facial expressions, eye contact, tone, inflection, attitude, transparency, level of engagement, focus and disposition.

If any of these behaviors seem familiar, you are limiting your ability to intentionally and proactively listen in a way that will foster deeper trust and engagement, effective collaboration, stronger relationships and greater success. These limitations will also prevent you from maximizing your personal brand, sales and leadership efforts, opportunities and income.

Keith Rosen, CEO of Profit Builders and founder of Coachquest, has delivered his programs to hundreds of thousands of people in practically every industry in over 75 countries. Rosen has written several bestsellers, including “Sales Leadership,” “Own Your Day” and the globally acclaimed “Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions,” winner of five international best book awards and the No. 1 bestselling sales management book on Amazon for eight consecutive years.