Listening without planning your reply is a rare form of respect.

Most conversation is two people waiting, and the waiting is audible. Listening with nothing queued up is unusual, and the other person can tell, because your questions come from what they said rather than from what you were going to say regardless. Attention is the rarest thing you can hand someone. It also happens to be free.

In one conversation this week, hold off on forming your answer until they have finished. Let a short silence sit there before you speak. Ask something you could not have prepared in advance.