Understanding others is part of your Empathy -a component of your Social Competence.

While Empathy, in general, is related to your awareness, needs, and concerns of others; Understanding Others senses the feelings and perspectives of other people and makes you take an active interest in their concerns.

People who have this competence usually:

Are attentive to emotional cues
Listen well to what people say
Show sensitivity to other people's feelings
Understand other people perspectives
Help out without expectations

At a personal level, relationships are built by understanding other people. At a business level, businesses thrive when companies truly understand their customer's needs, feelings, perspectives - that's usually the purpose of marketing research: it aims to understand customer's needs and wants.