In addition to helping us understand others better, active listening is a way to visibly demonstrate that we respect others. People, particularly those with high self-monitoring scores, can often sense when others are not truly paying attention to what they are saying. Followers will quickly decide it is not worth their time to give their leader information if they perceive they are not being listened to. Leaders may do the same. To avoid turning off others, leaders and followers can improve their active listening skills in a number of ways. Some of these tips include learning to model nonverbal signals associated with active listening, actively interpret the sender's message, be aware of the sender's nonverbal behaviors, and avoid becoming defensive. The following is a more detailed discussion of these four ways to improve active listening skills