Building rapport with others is the action of developing a mutually sportive and understanding relationship. This skill becomes extremely crucial in situations such as networking and meetings. Sometimes rapport is immediately established, while other times it needs to be consciously developed through practicing empathy and finding mutuality.
“Rapport is the ultimate tool for producing results with other people. No matter what you want in your life, if you can develop rapport with the right people, you’ll be able to fill their needs, and they will be able to fill yours.” - Tony Robbins
Why is Rapport Important?
Rapport leads to mutual understanding, meaningful conversations, and active listening. By establishing rapport in a business environment, you are able to influence others, gain leverage and respect. Insufficient rapport in a company will lead to a lack of understanding between coworkers, ultimately hindering the companies vision and goals which develops an un-motivating environment for every worker. Rapport is additionally a crucial aspect in categories such as sales and private client relationships. With an absence of rapport in these types of relationships, business deals and further consultations will lack the trust needed to continue in the future.
Crucial Components In Building Rapport
Building rapport is effectively the process of developing better communication skills and enhancing your EQ (emotional intelligence). The acquisition of these skills are a matter of recognizing and becoming mindful over the components that go into building rapport.
Making an effort to remember names. By doing this, you are displaying attentiveness and interest in the other person. This psychologically influences people to trust you more primarily because of the initial effort that you have put into them.
Developing a Common Ground. Similar interests and qualities between two individuals allow for an open conversion creating a meaningful connection. Not only will common ground enable a free flowing conversation, but also exhibit empathy. When others can comprehend that you understand and empathize with them, you are able to connect on deeper level establishing trust.
Active Engagement. By actively listening to the other person, you are demonstrating full interest in what they are saying. This signals the brain to relax and speak with openness and honesty. By maintaining active engagement, it is important to show your interest with asking follow up questions, maintaining eye contact, having open body language, and nodding your head in response to their words.
Withholding Criticism. By practicing effective rapport, you are giving the impression to the other person that they are able to express their thoughts and ideas without judgment or criticism. This is pivotal in maintaining an open and trusting relationship with another. Make it an effort to withhold suggestions or criticism until specifically asked, and deliver this only in a positive manner.
Practice Mirroring Behavior. Simply put, mirroring is the act of subtly adopting the gestures, posture, and tone of voice of the other person. When we do this, our brains unconsciously register that the other person is similar to us, making us feel more at ease with them.
Get to Know the Other Person. When people talk about themselves, their brain responds in a similar way to eating and taking drugs. In other words, this is all a dopamine driven response. By giving the other person the gratifying experience of talking about themselves to you, they are able to enjoy the conversation to a higher degree and establish trust with the other person from their interest in them.
Commenti