 Building rapport with colleagues, managers and customers is a critical stage of creating trust and building relationships. Without trust, you limit what you can achieve at work, whatever your position. Everything becomes a lot harder and takes a lot longer. Instinctively, we all know this. We know how important building rapport is. So I'm covering what is rapport and then five ways to build rapport and connect with work colleagues, which anyone can put into practice. Each of these five approaches really does help build rapport and helps you be more relaxed and confident when meeting new people. These five ways of building rapport are, firstly, be the real you. Secondly, turn up prepared. Third, practice positive body language. Fourth, make the conversation about them. And fifth, the power of notes. Definitions of rapport talk about relationships and understanding each other well. Report comes from the French verb rapporter, which means literally to carry something back. Having rapport means giving and receiving of having two-way harmonious aligned communications. When I have rapport with someone I feel safe, relaxed, enjoyment, trusting, connected, I feel an understanding and an ease of communication. Both parties create a virtuous communication circle. When I don't have rapport with someone, I find communicating a struggle. I am much more wary and I extend less or no trust. It can be hard to break out of the circle of poor communication and trust. With certain people, you get instant rapport. With others, rapport remains elusive. Use rapport building advice we discussed today to build rapport with a wider range of people and build rapport quicker. The benefits of building rapport in the workplace include, firstly, your trust is built a lot quicker. Secondly, you get easier, smoother communications with less misunderstandings. Third, you have stronger team working. Fourth, team members are more engaged and excited about working together. Fifth, individuals are more receptive to feedback. And sixth, team members are more loyal to each other. It does not take much to see how these benefits make a big difference to team culture and performance. It certainly pays to make the effort to learn how to build rapport at work effectively. My name is Jess Coles. If you're new here, Enhance.training shares people management expertise, resources and courses for you to manage your team with integrity and fairness and get outstanding results. I've included links to additional videos and resources in the description below as well as the video timestamps, so do take a look at these. And if you like this video, please give it a thumbs up and subscribe. The first way to build rapport is to be the real you. When building rapport, I think it is very important to be yourself, to be genuine and to be honest. You know, humans are very good at picking up on acts. Don't be someone you're not. That said, we have so many different facets and different aspects to ourselves. We have our work lives, our home lives, our interests, our hobbies, sports, et cetera. And then on top of that, we have a ton of things we're interested in and learning about. And you don't need to be an expert in something to create connection through that interest. The wider the range of interests you have, the wider range of people that you'll be able to find genuine areas of common interest. Another way to get better at building rapport is to widen your range of interests or what you're interested in. Again, you can know little about something, be interested in learning more and use this desire to learn to create rapport. Show your interest and passion for learning more rather than trying to be an expert or a similar level to the person you're talking to. Common and shared interests and curiosity are key to being able to use many of the techniques to develop rapport more quickly and be able to do so honestly. Simply put, people like people who are like themselves or are like how they would like to be. The second way to build rapport is to turn up prepared. A little bit of preparation goes a long way in building rapport. Working out one or two common topics of conversation before meeting a particular person will make you more relaxed, more confident and allow you to start the conversation about something you know they are interested in. This gives you a great head start in building rapport. It is so much easier and quicker to do the research in today's world than it was years ago. A quick look on a LinkedIn profile or a quick Google search on a person will probably give you a few clues to hobbies and interests, personal and professional. Yeah, on LinkedIn, you can look at what jobs they have done and in which companies. You know, that gives you opportunities to create interesting and relevant questions on both. On LinkedIn, you might also find out about some of their hobbies. You can see what groups they have joined and thereby guess at what some of their interests are. And you can see which people are common connections for you both. In addition, you can speak to their colleagues and mutual connections and find out what they're interested in. Their interests and hobbies might also give you a good insight into their values and what they care about. Show similar values to the person in question and you're much more likely to build stronger rapport. Spend a few minutes putting together a few questions to ask to get them talking about areas that they are interested in and think about what stories that you can share that demonstrate your interest in that area. When you want to build rapport and connect with work colleagues, turn up prepared. The third way to build rapport is to practice positive body language. The words you say only counts around 7% of communication. How you use your voice and your body language account for 90% plus. You must pay attention to your own body language and theirs. You try building rapport with crossed arms, frown and a really bored tone of voice. You will fail spectacularly to build rapport. To build rapport, demonstrating your interest in the other person and what they are saying as a must. You project interested body language, maintain good eye contact, interested facial expressions, attentive posture, encouraging nods, et cetera. Use interested tones and pace of voice, showing your energy and excitement towards the other person and the topic of conversation. To improve building rapport quickly, consciously use mirroring and matching. You match your pace and tone of voice to theirs. Mirror aspects of their posture. If for example, if they lean forward, you might do the same. If they tap their foot, match their tempo. We all use mirroring and matching skills already. It is part of the social skills we develop. Being conscious of our bodies and how we use them helps us more quickly mirror and match other people, particularly if they do things that we don't tend to use that often. Add verbal confirmation that you are interested and being attentive by paraphrasing, i.e. giving quick summaries of what the other person has said. Ask questions that encourage the other person to expand on the points or clarify points that they've made. Repeat back to the other person parts of their sentence and the words that they have used. Use verbal and body language communication to demonstrate your interest in them and your likeness with them. Demonstrating shared behaviors and values is very powerful. The fourth way to build a rapport and connect with work colleagues is to make the conversation about them. Everyone loves talking about themselves and what they're interested in. Use this when building a rapport and connecting with your work colleagues, clients and anyone else that you need to build relationships with. When you've done a little research, you should have a few topics on which you can focus your questions. After giving them a warm greeting, you can start by asking your questions and listening. When this approach doesn't work, then share a relevant story with them by sharing first your extending trust to them. Once you've finished your relevant story about an area that they are interested in, you can ask your questions and listen. Using a combination of these approaches, when using positive body language and a tone of voice that shows interest, nearly always starts a conversation and building rapport. Your aim is to spend more time listening than talking. You make them feel valued by keeping your attention and laser focused on them. Don't let your mind wander or your body language become less attentive. The conversation should flow back and forth. You'll be sharing your stories and views and then asking questions to give the other person their chance to share and speak. Next, mentally find out what you admire about them. Everyone has something when you look hard enough. Keep that in mind and show your appreciation of them and what they are saying. You know, genuinely compliment and praise what you admire. This is another way to build rapport. Your aim is to get them talking and sharing. Spend more of your time listening than talking. Remember, the more they feel valued and admire by you, the more they will reciprocate and the quicker you'll build rapport between you. Make the conversation more about them than you. The fifth way to build rapport is to use the power of notes. When you meet the person for the second time and onwards, by remembering what you've talked about and demonstrating this, you can really build on the rapport you created in the previous conversations. By demonstrating you remember, you show how important that person and the conversation was to you. You demonstrate you care and you value them. This is incredibly powerful and gives you step changes in rapport building. You know, I feel great when people remember the details of previous conversations that I've had and I see the effect on others when I do similarly. The power of keeping notes, a few key details of the conversations that you've had is big. So whether you use mental notes to yourself or you actually write notes on paper or even update a CRM system, it is up to you in terms of what suits you best and your situation. The more people you build rapport with, the more conversations you have, the more points you'll have to remember and get right. When it gets to sort of 10 people or more, I definitely start writing down notes. Doing this takes a few minutes after each meeting. Capture two to five points. And look at your notes prior to your next meeting with the person. Create this habit and you'll be making a big impact in your rapport building. Enjoy building more rapport with a wider range of people in the workplace and outside. So in summary, building rapport and connecting with work colleagues is such an important part of building trust and positive relationships. Those that are good at networking, here for instance, work hard at how they build rapport with others and how they maintain knowledge of the conversations they've had. Use these five ways to build rapport and connect with work colleagues so you have a more productive and enjoyable work life. Just to recap, we've covered, firstly, be the real you. Secondly, turn up prepared. Third, practice positive body language. Fourth, make the conversation about them. And fifth, the power of notes. If you have any questions on the five ways to build rapport and connect with work colleagues, please leave them in the comment section below and I'll get back to you. And don't forget to take a look at the additional videos and resources in the description below. Thanks very much for watching and I look forward to speaking to you again soon.